… Home of the World’s Slowest Internet. That’s not entirely fair. It’s just that where we’re staying and at the race venue, the Internet runs at pre-dialup speeds. Loading the text from a weather model comes in line-by-line, if it comes in at all. We’re in a town, and nothing happens. Folks with international data plans don’t fare much better. But, it’s enough to obsess over weather, and post updates here.

What’s happening in the weather? Well, it’s warm-but-not-too-warm in Norway. 30s during the day, 20s at night. The ski orienteering trails are fast and icy, and I broke a ski today (an all-too-common occurrence in Ski-O). First race is tomorrow! And home in Boston, they’ve had 70 inches of snow in two weeks. That’s the most snow a major city in the US has ever received in that short a time. It’s more than all but 11 of the past 122 years’ total snowfalls. It sounds like great skiing, but a total cluster in the city.

Oh, but you want to know about weather at the Birkie? Well. Some snow in the next couple of days. Woohoo! Should freshen things up and get it in good shape for the race. The main concern now is a meltdown, and it doesn’t seem to be in the cards. As we get closer to race day, there really haven’t been any warm temperatures showing up in the forecast, so barring something unprecedented (say, 70-inches-of-snow-in-two-weeks-unprecedented) the course should be in good shape.

The issue could be the cold. Several recent model runs have shown some chilly weather down in to Birkieland around the start of the race, the most recent with temperatures around -20. Farenheit. This is not likely, but not out of the cards. It would be nice to have a good 2009-style race—10 at the start, 30 at the finish—again, but it seems like we can’t get lucky with good snow and decent conditions. Either too cold (2011) or too much snow (2014). But things can change, and the long-term trends are good. Hopefully we’ll hit the peak of a rise in temperatures and can eke out something without a minus sign in front of it (in ˚F, we certainly want a minus-something ˚C).

You probably got the email from Birkie about changes to expect this year in Birkieland. There are a couple of very notable changes:

1. Parking. From the south, you’ll turn right off of Highway 63 in to the new Birkie Ridge parking lot. From the north, you’ll turn right in to the Como Lot. Assuming the Birkie Ridge lot doesn’t become a marsh or isn’t way too small, this is fantastic, as it will eliminate cross traffic and should double the throughput of vehicles in and out of the lots.
2. The trail got a little longer. For a while, the Birkie was billed as a 51k race, then pulled back to 50k. Well, it’s back to 51. There’s a new loop down through the fish hatchery area, which moves the feed off of Highway 77 and adds a bit of new terrain. It will be fun to see how it skis. If you’re going to warm-up before race day, that’s probably not a bad place to go.

This Guide has been laying low for a while. We’re sorry! (Well, I’m sorry.) Too much time skiing, running stairs, and planning that trip to Wisconsin in February. (And Norway earlier in the month.) Oh, and working with the Birkie to chat with them about many of the upcoming changes. But there are some changes coming, and we’ll detail them on this post, elsewhere on this page, and in the future.

The big thing are start line enhancements and the Birkie Bridge, all part of the Birkie’s Five Year Plan (I knew it was a Commie plot!). The start line could always use some enhancements, especially now that Telemark is closed. While the airport has plenty of space, there is no permanent structure there, and staging 10,000 starters over two hours is daunting, especially on a cold or snowy day. It would be nice to have a building, but that level of infrastructure needs long-term planning as well—you need to finalize the trail before you put up a barn. The idea is to build a start area which will have infrastructure and a permanent routing to the rest of the trail, as opposed to the current start which crosses several easements and is only used on race day.

The pros of a new course? No driveways, all-year access, and a better experience. The cons: the course would no longer start with the same gravitas of facing down the Power Lines Hill, but take a more gradual route. But there will still be hills on the Birkie Course. We likely won’t see major changes this year.

