The dog days of August are upon us. With the Birkie early next year—February 22nd—it means that we’re almost at the halfway point to start counting down to the next Birkebeiner rather than up from the most recent one. I was going to have a Halfway to Birkie party with local skiers to drink beer and tell lies but then was offered a position as hutmaster at Lakes of the Clouds Hut, on the high alpine reaches of Mount Washington. So instead, I’ll be getting paid to go hiking for a month. That’s not a bad thing.

Next year, I won’t be working 5000 feet on the side of a mountain, so we’ll hammer this out (also, it turns out that I’ve been trying to schedule a call with the new Birkie director for about two weeks and it keeps falling through). So stay tuned for that!

Anyway, I’ll be getting back to more Birkieguide soon. I hope everyone’s training is going dandy. I’ve managed to rollerski twice in the last week, totaling more than 60k. This is good! Slightly higher in the Elite Wave, here I come.