FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Course status for the American Birkebeiner

Greetings Birkie Competitors, Coaches, and Team Supporters

As most of you know, in anticipation of the warm wet weather forecast to be coming into our area on Thursday afternoon, we will be closing the courses at midnight on Wednesday. There is no danger that the course would deteriorate due to the forecast weather, we expect to have good firm conditions for competitors on Saturday morning. In order to provide this we must not have skier traffic during the warm, wet conditions.

There are many skiing options available in the area for training, including at Birkie Ridge, Telemark Trails, North End Trails, and Hayward Hospital Trails. We have had a few inquiries as to what opportunities there are for testing wax and skis under this restriction. The best opportunity will be at Birkie Ridge. We received 2-5 inches of snow overnight on Monday and we will not groom the course until Friday evening. This is our best strategy to keep the snow cold and manage the moisture. We will however groom the Birkie Ridge Trail on Wednesday overnight and again on Thursday overnight and we expect the testing there on Friday morning will yield your best results. Google map for Birkie Ridge Trailhead in Seeley. 

As it is forecast now, we may have a brief period of sub-freezing temperatures overnight on Friday. We will target our grooming time schedule based on the coldest temperatures with the goal of producing the firmest possible tracks for Saturday morning.

Elite teams: Please plan on attending the Team Captains' Meeting on Friday at 17:00 at the Birkie Office. We will provide the latest grooming plan there along with general information and bib distribution.

Allan Serrano
Event Director