CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Wednesday and Thursday were scheduled as downhill training days at the U.S. Alpine Championships.

That’s when skiers, elite to emerging, get a low-key chance to relearn the lay of the land at Sugarloaf/USA and Narrow Gauge, then accept greetings from autograph seekers and admirers in the finish area.

The problem so far this week is that if you’re a competitor poised at the starting gate, squinting through your goggles, you can’t see the finish line. Your prospects of getting there safely are slim. And the welcoming committee consists of snow, rain, slush, sleet and fog.

“Especially at Sugarloaf, you can never count on the weather,” said reigning national men’s slalom champion Jimmy Cochran. “This is pretty normal.”

Dreary conditions eliminated the second straight session of trials Thursday, prompting major changes to the competition schedule.

Friday’s scheduled Sugarloaf Schuss, an FIS downhill race that essentially doubles as an additional training day, has been canceled.

Instead, the men’s and women’s slalom events will start at 9 a.m. Those races previously were scheduled for Monday.

It’s a ski racing paradox: Nobody wants to see new snow. It has fallen here in fits and starts since Tuesday night, rendering the already hard-packed downhill and super-G lower course too tough for even the nation’s best to tame.

“They just don’t want people going at high speeds into that stuff,” said Tim Kelley, 21, a NorAm Cup racer from Starksboro, Vt. “It would be pretty dangerous.”

Slalom takes place at a higher perch on the competition hill. Its twists and turns are a better fit for the current conditions than an all-out pursuit of speed. With more flurries and wind gusts up to 50 mph in Friday’s forecast, officials weren’t confident that the downhill layout would be ready today, either.

Saturday now becomes downhill tune-up day, with the downhill championship race pushed back to Easter Sunday. The super-G race has been moved from Sunday to Monday.

Giant slalom races for men (Tuesday) and women (Wednesday) stay put on the slate, for now.

There were no discernible hurt feelings due to the changes.

“I get to have fun sooner,” said Hailey Duke of Idaho, who was not entered in the women’s downhill or super-G . “I was hanging out, and I mean, what else am I going to do besides slalom?”

While World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso provide most of the star power in the women’s division, Duke is more representative of this week’s typical competitor.

Nationals are an anti-climactic, NFL Pro Bowl-type event for World Cup competitors, many of whom beg off the proceedings due to fatigue or nagging minor injuries. That opens a door for dozens of other skiers who maximize the event as an opportunity to climb another rung on the U.S. Ski Team ladder.

Duke, 22, logged a pair of January slalom wins at Europa Cup races in Germany. That series is considered the top proving ground for racers next in line for a crack at World Cup.

She finished on the podium in third at last year’s national championship in Alaska, a quantum leap from her 48th-place slalom run and giant slalom crash at Sugarloaf in 2006.

“I ate it pretty hard here last time. But the snow was awesome, and I hear it’s pretty good again,” Duke said. “(This weather) doesn’t affect slalom at all.”

With World Cup champions Bode Miller (overall, super combined) and Ted Ligety (giant slalom) sitting out this one, Cochran could compound his cache of national hardware. The Vermont native won the 2004 slalom and GS national titles prior to his 2007 U.S. slalom gold.

“I’ve been second a bunch,” he said, recalling a pair of runner-up performances at Sugarloaf two years ago and another at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., in ’05.

Now 26, Cochran balances his developing status as an elder statesman with his aspirations to join the World Cup ‘A’ list. He achieved his best slalom finish in 72 career World Cup tries – eighth – twice this season.

Weather, or not, the 2006 Olympian stood near the base lodge Thursday with a smile on his face, saying that Sugarloaf felt like home.

“It’s awfully nice seeing people walking around in Red Sox hats,” Cochran said. “Being in New England, you know? It’s so nice.”

Note: Mancuso, the Olympic gold medalist in the giant slalom who was seventh in this year’s World Cup standings, is still in Europe and is not expected to arrive in time for Friday’s slalom.