But there will be a Birkie Bridge. 49.5km away, there will be no more soft snow festival crossing Main Street, but a bridge instead. The bridge will be, well, interesting. It will give a bit of a climb right before the finish, and then a steeper downhill to Main Street. It should be plenty wide enough (24 feet), although a climb is always going to require more room than would normally be required. It will be fun to watch skiers crest the bridge, take a dive down the hill and carry that momentum down Main Street. And it should make for some fast finishes. And in the long run, there is some chatter about underpassing other main roads in the future. (And by main roads, I mean “roads.” It’s not like there are that many of them.)

It’s also a good segue to talk about traffic. The bridge will mean that there will be no more Highway 63 detour, and all the traffic through Hayward will no longer back up all afternoon. This should be nice, although it will mean that the course to the lake will no longer be a pedestrian zone during the race, so take care if you’re crossing the road to the lake during the race. (I can only assume traffic will be gawking at the skiers above and be going quite slowly.) And the snow on the bridge should be much firmer than in past years (but hopefully they can get the snow to stick to the bridge deck on the inclines).

But parking. This is the big thing. In the past, this page has proposed a change to how parking works at Como Lot. Last year, the entire transportation system to a halt. The Telemark Field filled, and traffic from the north and south tried to access Como Field at the same time. The entirety of Highway 63 gridlocked for an hour in both directions, people missed starts, and it was obvious that the system needed to work better.

Well, it seems the Birkie has listened. According to rumors, the “Ofsevit Plan” will be implemented this year. Southbound traffic will detour off of Route 63 via Cable Sunset Road. Northbound traffic will have an unimpeded turn in to the parking lot. There will be two lanes of entry. If this goes according to plans (and I will contact the Birkie to make sure that it does, since it is basically the “Ofsevit Plan”) it should double the throughput in to the parking facility, rather than funneling all traffic on to one road, which should also help buses from the south navigate the area. With the larger race, and fewer facilities at Telemark, this dramatically increases the utility of the current lot and should allow traffic to move at a much better pace (i.e.: not complete gridlock). Still, it will be a learning curve, so leave extra time. Especially if there’s two feet of snow beforehand.

It’s time to train, plan, buy exorbitantly-priced plane tickets (no $175 round trip for me this year), and get to Cable! (On plane tickets, it seems that they are starting expensive this year, but prices likely won’t go much higher until a couple weeks from race time.)

That’s the word on the street from people with gold and purple bibs. I’ve done nine now—including one with a replacement pole after breaking a pole at the start—and this one was appreciably harder. I finished relatively well, all things considered (having a cold, not drinking enough on an hour-long bus ride where I had to use the john the whole time and then almost missing the start) and my time was 20 minutes off of last year (a slow year) and 40 minutes off my fastest time. So, wow.

I’ve been traveling on the icy roads since, and just gotten around to the Internet. Much more coming soon. Certainly race results. Certainly data (yes, we will be analyzing the number of people who missed starts, as well as how much slower skiers were this year versus last year). And as with last year, we have an open call for Birkie race stories that we’ll post here. Simply email them to me (ari.ofsevit at gmail) and I’ll post them with some celerity. If you are looking for guidelines, find them here and check out last year’s entries. The more the merrier.

Stay warm and ski fast.

This guy made it in last night! Our flight was filled with Birkie chatter and ski bags (seriously, there were Birkie skiers in seats 11F, 13D, 17D and 17F—and judging by the number of ski bags at the coursel, a bunch more) so we must have gotten priority status from air traffic control, we took off on time and landed in to the blizzard in Minneapolis. A bumpy ride across the storms, but a safe and on-time landing. Not wanting to press my luck, I took the train and bus, and was asleep by 11.

I’m hoping my “cold” is due to wild temperature swings and travel. Hoping.

The roads look rough, so go slow and take your time. There will be time to drive fast after the race (maybe). See you all in Hayward!

We had a Q&A with Caitlin, now we have one with Matt. No last names needed. When you win, you give up your last name. It becomes Birkebeiner. Maybe.

Want to watch a blizzard before you ski? That’s probably all the training you need, right? Well, there are two webcams to follow to do so.

