The Canadian National Biathlon Biathlon Championships wrap up in Prince George tomorrow (Thursday).
Many athletes have been putting in long hours of work for the event, but there are some whose work may go unnoticed.
Ken Hannah is the Trail Manager at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club. While he and his crew have been working hard to make sure the trails are in good condition for the championship, he said the work starts at the start of the season.
“The track maintenance basically starts at the start of the season when we start making snow where we can and have snow-making abilities. We pre-make the snow to get a good base on all the track sections that we can, that we have access to snowmaking,” Hannah explained.
Around this time of year, Hannah says it’s a challenge as the track gets icy and wet during the day, and icy at night.
“A lot of it has to do with temperature, we can’t go out and groom it while it’s wet, and then have it freeze because it’s just ice then. We have to wait for it to freeze,” He said.
“The night before last, the temperatures never dropped below zero, but the surface froze. Then you’ve got a situation where you’ve got an ice surface, and the bars on the machine breakthrough that and they find the soft snow underneath.”
He said that makes it hard to groom, as the snow has the consistency of ‘partially cooked mashed potatoes.’
Regardless of how warm it gets, Hannah says the work needs to get done.
“You have to do something with it, so you’re not always producing a product that is what the expectations are. You do the best you can.”
He added that during an event like the Canadian National Biathlon Championships, the workload only increases for his team of three.
“Race trails because a focus for one of the groomers on the team,” Hannah explained.
“The other two have to pick up the slack to make sure all the other recreational trails are done, it adds a tremendous amount of work, but it’s an event that raises the profile of the club, so clubs are always too happy to participate and host these kinds of events.”
He added that there are about 10 kilometres of race trails to be done at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club.
According to Hannah, the morning is the best time of day when it comes to spring skiing.
“It’s a hard layer underneath, with a little bit of fine material on the surface, it’s nice and fast,” he explained.
“It’s great for skiing, but the afternoon skiers, once the sun has hit the sugary material on the surface, it turns slushy, and it starts to build up on the pitches. The conditions slow down for one thing, but it creates hazardous skiing conditions because the skiers have to be aware of that pile of snow that’s wet and slushy.”
Hannah and his team’s work received some high praise from one of Canada’s top biathletes: Prince George’s own two-time Olympian Sarah Beaudry.
“The first two days the older categories were racing in the afternoon, and today the older categories got to race in the morning, so it was really nice because we got in when it was still nice and frozen and fast, so definitely good conditions today.”
This morning, Beaudry finished second in her race with a time of 30:53.1
It was the third silver medal for the 27-year-old Beaudry who also was runner-up in the 10km Pursuit (Monday) and the 7.5 km Sprint (Sunday).
The competition will wrap up tomorrow with the Single-Mixed Relay events.
Full results can be found right here.
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