Biathlon nixed for 2015
The cancellation of the 2015 Mammoth Biathlon may prove to be a wise decision. Citing “a number of factors, including the current low snow levels” at the Red’s Lake site, the club announced the cancellation on January 25 via Facebook.
“We came really close to cancelling it last year for exactly the same reasons,” said Chris Thompson, Eastern Sierra Nordic Ski Association (ESNA) Treasurer and member of Mammoth Biathlon Board on Wednesday. “And this year we had even less snow with nothing coming in on the horizon. We felt like it was a good call at the time, and right now it’s looking like an even better decision.”
“We’ve had really generous support from our sponsors. By cancelling it when we did, we insured that we weren’t pushing our sponsors for funding this year,” Thompson said. Plus, “The closer you get to the event, we start expending funds on things we aren’t going to get our money back [on].”
Thompson said that the Biathlon requires “A lot more snow than you might guess—” approximately four to six feet. Without a permanent biathlon course and shooting range, each year the biathlon club, with the help of Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, has to level out the site, packing it down using a snowcat.
“That’s one of the difficulties of running it out at Red’s Lake. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. It’s a Herculean effort on part of the volunteers is to pull it off back there,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the real story isn’t this year’s cancellation of the event, but the hope that next year ESNSA can acquire, and build, a more permanent site at Panorama Dome. “We need to try and put together a permanent location that is more accessible that doesn’t require the set up and take down effort of the volunteers in a remote location,” he said.
In 2011, the organization conducted a feasibility study funded by Measure R which looked at a variety of permanent sites with Panorama Dome proving the best location, Thompson said. “It’s closer to town with public transport and parking less of an issue. People can walk to the site instead of taking a snowcat and it’s part of the normal cross country ski trails [at Tamarack Cross Country Ski Center] so we’re not building special trails to do it,” he said.
The permanent biathlon site is “certainly under discussion” Thompson said, although nothing has been finalized.
The Mammoth Biathlon began in 2007, founded by Dr. Mike Karch and the ESNSA. With Karch moving his family to Virginia, there has been speculation that his departure is behind the cancelation.
“It was not exactly a one man show, but Mike [Karch] was certainly the major driving force for the first seven years….His leaving wasn’t a direct cause for cancellation,” Thompson said. ESNSA has yet to find a single organizer to replace Karch, with a committee of ESNSA volunteers in charge of the biathlon. “Until we have someone who’s got the time and the energy we’ll have the committee to spread the volunteer work out,” he continued.
With more than 200 participants the last several years, the Mammoth Biathlon is known as the largest winter biathlon in the country. “Biathlon is such a niche sport and elsewhere it tends to be just the really serious people who show up,” Thompson said. At the Mammoth Biathlon “the whole family comes out and it turns out to be a really fun time.”
