MARCIALONGA AND THE UNEXPECTED EVENTS

Every Marcialonga confirms, if needed, that unexpected events are the yearly enemy to defeat, both for the organizers and for participants.
In the past, we experienced tremendous snowfalls that seemed a blessing from heaven but in fact represented a hard challenge for helpers, who had to spend the whole night working on the track, without the help of modern machines.

There have been editions with no snow that forced the Organizing Committee to cancel the event (1975, 1989, 1990) or to shorten the track length and finish the race in Predazzo or start in Mazzin di Fassa.

In 1974 (cover photo), they had to carry down the snow from the mountain passes in order to prepare the track (over 15.000 cubic meters) and the track stopped in Predazzo.
In 1976 the race started in Campestrin, even though 7.000 cubic meters were transported donw in the valley from Passo Rolle. This choice was repetead in 1993, 2007, 2015 and 2017. 
In 1983, the lack of natural snow forced the organizing committee to stop the race in Predazzo but the track presented some deviations towards Val San Nicolò, Bellamonte and Ziano, so that the track was not too short.

1992 was also another year with few snow precipitations; this was the reason for the introduction of the Cascata climb instead of the Castello Molina Climb, a solution that became definitive and much appreciated starting from 2000.

Marcialonga invested a lot on the track in the past, to make it perfect, to guarantee enough snow and groom it even in hard winters with few precipitations so that the event could take place. Sometimes there was strong wind, rain or uncommon high temperatures that threatened the transformation of Marcialonga into a water-skiing race.

If you are or were a participant, you have some experience about it! Just think about how many unexpected things happened and keep on happening during races; the wrong waxing, broken poles and skis (luckily repaired by our staff on site), the falls during the race, a not exactly ideal physical condition on the race day.Now it is Covid 19 the big enemy to defeat, for everyone and everywhere.
Well, the unexpected is always around the corner but this is also part of the game. Therefore, we have always had tenacious organizers, strong and obstinate volunteers, big athletes (especially those in the back), combative women, young or old they might be but all with the same light in the eyes. We didn’t accept all the times the challenge given by the weather, pushing the will until the end. Sometimes everything turned out well, sometimes not. But we are still here and keep on organizing, participating or watching, strengthened and untameable.