Canadian Birkie 2005

My wife Liz and I decided to ski the 55km classic Canadian Birkie this year in lieu of going to Europe to ski another Worldloppet race. Our draw to the Canadian Birkie was the chance to claim the Haakon Haakonsson award, given to skiers who have completed the American, Norwegian and Canadian Birkies.

We scheduled a flight on Thursday, directly from Minneapolis to Edmonton, Alberta where the race is held. Alberta has a strong cross country community with towns like Edmonton, Calgary and Canmore, familiar to many skiers. Edmonton is a town rich in petroleum and oil industries and 100 miles to the west of Vermillion, Alberta, Becky Scott's hometown.

We rented a car and booked a room at the official race hotel, the Ramada Inn Sherwood Park. 95% of the people that stayed at the hotel were Birkie skiers, mostly from Canada. Arriving late on Thursday gave us a chance to settle in before bib pick up and the Expo on Friday. The Expo and bib pick up was at Festival Place a short 5 minute drive from the hotel. The Expo had the typical vendors including Swix, area ski shops and governmental agencies. The Birkie is held at Elk Island National Park, a 25 minute drive from the hotel. We met many friendly skiers and talked to Birkie race officials.

The predicted race temperatures were a low of -4ºC and a high of 4ºC. Swix was recommending a green klister binder with VR45 or 50 on top in multiple layers. That didn't sound too realistic for me, since the first 1km of the race is on a frozen lake. Edmonton had ski able snow mid-October this season, but like many other areas the ski trails were destroyed by rain and warm temps in December. Just 1 1/2 weeks before the Birkie this year the trails received 15cm of new snow to help freshen things up.

After the Expo, Liz and I went back to the hotel to do some more waxing. We both had put on green klister as a base binder before we arrived in Edmonton. I've never traveled with wax forms or clamps but at the hotel, I realized that I sure could have used a set of them. Given the predicted temperatures the next day we applied two coats of Rode Rossa klister. The temperatures and conditions for this wax seemed to match perfectly the predicted conditions. We waxed for glide with a combination of Fast Wax Salmon and Bronze.

After waxing Liz and I headed out for a "carbo load" meal. The Birkie doesn't organize any specific spaghetti dinner, which was alright with us. We found a restaurant close by called "East Side Marios". The pasta and sauce were great! We got to bed early Friday night, in anticipation of an early rise for the race.

The Birkie starts at 9:00am, so we had plenty of time to eat breakfast and drive to the start, which was only 40km away. We arrived at the start in our rental car at 8:00am and had time to adjust things before the start. In the week leading up to the Birkie, race organizers had a challenge in keeping melting water off of the start area. They built dams and dikes to keep the water contained. The temperature on race morning was -6ºC.

There were about 600 skiers lined up to do the 55km classic race on the frozen lake with shallow classic tracks. I positioned myself in the self-seeded section along the edge. I hate getting tangled in the middle of the crazy pack. Part of the tradition of the Canadian Birkie is carrying a 5.5kg pack while you ski. I opted for the 55km Lite race, which means that I didn't have to carry a pack. I figured that I paid my dues in Norway, which also requires a pack. Out of the 600 55km skiers about 200 of them had the full pack.

After hearing Canada's national anthem, O'Canada the gun went off and skiers shot forward, double poling across the frozen lake in the shallow tracks. After about 1km the course narrowed into 3 sets of groomed tracks in a nicely rolling section of trail. I had great kick and glide and had fun double poling in the icy, hard bottomed tracks. Approaching the first feed station at 8km, the trail narrowed from 3 sets of tracks to 2. Up to this point the trail had perfect grooming going over rolling hills. I passed the second and third feed stations, drinking a cup of energy drink at each one. I consciously decided to slow down a bit because I thought that I might be starting out too fast for a 55km race. The trail reminded me of the 7km section of trail through the woods at the Mora Vasaloppet and also of the trails near Golden Eagle and Bearskin lodges off of the Gunflint Trail in Northeastern Minnesota.

All of the trails in the Canadian Birkie are in the Elk Island National Park, so there is lots of wildlife in the area. While skiing I saw a deer/wolf kill, wolf scat and lots of moose prints. The first piece of advice that I got from one of the local skiers was "don't ski on the moose droppings". I never did see a Wapiti but did see buffalo.

Reaching the 33km mark, the temperatures were starting to get a bit warm. I noticed that my glide was slowing and the kick was missing in the warm snow. I didn't stop to re-wax but muscled my way through those warm areas, knowing that cooler snow was still in the woods or "bush" as one of the locals called it. At the 48km mark other skiers joined the trail which we were skiing on and that made it a little more interesting. My 53 year old body, tired after skiing 50km had to compete with young, fresh skiers skiing the 13km race. It wasn't too much further that the young skiers peeled off on a different trail and we continued on towards the finish. I knew that I was getting close when I heard the announcer in the background. I crossed the finish line in style, like we all do and I heard my name being called; Greg Fangel, from White Bear, Montana. An hour earlier my wife Liz crossed the line and she also was from Montana....according to the announcer.

Liz and I met at the finish area and headed back to the start line via a shuttle bus to pick up our car. I felt pretty good after doing this 55km classic. It's been a few years since I've done a race this long.

After cleaning up at the hotel, Liz and I made our way to Festival Place to indulge in the much touted "Vikings' Feast". The feast was held in conjunction with the awards ceremony and included great food, camaraderie and war stories. After receiving our Haakon Haakonsson award and being announced from Montana again, we were ready to retire for the evening.

The Canadian Birkie was a great experience for us and I'd recommend it to anyone. The race is relatively small with less than 2000 skiers in all events. Only about 600 skied the 55km classic race. All races are classic. The grooming was excellent, the organization was good, the trail was marked very well and the volunteers were plenty. The race course has very nice rolling hills with about 6-8 sharp hairpin turns. Everyone of the hairpin turns had signage and volunteers giving warnings. Hats off to the Canadian Birkie organizers.

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• Canadian Birkebeiner