Uttarakhand: Snow's no show forces organisers to cancel Auli National Winter games after postponing

Ski and Snow Board Association of Uttarakhand (SAU) decides to cancel the winter games that were postponed from first week of February to Feb. 23 due to a lack of snowfall.

Chamoli (Uttarakhand):After postponement, the National Winter games that were scheduled to be held at Auli here have been canceled due to a lack of snow. The National Senior and Junior Alpine Ski and Snowboard Championship games were rescheduled to Feb. 23 to Feb. 26 from the first week of February.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, Praveen Sharma, secretary of the Ski and Snow Board Association of Uttarakhand, confirmed the cancellation of the winter games. Praveen said the decision to cancel the games was taken in view of poor show of snow. "You need slopes of snow if you have to host winter games," he said.

Without sufficient snow, we cannot hold the competition. We waited and hoped that snow buildup in January will help us hold the competition in last week of February and postponed it. Whatever snowfall we have received is not adequate to hold the games. Therefore, we have decided to cancel the games this year, Praveen added.

The winter games include junior, and senior competitions of snowboarding, fish race, salaam, and giant salaam competitions, according to the organisers. "The slopes in Auli are considered to be one of the best for organising winter games, but due to the lack of snowfall, the games had to be canceled," they said.

The winter games here attract a lot of tourists. The cancellation of the winter games has disappointed the traders as, after the Joshimath crisis, the tourist inflow into this Himalayan state has drastically reduced. Organising the winter games was the only hope to flourish tourism here, they rued.