CAMDEN, Maine — Unseasonably warm weather and thinning ice has caused the U.S. National Toboggan Championships to move its racing from the 400-foot long toboggan chute to a path that will be carved out of the snow along the adjacent ski slope.
Camden Snow Bowl manager Landon Fake said Friday morning that concern about the thickness of the ice on Hosmer Pond, where toboggan racers end up when they shoot out of the chute, led to Friday morning’s decision.
Organizers decided to reschedule all of the races — normally held over three days beginning Friday — to one day only on Saturday. Races will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday with qualifying rounds for two, three, four and experimental teams during the morning. There will be two runs each for qualifying teams in the afternoon with award presentations late in the afternoon.
All Winterfest events, including the Mardi Gras parade and dance, Point Lookout Fire & Ice event, snowplow parade, fireworks, among others, are unaffected and will proceed as planned.
The ice measured between 5½ and 7 inches thick Friday morning in the area where the toboggans would end up, but farther out on the pond, the ice was down to 2½ inches in some spots, Fake said.
“With all the spectators, we didn’t feel we could safely control the situation,” he said.
The snow bowl manager said ice must be 4 inches thick for people to walk on it and 5 inches thick to support the weight of all-terrain vehicles or snowmobiles. A car could drive out on 8 to 12 inches of ice.
Moving the races to the ski slope will have the toboggans finishing up on land instead of on the pond. Fake said that contingency plan has been in the back of organizers’ minds for a while. He acknowledged it will be a lot of work to make the change at this late point.
Nearly 1,300 racers were been scheduled to participate in this year’s event with organizers expecting 6,000 spectators for the weekend.
Fake said Friday that several race participants have called to question whether the races would go on, and some called to say they weren’t coming because of the poor traveling conditions Friday with the snowstorm. The National Weather Service forecast daytime accumulations of up to 8 inches in the area Friday.
The snowstorm and nearly freezing temperatures Friday were in marked contrast to Thursday’s heavy rains and temperatures, which hit 50 degrees.