Reuters - In front of a roaring log fire in a mountain lodge, Walter Eppich sips a cold lager after a day of skiing and discusses the score from "The Sound of Music."

AP - Adam Stern grew up playing baseball in hockey country. He was a warm-weather athlete in Canada, a land of winter sports. The Boston Red Sox outfielder shot pucks on ponds with his buddies. He also skied the Alps and even aspires to compete in the bobsled at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver if his career in baseball fizzles.

AP - With model cows twirling on ice, fiery skaters and women in lumpy dresses meant to signify the Alps, the Winter Olympics opening ceremony pulled back the curtain Friday on 17 days of NBC coverage.

AP - The thick layer of smog that envelops this gray industrial city lifted slightly Friday morning, giving residents a rare peek of the Alps that will be the focus of the Olympics for the next two weeks.

Reuters - A Stone Age man found frozen in the Alps some 5,300 years after he was murdered under mysterious circumstances may have been a childless social outcast, a new study showed.