The colour revealed it all. At first, the colour of the snow, which changed overnight from white into dirty yellowish and greyish, then the colour of the rain coats of all the coaches and the race jury. They were all in black when gathering in the Finnish arena at 10 a.m.  Atle Skaardal first asked for opinion the coaches’ representative. ''It's dangerous because of the snow on the sides. In these impossible conditions the race should be cancelled.’’ Some coaches mentioned also the bad visibility due to rain and Skaardal could only agree with them. ‘’The racers and their safety are the priority. The track between the gates in the width of 2 meters is fortified enough, but what is dangerous is the snow next to it, which couldn’t have been totally removed.’’ Afterwards, he also asked Gorazd Bedrač, the Chief of the Race, for his opinion. ‘’We did everything we could. As organizers we surely would like to realize the race, but I respect your arguments as well.’’  FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Director thus summed up:’’The opinion of the majority is, that the race cannot be carried out, so the GS race for today is cancelled, tomorrow’s programme stays unchanged.’’

The struggle for the GS race lasted all night long. At first, the snow cats entered the slope - not to groom it but to remove more than one meter of fresh snow from it. Then at 3.00 the final battle began. More than 200 ski workers from both organising committees went onto the track, together against the nature. When they managed to remove 100.000 m3 of snow, it began to pour with icy rain. It couldn't have been worse. Just as they were removing snow, the surface of the snow structure started to change. Icy rain started to poison the snow at great speed. That's something that no one has ever seen at Podkoren. Srečo Medved, Secretary General of the Vitranc Cup, who organised numerous race events already, was desperate: ''It's never been anything like that so far …'' Filip Gartner, FIS Snow Inspector, who last week claimed that the race could have been carried out then, when everything was still green, said: ''Against such weather, one cannot fight!''

FIS Technical Delegate Hans Grogl discovered: ”The track between the gates is very solid. The organisers did everything they could. But the visibility is really bad, on the sides there are still piles of snow …”

There was really fog in the upper part, in between there was icy rain, at the bottom it was raining, the visibility was bad. The workers managed to remove the snow on one hand, but that wasn't enough. Kranjska Gora experienced two worst winter extremes in one night. At first, there was enormous amount of snow – the weather forecast predicted about 80 cm, but about 130 cm then actually fell – and then the total opposite, grim, cloudy, rainy. The problem was in the snow on the sides of the race slope and on its ideal track. The weather released poison that was taken somewhere in Sahara Africa. The first day there was snow, the next the desert dirt …

One week before the Olympics officially start nobody wanted to take any risks for the racers to get injured. A skier getting off the track could easily ski into a pile of that rotten snow, ideal for any kind of injuries. Atle Skaardal thus left the decision to the coaches, who couldn't have decided in a different way. When they gathered in the arena, they were all in black rain coats, like mourners. Aleš Vidic, Chief of the race of the Vitranc Cup, asked anyway:”If this was Sochi, how would you have decided?  Atle Skaardal didn't provide the answer. ”That, I don't know …” Then it was only about tomorrow. Andrea Massi was cheering for giant slalom, but Atle Skaardal was firm:”Giant slalom is cancelled, tomorrow a slalom race is on!”