There has been a time or two over the years where ski racing at Kimberley Alpine Resort has been cancelled due to lack of snow, but you don’t often have the same thing because of too much snow.
However, that is unfortunately the case this week as organizers have called off the remainder of the FIS Western Canadian Championship races scheduled for this week.
“We had to, there is just too much snow,” said race organizer Donna Briggs. “We can’t get a good racing track. Prior to the snow, we had a perfect track for the speed camp.”
Briggs says that while the powder brought great joy to local recreational skiers, for racers, a hard, packed track is required.
“Getting 72 cm of snow on a race track doesn’t work,” Briggs said. “It has to be hard like pavement. If you were to fall or ski off the track into soft snow going 100 kph, it’s just too dangerous.
“In order to get ready for the next races next week, we have a lot of snow to move. We have to get back down to the base we had.”
The process is to remove snow, get the Cats up there to groom it, which takes the air out of the snow. Then the warmer weather later in the week will compress it. Then it will be groomed again and skied multiple times by volunteers. Then the safety netting will be put back in.
“The more you ski the track, the better it gets,” Briggs said. “We want to get it like a highway. We do to snow what every skier doesn’t want — except racers.”
Up next week, once the track is rebuilt, is the IPC Para Alpine National Championships Canada & USA/Master Speed Series Kimberley Invitational, which begins with a Masters speed camp on Sunday.
There are a number of world cup skiers attending next week and Briggs promises great racing.
“It was super disappointing to have to cancel this week. It was a lot of work. But the coaches said that they had a great speed camp. And there will be some good racing next week.”