Warm weather forces cancellation of the Labrathon, premier event of the Labrador Winter Games

The Labrathon asignature event of the Labrador Winter Games has been cancelled.

The board of directors for the Games said Thursday morning in a statement that "unprecedented" weather compromised their ability to safely hold the event.

The Labrathon is the Games's premier event, in which participants in showshoes and seal skin boots compete on a frozen basin, affectionately known as "Maxville" after one of the event's founders, Max Winters.

Winters and Ebert Broomfield, the namesake of Happy Valley-Goose Bay's arena, createdthe event to honour the traditional lifestyle of the Labrador trapper.

Competitors tow implements for survival on a small sled andmove through a series of events, much like adecathlon.

The event includesdrilling a hole through ice by hand, lighting a fire, boiling a kettle, shooting targets, cutting through large logs with a buck saw andsetting a trap.

Unusually warm weather in the lead-up to the games ruined snow conditions, and unusually heavy rain over the month of Marchcreated runways of ice.

John Andersen, a memberof the Labrador Winter Games board, told CBC News the committee had searched for other venues but weren't able to find suitable ice in the region to host the competition.

"Every place that they looked the snow was not the kind of soft snow that we needed. We need 15, 20 inches of snow to use at the first tilt," Andersen said.

"In the Labrathon you need the snow to put in your kettle to boil it and you also need snow on the fire to put it out when you're done."

While athletes had called on the board to put on a modified version of the Labrathon, board vice-chair Pauline Russell said a modified version of the event could have led to an unfair advantage or disadvantage for athletes and impact the majesty of the event.

"The consensus in the room was that if we did a modified version of the Labrathon, then it wasn't the Labrathon," Russell said.

"If we modify it, what events do you take out? And what do you leave in to be fair to each one of the competitors? One competitor might be really good at the fire, and there could be another competitor whose really good at chopping the hole."

It's the second large eventto be prematurely ended in Labrador in recent weeks.One of the world's most gruelling snowmobile races, Cain's Quest, was stopped earlier this month because of rain and mild temperatures.

Athletes heartbroken by decision

Nikki Dyson of Cartwright won gold in the last Labrathon, and was ready to once again try for the podium alongside her brother this year. She says a contingency plan should have been in place for the event long before Thursday.

"They cancelled this the day before the event. It's just, it's not good enough," she said.

Dyson says the cancellation also hurts teams in competition, losing out on valuable points toward the overall teamchampionship and individual athlete awards.

Kim Oliver, representing Team Nain, had also trained for the event all winter. She was devastated to learn of the cancellation, adding that it's heartbreaking to see the Labrathon out of the Games for its 40th anniversary.

"I think it's a complete dishonour it's a legacy event," she said.

"People have trained really hard to participate in this event, and just to be turned away like this. It's really sad."

Read morefrom CBC Newfoundland and Labrador