Warming climate presents big challenges for winter athletes

Paige Neklia has been training since 2019 to represent Nova Scotia at the Canada Winter Games. This year, high temperatures and low snowfall are presenting unique challenges for the cross-country skiier.

"I haven't been able to ski around here at all," Neklia said.

She and her parents drive a thousand kilometres round-trip every weekend from their home in Prospect Bay, N.S., to areas with more snow like Fredericton, Charlo and Miramichi, N.B. They are the closest places for Neklia to get training time on real snow.

Neklia's problem is local to Nova Scotia, but global in scale. Three of the first four World Cup of Skiing events for the 2022-2023 season were cancelled because warmer conditions were unsuitable at resorts in Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

Alex Ryan is the head coach of the provincial freestyle team and the technical director of Snowboard Nova Scotia. Ryan was also a provincial skier for five years who competed for Nova Scotia at the national level and has seen the climate change since then.

"We would have earlier starts to our season. I remember getting on snow almost all of my competitive years before Christmas," he said.

Ryan said his team had a pre-season training camp in Quebec for the last two years and that Nova Scotian alpine athletes have always had to supplement their training with travel. Nova Scotia ski hills do as much as they can to support local athletes, Ryan said, but there are limits to their capacity.

"Our local resorts haven't been able to blow enough snow and receive enough natural snow to build a suitable park," he said.

No one in Nova Scotia is generating snow for Nordic events like cross-country skiing, so competitors like Neklia need to chase real snow to train.

Natalie Knowles is a