Jim Hancock joked with a contingent of World Cup ski team coaches and captains during a meeting Friday evening at the St. Regis.

"Once again, you've brought the snow, it seems," Aspen Winternational's chief of race said to a smattering of laughs. "Maybe we should schedule these races for October. Then we'd have a really early ski season."

It was light moment in what had been a trying day. Hancock, not one for surprises, stuck a measuring stick into nearly 9 inches of fresh powder Friday morning near the start of the giant slalom course on Aspen Mountain, below the Aztec Run. While snow was a welcome sight for the public, it left Hancock and his crew scrambling.

The first run of the giant slalom is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. today. A slalom follows Sunday.

"(Scrambling) is totally fair to say," Hancock said Friday afternoon. "The amount of snow was more than we expected, there's no doubt about that. It's been a problem, obviously. It's been a tough day, but we're dealing with it."

By all accounts, the course was in race condition at the end of last week, so much so that U.S. Ski Team members were afforded the rare opportunity to train on the hill Nov. 21 and 22.

The Friday morning free ski was canceled. Had a race been scheduled, Hancock had his doubts about whether his crew could've pulled it off.