PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Aroostook County does not have the deep snow typical in February, but the trails at the Nordic Heritage Center are in good shape for the 250-plus athletes coming from the around world for the cross country skiing and sharpshooting competition.
Less than week before the International Biathlon World Cup begins, the Nordic Heritage Center’s race trails are looking “phenomenally great,” said Tom Chasse, a past president of the center, long-time ski teacher and ski shop owner. Chasse, whose great grandfather used to farm the wooded hills that now comprise the Nordic Heritage Center, has been helping prepare the trails for the biathlon, a race sport combining cross country skiing and target shooting.
The eighth in a nine-part series, the biathlon competition in Presque Isle is expected to draw some 60 million television viewers in Europe, where the sport is about as popular as American football. It’s also going to have a “huge impact” economically in The County, said Jane Towle, a local real estate agent and biathlon volunteer event director.
“Every hotel from Fort Kent to Houlton is full,” Towle said. The total value of the event will probably be more than $7 million, she estimated, based on the biathlon competitions that’ve been held at the Nordic Heritage Center and the 10th Mountain Division Lodge in Fort Kent.
This competition, as in past ones, is made possible by a lot of volunteers, with more than 500 people and a number of local companies contributing some of their time, talent and resources.
They’ve set up media booths for the European broadcasters, built by students at Northern Maine Community College, set up a jumbotron, set cable lines through the trails, and more. Some volunteers are hosting athletes and team staff — who are coming from 32 countries — and helping cook meals.
Volunteers have also helped create and transport snow, the foundation of the sport, as something of a precaution.
At the end of January, snow depths in northern and eastern Maine were well below half of the historical average, according to the National Weather Service meteorologists in Caribou. As of Feb. 5, central Aroostook County had an average snowpack of less than 10 inches. Many farm fields are barely covered at all after a stretch of above-freezing temperatures and rain.
Most of the trails at the Nordic Heritage Center are protected by a forest canopy and had good skiing conditions, but on January 21, the “We pulled the trigger,” Towle said. “We needed to make snow.”
Volunteers and crews made some 10,000 yards of snow from a nearby pond, piled it on the land of local photographer Paul Cyr and trucked it to the trails. Volunteers also cleared the trails of branches and twigs after a few storms and shoveled snow from the woods onto the trails — saving the Nordic Heritage Center thousand of dollars in snowmaking costs, Towle said.
The race trails have since been groomed and “now they’re letting it set until the temperature goes back down again,” Chasse said on Thursday, as the temperature in Presque Isle reached 46 degrees.
Thanks to a bit of accumulation expected Friday, the potato fields may not be so bare when European media arrive this weekend or when the athletes arrive Monday. And Chasse also noted it’s possible some more significant snowfall may still come, as happened with past competitions in winters with less-than-average snow.
“If history has any indication of what we should expect, probably Tuesday or Wednesday we’ll get a 20 inch snowstorm and then we’ll be out there scraping the snow off the course,” Chasse said.
