As of: February 15, 2024, 7:30 p.m
By: Christof Schnürer
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It's been a long time: five years ago, in February 2019, the sled dog race took place in Wallgau for the last time.
At that time, the warm temperatures, around ten degrees, were causing problems for the animals.
© Andreas Mayr
It is now the rule, not the exception: cancellation - the Wallgau sled dog race remains an illusion this year too.
Wallgau
– A miracle would have had to happen so that the actually inevitable could have been prevented.
But neither a drop in temperature nor the onset of winter appeared around Wallgau in the past few days.
Which can only mean one thing for the sled dog race planned in eight days: cancellation.
This is no longer a rarity due to the capricious weather of the past.
For the fifth time in a row, this highly publicized competition in the Hofgarten had to be canceled from the event calendar.
“Unfortunately,” regrets Wallgau Mayor Bastian Eiter.
But what are those responsible for the organizing ski club supposed to do, asks the town hall boss, “with zero point zero snow”.
The cash registers rang for the last time in February 2019.
The conditions back then weren't ideal either - at least for the heat-sensitive four-legged friends.
They struggled over the trails in temperatures of ten degrees plus in a real heat battle, as the routes are called in technical jargon.
The mood among the many spectators, however, was great – it was a long time ago.
Alaska fever first spread in Wallgau in 1988, when the ski club and the Bavarian Sled Dog Sports Club (BSSV) invited people to an animal showdown - at that time still in the Witter.
While it was always possible to count on a productive winter over the years, this calculation no longer worked out with the new millennium.
Rejections are now the rule, not the exception.
So the number of cancellations gets longer and longer: 2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 - 13 cancellations in 22 years.
“Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is,” regrets Mayor Eiter.
“At some point we will probably have to lay out white mats.” He is alluding to synthetic bases, which are already being used as a substitute for cross-country ski trails in some places due to a lack of snow.
But maybe it will work with the 27th edition of the Wallgau Sled Dog Race in 2025 on real snow.