This week, in Kitzbühel, Austria, organizers of the coming World Cup ski races, had to use a fleet of helicopters to import more than 100,000 cubic feet of snow from higher elevations.

The Hahnenkamm downhill is the most famost ski race in the world.

Pilots made hundreds of trips between low-lying Kitzbühel and a high mountain pass nearby, collecting snow and carrying it back to the downhill course in large nets suspended under the helicopters by cables.

That costed organizers $389,000.

“It is a lot of money for something that would normally come from heaven, not from helicopters,” said F.I.S. president, Gian Franco Kasper.

“This is extremely catastrophic for tourism, and the worst, of course, for the junior athletes."