In the face of a tricky blizzard in Bormio, France's Emily Harrop, who has English parents, wins the opening heat, 1.8 seconds ahead of Marianne Fatton of Switzerland.

Ana Alonso Rodriguez of Spain will have to wait and see if her time is quick enough.

In the skimo, there are two semi-finals with the top two in each plus the two fastest losers to go through to the final. The women's final is at 12:55 followed by the men's final at 13:15.

Semi-final one in the women's event features France's Emily Harrop and Switzerland's Marianne Fatton who are two of the leading medal contenders.

Italian hope Giulia Murada goes in semi-final two along with Germany's Tatjana Paller and France's Margot Ravinel.

Image source, Getty Images

Ski mountaineering - or 'skimo' as it's known - is making its Olympic debut in Italy. So what is it?

The sprint races consist of an ascent and descent.

The ascent has three stages...

1. The athletes begin the race with skis equipped with skins (strips of fabric that are attached to the bottom of skis to give them more grip.
2. The athletes remove the skis, place them on their backpacks and tackle a set of steps.
3. The athletes put their skis back on for a final ascent.

The descent is simple... Ski down as fast as you can to the finish line passing curves and gates in the correct order.

The normal duration of a race is about three and a half minutes.

Before those ski mountaineering finals, though, we've got the semi-finals.

The women's semis are due to start in about five minutes...

Plenty to get stuck into across the rest of the day...

• 12:55 - Ski mountaineering: Women's and men's sprint finals
• 13:00 - Nordic combined - team sprint, cross-country
• 13:05 - Curling: Women's round robin (including GB v Italy)
• 15:30 - Speed skating: Men's 1500m
• 18:00 - Figure skating: Women's free skate
• 18:05 - Curling: Men's semi-finals (including Switzerland v GB)
• 18:10 - Ice hockey: Women's gold medal game
• 18:30 - Freestyle skiing: Women's halfpipe runs one and two

After a short break, we're feeling rejuvenated and ready for an exciting afternoon of Winter Olympics action!

Here's what we've got to look forward to...

Right, we're going to take advantage of the lull in proceedings to take a barely deserved break.

Fear not, though, we'll be back in plenty of time to build-up to the women's ski mountaineering semi-finals at 11:55 GMT and you can watch the BBC coverage from Milan-Cortina at the top of this page while we're away.

But we'll leave you with the win moment of the morning so far, Switzerland doing Team GB a massive favour by beating Italy in the men's curling...

Emma Smith
BBC Sport in Milan

The International Olympic Committee are confident all events will be completed in full before the closing ceremony on Sunday, despite multiple delays due to the weather.

They point to Nagano 1998, known as the "Games of Improvisation" due to the constant rescheduling caused by heavy snow, thick fog, and rain.

The men's downhill took place five days after it was originally scheduled, and the women's event was delayed by two days. High winds saw ski-jumping delayed, while the bobsleigh competition was reduced from four runs to three because of poor visibility.

However, all events were completed and medals awarded within the scheduled dates of the Games.

"Snow is an occupational hazard," IOC spokesperson Mark Adams told me this morning. "They [snowsport organisers] are used to delays and changes. There are problems when it comes to snow, we are used to those."

While we wait for the fun to begin again, here's a quick recap of the best of the action on day 12...

• Team GB's curlers kept their semi-final hopes alive with the men beating the United States 9-2 and the women defeating the same opponents 8-7 before a 9-3 victory over Japan
• France secured their fifth biathlon gold of the Games, winning comfortably in the women's relay
• Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the third alpine skiing gold of her career, topping the standings in the women's slalom
• Canada's Steven Dubois won the men's 500m in short-track speed skating, beating Dutch siblings Melle and Jens van 't Wout, while South Korea topped the podium in the women's 3,000m relay as Arianna Fontana becomes Italy's most-decorated Olympian with silver

• China's Su Yiming clinched men's snowboard slopestyle gold, while Japan's Mari Fukada won the women's event
• China also enjoyed success in skiing's women's aerials, with Xu Mengtao taking gold
• Norway's Johannes Hosflot Klaebo won his 10th gold in men's skiing team relay, while the GB team finished fifth
• Sweden won gold in the women's skiing team relay, beating a late challenge from the Swiss team

After all that excitement in the curling, those postponements we mentioned a little earlier mean we've got a bit of a wait before the action gets back under way with everyone's new favourite event - the Skimo!

The women's semi-final for that begin at 11:55 GMT and, if you missed the heats, I would highly recommend watching.

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

Norway hold on to beat Canada, meaning those two will meet again in this evening's semi-finals.

It also means, Bruce Mouat's rink will play the unbeaten Switzerland, whose win over Italy enabled the British rink to squeeze into the last four.

When those sides met in the round robin, the Swiss edged it after an extra end to gain a modicum of revenge for their defeat by the Scottish quartet in the World Championship final last April.

Image source, Getty Images

We told you earlier that the men's freeski halfpipe qualifying had been postponed on Thursday because of the weather in Livigno.

It has been rescheduled for Friday from 09:30 GMT with the top 12 qualifying for the final at 18:30.

Jackie Lockhart
Four-time Olympic curler on BBC One

Perhaps the Canadians know that they will have a tough semi-final regardless of who they face.

Switzerland and Italy was probably more of a tense game than this. The Canadians seem to look quite relaxed.

Logan Gray
BBC Sport commentator and former elite curler

Image source, Getty Images

We have a result from next door on sheet A. Czechia 10-4 Sweden - a really surprising scoreline. It's Czechia's second win ever in the Olympic games.

It might be the last we see of Niklas Edin, the reigning Olympic champion and greatest of all time. I wonder what emotions he is going through right now.

It is still to be determined whether we will see him back at future Olympic Games.

Richard Winton
BBC Sport Scotland in Cortina

We're not sure yet, because it depends how Norway v Canada ends up.

If Norway hold on to win, GB play unbeaten Switzerland. If they don't, it will be GB against Canada.

Either way, Bruce Mouat's men will be playing at 18:05 GMT today.

Win, and they'll be in Saturday's final (18:05). Lose, and it's the bronze-medal match on Friday (18:05).