The 50th Anniversary of the American Birkebeiner is still on in Cable, Wisconsin with events starting the week of the 21st.

With the warm weather, the trail set up had to be strategic due to the lack of snow. Executive Director ben Popp says, “Normally we are well done with making snow in January. I mean you normally make snow a little bit in November/December, [then] you’re done. [The trail crew] said hey ‘I think- you know what? There’s not a lot of snow in the forecast,’ this was early January, ‘Let’s get the snow guns fired up and start stockpiling up some snow.’ And I remember thinking you guys are crazy.”

The 50 kilometer race from Cable to Hayward now is different with the amount of snow that they were able to produce.

For this year the Birkebeiner will be a looped race on the 10-11 kilometer trail the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation was able to create. The main Birkie will be a three looped race and now according to Popp there’ll be a better chance to cheer on your loved ones.

“Forget seeing your loved ones in Cable and meeting them in Hayward, you’re going to see them going around and around and cheer them on and keep them going!” Says Popp.