One week can make a huge difference on the Biathlon World Cup circuit. On November 30, the last competition was held in snow-starved Ostersund, Sweden with a simple sigh of relief. It had gotten just cold enough to produce just enough manmade snow to conduct the first competitions of the season, with only a three-day delay in the schedule. Now the 500-person strong biathlon caravan is camped in Austria’s Tirol region where snow is usually sparse in early December. Yet this year, the high peaks above the village of Hochfilzen are blanketed in snow and there is almost a meter of snow at the venue.

With falling snow causing close to whiteout conditions and virtually no wind, 111 women broke the start beam in the 15K Individual, a grueling 5 tours of a 3K loop, with 4 shooting stages that screams “challenge,” under the best of conditions. Those who were here for Biathlon World Championships commented that conditions “were exactly the same” for the Women’s Individual last March.

The first two US women, Rachel Steer (Anchorage, AK) and WCAP athlete Jill Krause (St. Cloud, MN) started during the height of the one-hour plus storm. Both missed two shots in the first prone stage. Coming to standing, Steer missed only one, while Krause added two more minutes of penalties. It was clear at this point that the struggle on the tracks was taking something out of everyone. Penalties were abundant in the whole field. The two came back with matching single penalties on the second prone and a final stage of clean shooting, giving Steer four penalties and Krause five.

By the time the Durango, Colorado twins, Lanny and Tracy Barnes started, the conditions had at least moderated, although it continued to snow. Their coach at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent, James Upham, commented, “Maybe we will get a break, the snow will stop, the twins will shoot clean and do some damage.” The two did not completely live up to his expectations, but they shot well and Tracy led the US women in 75th place. She had a single penalty in the first prone stage and another on the second prone stage to end up with two for the day. Both of her standing stages were clean. Lanny could not quite match Tracy today but was close with only three penalties.

As the late afternoon rapidly darkened, the results board found Tracy Barnes in 75th place, 9:02.8 behind the winner, Anna Carin Olofsson of Sweden. Olofsson covered the course in 49:06.3 and had only one penalty on the day. This was Olofsson’s first World Cup victory. Olga Zaitseva of Russia, with one penalty, was second, 40.6 seconds back and Sandrine Bailly of France, with two penalties, placed third, 1:48.7 back.

Rachel Steer, with four penalties, was the second US finisher in 89th place, 10:50.2 back, followed by Lanny Barnes, with three penalties in 91st, 10:53.7 back and Jill Krause, 92nd, 11:27.7 back.

The US men will face a 20K course tomorrow as challenging as the women had today and are hoping for if nothing else, a little less snow. What a difference a weeks makes—from virtually no snow to too much snow. Such is life on the World Cup circuit.