It might be almost 20 degrees hotter than the start of the Winter Olympic Games but Australia's Paralympians won't be complaining about slushy snow in PyeongChang.
With temperatures hitting -15 degrees less than a month ago, relative warmth is forecast for the South Korean region for the early days of Paralympic competition.
The Australian campaign for a first gold medal since 2002 will begin when six para-alpine skiers contest the men's and women's downhill on Saturday, when a top of six degrees is expected.
The contingent trained on Wednesday in positive temperatures with several crashing on their timed runs, including Paralympic debutant Jonty O'Callaghan.
But the Victorian, who has cerebral palsy and competes in the standing classification, believes his teammates will thrive in the type of conditions to which they're accustomed at home.
"I just ran too straight through one of the gates and, when I tried to make my next turn, I got stuck in the soft snow; the slush from the other skiers' tracks and fell," O'Callaghan said.
"That's sort of what happens with races when everyone's trying to ski in the same tracks.
"If it gets warmer, it's probably an advantage for us, because we're used to very warm conditions back home.
"We've skied the worst of slush. I'm from (Mt) Buller and I've skied every condition possible. I'd like to think I can handle any challenge."
Australian Mark Soyer came unstuck when his seated ski came off while executing a turn on his training run, which he blamed on equipment failure rather than conditions.
But he admitted adjustments would be needed for competition.
"It is pretty soft up there compared to what we normally race on," he said.
"You just need to take a little bit of a different line in, but you can feel that on the first turn, so you know you can adjust the pressure."
TEMPERATURES AT START OF PYEONGCHANG WINTER GAMES:
OLYMPICS:
* Day 1 - Saturday, February 10: -4 (min) - 1 (max)
* Day 2 - Sunday, February 11: -12 -6
* Day 3 - Monday, February 12: -15 -5
PARALYMPICS:
* Day 1 - Saturday, March 10: -2 - 6
* Day 2 - Sunday, March 11: 1 - 9
* Day 3 - Monday, March 12: 3 - 11
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