Organizers of winter competitions meant to embrace the cold of February have been scrambling to adapt to unseasonably warm weather which saw the mercury climb into the double digits this week, melting ice and snow.

In Moyie, a community about 30 kilometres south of Cranbrook in B.C.’s East Kootenay region, participants in the annual ice fishing derby had to take to boats and docks on open water due to a lack of a deep freeze.

“It’s bananas. Nobody can believe what is happening, and that there is not ice on our lake,” said organizer Wanda Cavelle.

“I have lived in Moyie for 24 years and I have never seen it like this, ever … we’re gonna be doing cold plunges soon.”

More than a dozen communities from Victoria to Cranbrook to Dawson Creek have broken daily heat records over the past week, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada, with Bella Coola on the central coast climbing as high as 19.3 C. Vancouver may see its first snow-free winter in 43 years and ski hills have been struggling due to a lack of a strong base.

In Prince George Sunday,  the annual Iceman competition — a race that combines cross-country skiing, running, speed skating and swimming — has had to be heavily modified due to the relative warmth.

Rather than the traditional eight kilometre ski on a continuous trail, competitors are having to loop the same 1.6 kilometre loop of multiple times on artificial snow using the snow machines at the Caledonia Nordic Ski Club. This comes as the club has been warning of puddles on the tracks. Olympic qualifiers, scheduled for the city in November, also had to be moved last-minute due to adverse conditions because of a lack of snowfall.

But no modifications are possible at the Prince George Ice Oval, an outdoor rink that is completely reliant on the weather, meaning the skate portion of the race has had to be cancelled.

“It’s very disappointing,” said Kathy Lewis, president of the volunteer society that tries to keep the oval going as much as possible despite challenging conditions.

“We’ve been seeing this trend happening over the last five to 10 years, our number of days that we’re open for public skating is going down…. Our season is getting smaller and smaller. And at some point it may become non-existent if we’re putting in so much work and effort only for a few days of skating.”

The oval society has been fundraising and lobbying government for money needed to get a refrigeration for the ice so they can add more days to the skating season but with combined capital and operating costs estimated in the tens of millions there’s still a long way to go. And Lewis worries the money might not materialize before the ice melts for good.

“Do we want this fantastic facility that if we had refrigeration could actually be used for inline skating in the summer, so it would be pretty much a 12 month use? Or do we give up eventually on outdoor skating in this community?” she asked. “And that would be a real shame.”