The high cost of snowmaking equipment has forced 2015 Canada Winter Games organizers to cancel the half pipe competitions at Tabor Mountain Ski Resort.
The half pipe events will be replaced by slopestyle freestyle skiing and dual moguls.
"The bill [for snowmaking equipment] would be well over $3 million and then you need to have a water source and there's nothing there," said 2015 Games CEO Stu Ballantyne. "We want to ensure a quality level of play and it's just not possible to deliver half pipe without man-made snow. We feel strongly these new events don't require artificial snow."
Ballantyne and organizers at the local level consulted with the national sport organizations and industry experts prior to making the decision. While snowmaking equipment is not a Canada Games Council venue standard, industry and sport experts agree that a half pipe suitable for for high-level competition cannot be built entirely out of natural snow.
"With the half pipe, it would have had a hard time staying together with natural snow," said Ballantyne. "It's better to cancel it and be able to deliver a quality field of play. It also makes it easier to get everything in."
Snowboard cross, snowboard slopestyle and freestyle moguls and aerials are already official events of the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
All the courses are pretty much set for 2015.
Provincial test events for snowboarding and freestyle skiing last month at Tabor Mountain had coaches and athletes from across B.C. raving about the tracks, the volunteers and the venue.
"On the moguls course, we just need to move some more earth this summer, but other than that, Tabor is ready to go," said Ballantyne.
The two new events are also extra medal opportunities for freestyle skiing and snowboard athletes as well.
In total, nearly 2,400 athletes from across Canada will compete at the 2015 Games in 19 different sports.
