CANMORE – Frozen Thunder is set to return to Canmore later this year after funding was raised to save the early season high-performance and recreational snow track.
At the deadline, Frozen Thunder’s organizing group received $20,000 to relocate approximately 14,000 cubic metres of snow and have 25 truckloads of sawdust preserve it over the next six months.
“Kudos to our community for stepping up. They are amazing that way,” said Cindy Chetley, Nordiq Canada’s high performance coordinator.
“Obviously, Frozen Thunder is valued … we just got to work together to keep it going.”
A mix of funding from the community, unanimous donors, and private businesses chipped in for the snow track to be built at the Canmore Nordic Centre, but a large sum at the March 28 do-or-die deadline was the reason it’s being green lit this year.
Chetley said finding funds for Frozen Thunder is stressful every year for its organizing partners, which is made up of a group of provincial, national and non-profit sports organizations.
“Right now, we’re trying to create a self-funding project,” said Chetley. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but over the years it kind of balances itself out. But really, our long-term goal is to get a [title] sponsor for the track.”
Brian McKeever, head coach of the Canadian Para Nordic Ski team, said early season access to snow is "huge for us", especially living in a mountain town with unpredictable weather that can result in too much snow to roller ski and not enough snow to actually ski.
“Running tends to be your last form of training, and hey, that would be great if you have legs, but we got enough people in wheelchairs to make that a hard time of year,” said McKeever. “Having that access to guaranteed training on snow at that time of year is a huge and massive benefit for us to be able to finish off our fall training and get ready for the world cup training season.”
Starting in 2009, Frozen Thunder is a two-kilometre man-made snow loop that normally operates for about three weeks between late October and early November. It heavily influences the early ski season for the eager community wanting to get back on the frozen trails, youth development, tourism in the fall, and, of course, giving high-performance athletes a head start on the season.
However, ongoing renovations at the Canmore Nordic Centre are forcing a relocation of the snow pile used to build the loop.
Part of the renovations at the Canmore Nordic Centre include building a new Nordic ski facility, widening the biathlon range, and tripling the amount of storage space for snow, which will be used to triple the length of Frozen Thunder starting in 2024 to six km.
“To have something like that in our own backyard is a big deal, and I know it’s expensive, but when we’re looking at high performance and trying to get our best results it's very important to our training,” said McKeever.
A major reason for the future expansion of Frozen Thunder is for Canada’s highly successful Para Nordic Ski Team, which is coming off a historic 16 medals (seven gold, six silver, three bronze) at the world championships in Sweden last January.
Specifically, sections of the new trail will be designed with sit-skiers in mind.
“We definitely missed that this year. One small connector was not there, which meant it wasn't a very sit-ski friendly loop, which was hard on our guys,” said McKeever.
“In subsequent years, it's going to be such a boost to have ski-able snow right from go, and something everybody can ski on including sit-ski, amputees, blind skiers and then everybody else. I'm excited for that prospect of having both probably easier terrain, but also harder terrain as well for the intensities in the races.”
Along with the Para Nordic Skiing World Cup returning to Canmore in December 2025, two world cups coming to town next winter: the cross-country skiing world cup in February 2024 and the biathlon world cup in March 2024.
