PLANNING AND PIVOTING ARE KEY Venues and event organizers have been relying extensively on artificial snowmaking as an insurance policy against warmer winters, notes Adam Clark, who was director of capital projects and venues for the 2023 Canada Winter Games across Prince Edward Island. Early risk analysis is crucial—Clark’s team began about five years before the event, focusing on the four main outdoor venues for alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, long-track speed skating and a satellite ski area. “Those were the ones that gave me the most heartache and late nights, wondering what the weather was going to do to us,” recalls Clark. “We focused on incorporating major upgrades to our snowmaking systems and picking the right venue for the long-track speed skating to be sure we’d have ice.” One major challenge involved building courses for big air and aerial events, which required an enormous amount of snow much earlier than the area normally received, explains Clark. “We knew if we wanted to host these events, we needed to invest in upgrades to the snowmaking capabilities of the provincial ski hill—it was almost a complete replacement to their snowmaking system—from the piping running up and down the hill to new snowmaking equipment to a new water supply,” he says. “It would’ve been impossible had we relied on natural snow to fall, but we were still at the whim of the temperature to even make snow. Thirty days out from the Games, we hadn’t had any snow in Charlottetown which was 25 minutes from our ski venue, so there was a bit of a panic in the air. We went through a lot of days that were borderline trying to produce man- made snow.” Although organizers hoped to stage the long track speed skating event on Prince Edward Island with natural ice, it had to be moved to Halifax. In fact, Clark’s team had contingency plans for all the outdoor events. “We had alternate venues in the more northern areas of the Maritimes on the back burner had we needed to shift at the last minute,” he says. “Of course, you never want to do that because there’s a whole ripple effect with lodging, feeding, transportation. We ended up getting just enough snow at some of our venues, and things went well. But had we not put in those snowmaking upgrades into our capital projects, I’m not sure how the Games may have proceeded.” EXPECT THE WORST, DELIVER THE BEST Hosting Ottawa’s Winterlude Triathlon—the world’s oldest winter edition—with 200 athletes from across North America and around the world, means constantly worrying about the weather, says race director Adam Kourakis, owner of Somersault Events. “The race changes all the time. Some years, the Rideau Canal Skateway doesn’t open at all or is only open in one section. Some years, there’s excellent ice but no snow or vice versa— we haven’t used the Rideau Canal since 2019,” says Kourakis. “We’re lucky that it’s been such a mess of a race logistically because people have come to expect last-minute changes; they sign up knowing what is out of our control. We’ve always created a Plan A, B, C and D. Last year, there was no ice, but there was excellent snow, so we switched the first part of the race from skating to skiing—the race was a ski, a run, and a ski with a Le Mans start.” Kourakis advises event organizers to be agile and communicate early and often with participants. “Usually, the Wednesday before the race, we tell athletes, ‘Here’s the final plan,’ and we always say, ‘The format is not guaranteed, but the race is.’” Mitigating The Meltdown PHOTO: LASZLO PODOR PHOTO: SOMERSAULT 2023 Canada Winter Games 2024 Ottawa Winterlude Triathlon 20 ADRENALIN | SPRING 2025 ADRENALINMAG.CA
