CAMDEN, Maine — The 31st annual U.S. National Toboggan Championships, scheduled for Feb. 2021, has been postponed to Feb. 11-13, 2022.
The Toboggan National organizing committee had been meeting over the past three months before making Wednesday's announcement.
“We had developed a plan to run half the number of teams, with 25 percent of the number of racers and no spectators,” Committee Co-Chairman Stuart Young said.
The U.S. National Toboggan Championships usually go no matter what, even in severe February at the Camden Snow Bowl even through extreme weather. But out of an abundance of safety and caution due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will not go on until 2022.
“We have also dealt with warm temperature years that in all but one case turned around in the final days before the event to make the ice on Hosmer Pond safe enough to race on,” said Anderson. “The one year, the ice was deemed not safe enough, Snow Bowl staff and volunteers rallied to plow snow and make a chute on the hill and we were able to hold the event, complete with winning times and trophy awards.”
The Toboggan Nationals was conceived in 1991 as a mid-winter lark and a way to celebrate the rebuilding of the historic 400-foot-long wood toboggan chute, which was originally constructed by community volunteers in the 1930s. Revenues from the fundraising event, as much as $90,000 in recent years, have benefited the municipally owned and operated Snow Bowl, a ski area in winter, and a busy recreation area during the offseason.