Of all the #sochiproblems, real and fictional, afflicting these Olympic Games, the most easily anticipated one was the weather. Sochi Games Turn to Finnish Expert With Stockpile Plan. "You see, it's dying," he says, as he feels the crystals between his fingers. "There's no connection. It's like a porridge!" He chucks it on the ground. The 56-year-old Finn is something of a snow whisperer. Using a combination of personal ingenuity and the latest in snow-making equipment, Mr. Martikainen has created a business that solves snow quandaries everywhere from Africa to the Himalayas. Today, he's at a Helsinki indoor ski center trying to make the snow feel less like soppy oatmeal and more like the stuff of a snowball, without raising operating costs. But the task is nothing compared with his highest-profile job: Guaranteeing snow for the coming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in February.

KUSA