One is at the OO cabin, here, from the Birkie. The other is a Main Street cam brought to you by the Sawyer County Record, here. It’s live and with sound, so it’s quiet right now (no cars and a blanket of snow) but might get interesting as the new snow falls (and is groomed, and groomed, and groomed).

So, we’ve I’ve decided that it is going to be a cold Birkie. Either windy and cold, or calm and really cold. The jury is out on what kind of cold, but it won’t be a 35˚ slushfest. Thank goodness.

I realized that there may be some out-of-towners who have never skied a cold race—or never really skied in very cold temperatures at all. I say this from experience: skiing in high school in Boston, I never needed more than a pair of thin gloves. My first college race was at Mount Itasca in Colerane, Minnesota, deep in the Iron Range. It was 3˚. The race was straight up a manmade snow hill, and straight down it. The downhill was frigid. At the end of the race, unable to move my fingers for an hour, I promised my coach that the next day he’d take me to get lobster mitts. I’m on my fourth or fifth pair, and will have them on Saturday.

So there are skiers like me, who might be from New England, or the Mid Atlantic, or California, where temperatures below 0 are sporadic enough that they don’t have experience in them. (On the other hand, in the Upper Midwest, people are tired of it; this winter it has been below zero 42 days in Minneapolis, 59 days in Hayward and Duluth—including a record-setting 23 days straight—and 67 days in International Falls.) As someone who learned the hard way and have since raced a number of races in adverse, cold conditions, here are some tips to staying comfortable in the cold:

• Don’t overdress. One mistake I’ve made time and again for my first cold (<-5) ski of the year is to freak out about the temperature, wear what I should be wearing, and then throw a down parka over that. It won’t be -20. Dress in thin layers, and don’t wear too much. For 0, I figure three pairs of long johns or race pants on the bottom, and three wool/polypro layers on the top.
• For god’s sake, don’t wear cotton. This should go without saying. Wool is your friend. Polypropylene is also your friend, but will get stinky.
• Keep your hands warm. You’d rather have warm hands than cold hands, so grab lobster gloves if you have them. If not, swing by a ski shop and pick some up, you’ll be glad you made the investment. If your lobster mitts are getting old, a pair of liner gloves might be the trick to not having chilly fingers.
• Keep your head cool. You will get warm as you race. If you have a thick hat on, you’ll get very hot indeed. A thinner hat is probably fine, with perhaps a buff or a headband to keep your ears warmer. And don’t ski with your favorite hat, if you get very hot and throw it during the race you’ll probably never see it again.
• Get a buff. It’s great because you can use it to cover different parts of your face during the race, and it’s very adjustable. I usually start with mine over my ears, cheek and neck, and then can pull it down if necessary just to cover my chin and neck.
• Don’t go overboard covering your face. You need to be able to breathe, and nothing is worse than an ice-caked piece of cloth slamming in to your chin with every breath. The ambient exhaled air should keep your face somewhat warmer than the air around it. If you are prone to frostbite, take necessary precautions, but breathing should come first. If you keep the area around your face warm, your face will be fine.
• Wear sunglasses or other eye protection. Even if it’s not sunny. It will be bright, and your eyes will get icy if you don’t. If they get foggy you can always perch them on your forehead, but you’ll be glad to have them in case.
• You should be cold at the start line. When you’re standing around waiting to start, if you’re warm and comfortable, you’ll overheat and get wet during the race. This is not a good thing. If you’re chilly, you’re probably dressed right. If your hands get old, spin your arm around, the centrifugal force gets blood to your fingers. It feels odd, but it works.
• DRY YOUR BOOTS. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is worse than putting on wet boots on race day and skiing in the cold. You’ll have cold feet, which lead to poor balance, which leads to tired legs. If your boots are moist from a ski the day before, put them on a heat vent or radiator or put a fan on them, or even put on dry socks and walk around in them—anything to get the insides dry.
• Gents, two tricks. One, don’t shave. Facial hair is good insulation. Two, if you have an extra hat and you’re worried about certain areas “down there” just stuff it in between a couple of layers. It looks weird, but it certainly does the trick.
• The more adjustments you can make during the race, the better. The temperature will change, and you want to be able to change with it. I do this in several ways. The aforementioned buff maneuver. I’ll sometimes perch my hat above my ears (if it gets really hot, I’ll take my hat and stuff it in my pants somewhere), it’s amazing how much heat you can dump with bare ears. I often wear a hooded wool layer, and the hood can go up or down (usually starts up and comes down) if I’m hot or cold. And zippered top layers can help you cool down if you’re overheated.
• Your drink belt will freeze. You can heat it up, turn it upside down, put a heat pad in there, whatever. Your camelbak hose will certainly freeze. If it’s below 0, you’ll be out of luck. Above 0 you can usually keep it liquid with a few shots of Whiskey, but below 0, you’ll be drunk if it is potent enough to remain liquid.
• You will need warm, dry clothes at the finish. Often my legs are fine, but my core is always wet from sweat. The first thing you want to do in the changing tent—before you even get that first beer!—is stip off any wet layers and put on dry ones. Which means you want those in your drop bag. And you’ll want to be warm and comfortable. I usually go with a wool base layer, a cotton sweat shirt and a down jacket on top, plus dry gloves (dry liners inside your wet lobsters can work), a dry, warm hat, DRY SOCKS and shoes. And dry pants are never a bad idea, if they get wet during the race.

