By Sarah Stone

Snowfall welcomed by Canadian Challenge

Jan 28, 2015 | 5:53 AM

Nothing is going to stop the Canadian Challenge—that’s the message from the event’s treasurer, Bernie Zintel.

However, the lack of snow up to this point may change the look of the race. 

With warm conditions heating up much of the province over the past week, snow has been melting, leaving the ditches where dog teams travel virtually empty.  This makes it difficult to run the race.

“There’s no way for him (the musher) to stop his dogs because he can’t put down his snow hook and the dogs do not like to run in [those] kind[s] of conditions, but that could be all taken care of within a matter of days if it snows three to four inches,” Zintel said.

Although snow conditions haven’t been favourable for the course, Zintel is ever the optimist adding “it’s getting better all the time.”

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With the Canadian Challenge about three to four weeks out, he said right now “nobody is panicking; they’re just talking about it.”

If conditions don’t improve, Zintel said they may move the start of the race from Prince Albert’s downtown area to the Spruce Home area, which has happened in the past. Tuesday night’s snowfall was expected to bring at least five centimetres of precipitation to the Prince Albert area, a welcome sight that could keep the Canadian Challenge start line downtown.

“We will carry on as before.  If we have to, we will shorten up the race a little bit, but right now it’s still a go; we still have 15 teams entered,” he said.

As for if the race will be moving, it’s a wait-and-see game and crews continue to groom the trails. Five to six centimetres snow is supposed to still be coming within the next couple of weeks, he said.

“But we have to know within a week or so from now because our trail crew needs that time,” he said, adding they groom right up until the day before the race and are constantly monitoring it.

“The Canadian Challenge runs every year, that’s why it’s called the Canadian Challenge.”

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84