There's One Odd Thing Missing from the Home of the Winter Olympics

In December, photographer Max Adveev travelled to Sochi, where workers were hustling to finish assembling the home of this month’s winter Olympics. He saw the predictable array of cranes, construction sites, and new hotel facilities for the hundreds of thousands of spectators who will watch the game. One thing was missing: Snow! Subtropical Sochi is the rare place in Russia where there’s no snow on the ground for much of the winter. While skiiers will find plenty of it on nearby mountains, ordinary Olympic visitors will get a chance to gawk at palm trees—some of them erected for the occasion—before ducking indoors to watch the cold-weather athletics.