In the past two years the Birkie has had the trails open in stages until Friday afternoon for last-minute skiing. This year, not so much. The whole trail is closing on Thursday evening, in time for packing the last bit (foot?) of snow down. So if you want to ski a few k on Friday, your options in the Cable-Hayward Metropolis are somewhat limited, with nearly 100k of prime trail closed to use. Add to this the potential for a foot of fresh snow, and all grooming resources will be aimed at packing the Birkie Trail, so expect anything around the Hayward/Cable area to be soft, if it’s groomed at all.

If you are coming from the Twin Cities, I’d suggest skiing there. The Cities will be further west of the storm and see less snow—probably more on the order of 3-6 inches. The trails there are more likely to be groomed, and even if they’re not many crusted up today (it was in the 40s) and are refreezing, so the skate deck would be firm with snow on top. If you drive to Hayward early, you’ll not only see more snow on the roads, but you’ll be taking your chances at finding trails to ski on. Skinnyski is a great resource for finding trails and conditions, and we reviewed several local trails in the Twin Cities on this page. If you’re looking for a quick hit from the airport, Battle Creek is quite convenient, Wirth and Hyland are not far out of the way, and if you don’t mind a short extra drive, Murphy Hanrahan has hills which will remind you of the Birkie. Most likely to be groomed are Hyland, Battle Creek and Wirth. And Elk River, but that’s up the road the wrong way a bit.

Here are some options near the race, with links to Skinnyski’s trails pages (I’m only going to describe skate and classic trails nearby, but there are many more trails on the website):

• With Telemark closed, the trails there have been groomed more sporadically than usual. It’s possible there will be good skiing on those wonderful trails, but they’ll probably be covered in fresh snow.
• The North End Trails are great, but many double as portions of the race course. Still, you could probably find some skiing on them, and they might get a groom.
• The Birkie Ridge Trail is another good option. It’s about 5k and right on Highway 63. It intersects the Birkie Trail so you’d have to ski out-and-back, but 10k should be more than enough skiing for Friday.
• Likewise the Seeley Ski Trails are a good option that intersects the Birkie Trail. But they may not be groomed.
• The Birkie has some skiable trails at OO, Mosquito Brook and Fish Hatchery. In each case, there are a few k you can ski on without disturbing the main trail. But none really more than a pretty quick out-and-back.
• Just out of town in Hayward are the local recreational trails. A few k, probably enough to warm up on.
• Balsam Branch and Timberland Hills are good options on the way up 63.