Prince George, B.C.-  The forecast for snow in the Prince George area  has been calling for  a few flurries here and there, but  no real  accumulation.

That raises the question, what is ‘plan B’ if there is no significant snow in time for the Canada Winter Games?

No need to worry says 2015 Canada Winter Games Venue Manager Phil Beaulieu, the venues were constructed with  that very thought in mind.

Instead of  building jumps out of mounds of snow,  the jumps were  constructed of  piles of  dirt so only a  minimal amount of snow is needed to cover them in order to be  effective. “We were able to do our test events on  what was considered for this region, low snow volumes because we didn’t require tens of thousands of cubic meters of snow to build all of our  turns and jumps,  we   just  needed enough to cover the  earth.”

There is  no snow making equipment  at Purden, Tabor or Otway,  but Beaulieu says  where possible, they  added “snow farming areas” into the  design of the venue.  That means areas were cleared on site where snow could accumulate.  It is easier to use equipment to push it on to the  hill “We try to  capture  as much snow as we can, so if we need extra snow somewhere we have it  ready.”

If  all else fails, it  is possible snow could be trucked in  to  the Otway course, because that course has easier access for  such vehicles  “Purden is OK  to get it (snow) to the base, but it (trucking snow) really isn’t effective to get it to the top.”

The course at Purden has been widened substantially in order to have extra snow available if needed says Beaulieu “Purden is in a different bit of a weather belt”.

Should  it be mild enough to  make the Ice Oval soft, the  alternate plans involve rescheduling races to early morning or evening when temperatures are cooler, and if all else fails, moving the ice oval  events to Fort St. John, a decision Beaulieu says would be made as late as possible.

He remains optimistic that Mother Nature will want to attend the Games and bring along the right weather for the four outdoor venues “She always comes through with something in the end that we can work with.  In the 14 years I have been here, there have been green Christmases, but still lots of snow in January and February, so it’s really a timing thing.  It would have to be a significantly larger than one in 100 year situation not to have any snow in February in our locations.”