CAMDEN, Maine - The 26th annual National Toboggan Championships will go ahead at the Camden Snowbowl - almost as scheduled, but with a few changes.
Snowbowl CEO Landon Fake says recent warm weather means that the pond ice, onto which the toboggan chute ends, is unsafe farther from shore, with ice just 2-and-a-half inches thick. With some of the faster sleds traveling 500 yards or more across the frozen pond when they come off the chute, Fake says they decided to move the toboggan race to the ski hill instead, for safety reasons.
"The really hard core racers who have built and tuned their sleds around the specific conditions in the toboggan chute - they're going to be disappointed," he says.
But Fake says the coastal town is accustomed to grappling with uncertain winter weather and they've never yet canceled the championship.
All races that were scheduled for Friday night have been canceled and racing will commence instead at 8 o'clock Saturday morning.
More than a thousand people are signed up to compete in the sledding events, with toboggan enthusiasts coming from as far away as Europe to compete.
