DEHRADUN: The annual skiing and snowboarding championship, which was scheduled to be held in Auli from March 16-19, has been postponed for the third consecutive year due to inadequate snowfall in the hill station. Officials said most of the snow on the slopes has melted, leaving only five-inch-deep patches in some spots—too shallow for skiing or snowboarding.
Ajay Bhatt, general secretary of the state winter games federation, said, “The event has been postponed due to unavoidable natural reasons. All arrangements were in place, but as fate would have it, there wasn’t much snowfall this year, leading to this situation.” He added that organisers are now planning a snow mountaineering event in Auli and discussions for it will soon be held with the state tourism department.
This is the second postponement of the skiing championship this year. It was originally scheduled to be from Jan 29 to Feb 2 but was delayed in hopes of better snowfall, which did not materialise. Short bursts of snowfall were recorded in early Jan, but it fell short of the requirements for a large-scale competition.
A popular tourist spot located about 12km up from Jyotirmath, Auli, the state’s only winter games destination, had earlier lost hosting rights for the national winter games four times and the national skiing and snowboarding championship twice. In 2023, the event was cancelled due to low snowfall, while in 2024, both low snowfall and severe land subsidence in Jyotirmath forced its cancellation.
The latest postponement has dampened the spirits of athletes who were preparing for the event. Expressing concern over the effects of climate change on the picturesque hill town in Chamoli district, one athlete said, “If proper steps are not taken to arrest climate change, we will soon see no snowfall in Auli in the coming years.”
