CAMDEN, Maine — It’s the first weekend of February, which is also the first weekend of the National Toboggan Championships at the Camden Snow Bowl. Prior to the cold snap this weekend, warm temperatures have kept Hosmer Pond mostly open.
“We’ve watched this thing really not freeze up, really not yet this winter," Holly Anderson said.
Anderson is the assistant director of the Camden Snow Bowl and chairman of U.S. National Toboggan Championships Committee.
"There were maybe two days when the ice fisherman ventured just a little bit out. They didn’t go very far, and mostly it’s been open water," Anderson said.
Something that’s only happened only once before, the U.S. National Toboggan Championships will be run on the mountain.
“We had done it in 2016 with just a little less than 24 hours' notice that we were going to have to move," Anderson said. "This time we’ve had a couple of weeks, which means that we’ve been able to re-engineer and create an actual course and track that’s much more competitive than it was in 2016."
And with the cold forecast ahead, they've postponed racing to Sunday only. If you are planning to attend the toboggan championships, it's important to note that because of unfrozen ground, there's only half the usual parking at the ski area.
They've set up shuttles from the Village Green downtown to bring spectators to the Snow Bowl.
Despite the rain events at the coast, the summit triple opened up last weekend, only a couple of days behind schedule.
“These real 1-,2-,3-inch rainstorms have been really, really tough. It tends to eat away at the snow more than just the sprinkles do," Anderson said. "Lucky for us, we do a lot of man-made snow, and everything you see here is man-made at this point.”
That’s helped them keep over half the mountain open with nearly a 3-foot base heading into the second half of winter. Their goal is to be open for 60 days this season.