Canmore Nordic Centre has snow reason to wait for winter

No snow has fallen at the Canmore Nordic Centre yet this fall.

But cross country skiers from across Canada are kicking and gliding along Frozen Thunder, a trail made of snow stored from last winter.

"It's a pile of snow that we made about eight months ago," said Cross Country Canada's national team coach Justin Wadsworth. "Basically, they cover it in sawdust all summer and then they pull it out here when we're ready to start skiing."

This is the seventh year they've created the early-season track. This time around, it's about a kilometre long — a little shorter because of unseasonably warm weather last winter.

"It's a lot of work," said Wadsworth, "there's probably now about 20 other places in the world that do it … for us to have this and even have a week or two advantage on those other European athletes right now is just huge."

Lenny Valjas is just one member of the Canadian team training on Frozen Thunder. He said the snow has been "nice and hard."

"It is so nice to get back on snow, even just to ski a few laps a day and get ready for the races," he said.

Wadsworth and Valjas talk more about the benefits of Frozen Thunder in this video.