VANCOUVER - Even the best laid plans can go awry and the organisers of the Winter Olympics in Canada must be wishing that Mother Nature would give them a break and provide more snow.

It has been the bane of the otherwise excellent Games in Vancouver and Whistler so far. Cayman’s Dow Travers competes in the giant slalom on Sunday but in the week he has been based in Whistler had a frustrating time waiting for a decent hard, icy surface to train on. That didn’t happen until Monday.

David Carmichael is the Chef de Mission for the Cayman Islands Olympic Committee. He said: “We’re getting there slowly. Dow’s been here for a week and this is the first day he’s been able to get on the mountain. When we originally got here it was raining and the slopes were too soft to train on. But now it’s snowed the last couple of days, visibility is back after all the fog, the temperature has dropped so Dow is able to go on the hill.

“Everybody is struggling to get on the slopes and get some hill time and get used to the conditions. It’s icy and granular and all over the place very soft snow.

“Dow is in good shape. He’s been doing a lot of dry land training, working through his kit, ensuring everything’s all right. His coach, Gene Bridgewater, is happy. They’ve made connections with other teams and jumped in and made training runs with them.