The benefit of being flexible in your winter plans: thanks, Rune, for this fun report and pictures from your five-week adventure in Norway!
*****
By early February, the prospect of a full scale American Birkie in Wisconsin looked less and less likely. To the contrary, the Oslo region of Norway was enjoying one of the coldest, snow-rich winters in decades. So Augustina and I made a quick decision, cancelled the trip to Wisconsin and moved our planned trip to Norway up by a few weeks and left for what ended up being a 5-week trip to Norway.
The first stop was my hometown of Drøbak which is located just south of Oslo. By the later part of February, the weather had turned to rain and milder temps but still lots of snow left on the local lighted ski trails, which relies heavily on snow-making as well. As it turned out, we arrived just in time for me to participate in the club championship at the end of February! Three laps of 2.5 k skate race on sloppy wet snow, just like skiing at Cabin Creek. There were many familiar faces from when I grew up and it was so much fun to be back skiing where it all started for me with Wednesday night races at the age of 12. This was the first year for me in the 60-64 category and still just as fun to be on the podium as back then!
Next stop on our trip was a couple of hours drive north of Oslo to participate in a local “turrenn." Every weekend there are touring races all over the country; I counted some 20 different races the weekend of March 2-3. Mylla Rundt is at the very north end of what is called Nordmarka, a vast trail system ranging all the way from Oslo for hundreds of kilometers. The race is a loop around a lake and quite hilly, with 650 meters of elevation in 22k, just a beautiful course on excellent trails. Again, familiar Cabin Creek conditions with rain showers, temps a few degrees above freezing, and the only question being which flavor of klister to apply. The race was not very well attended, with approximately 50 participants, with the older age groups seeing the most participants. It was a mass start but with a small field, skiing was never crowded and I skied more or less by myself most of the time, until a couple of kilometers before finish when a couple of skiers caught me. I looked at one of them as he passed me and I thought he looked soooo old, there was no way I was going to let someone that old beat me! We traded leading each other to the very end where this older-than-the-hills looking, skier ended up beating me at the finish line. Oh well, I know there are many fit old skiers in Norway, only to learn at the time of awards that this skier won our age group, myself in second, and we are exactly the same age! So much for looking old….
After a few days with no snow way out on the West Coast of Norway to visit family, it was time for Lillehammer and preparations for the Birkebeiner, the granddaddy of all touring races in Norway. We rented a cabin up at Hafjell, which is a newly developed cabin area at approximately 800 meters elevation, right next to the vast trail system that connects Sjusjøen, Lillehammer, the Birkie trails, etc. The trails right out the cabin door, daily grooming and literally endless trails made for a spectacular week of skiing for Augustina and me. The weather was great, with many sunny days, but that sure changed in time for the Birkie race. Fortunately, the organizers had the sense to announce that the race had been postponed two days in advance, giving participants time to readjust travel plans etc. The weather on the original race day, Saturday March 16, was just horrendous, with strong winds, dry snow on top of the mountain and rain below. It would have been a miserable day of racing all around and completely unsafe, so good call on the part of the organizers to postpone the race to Sunday, which by the way, turned out to be spectacular with temps well below freezing, blue wax conditions, sunshine and most importantly, no wind!
I started in wave 2 and followed my usual routine, let the wave go, wait for 3 – 4 minutes and then start my race. There is a mat start, which means your time doesn’t start until you pass the mat so there is no time penalty for waiting. The advantage is that the wave of more than 500 skiers will have stretched out so that when I start passing skiers, I most always have a clear track to ski and avoid the rubber band effect skiing uphill in a large group. And uphill it is -- the first hour is a solid climb -- so there is no advantage in drafting anyway. Skis were great, both kicking and gliding well and I truly enjoyed the perfect, solid tracks and excellent conditions. This time around the skiers around me looked fairly young and that always helps on the motivation as well…. 😊
The two hardest and most challenging parts of the Birkebeiner are the hills climbing up Midtfjellet and the downhills from Sjusjøen. The Midtfellet hills are about two hours into the race and those hills just seem to go on forever, and steep they are as well. But, one stride at a time and soon I crested the top and enjoyed the flat double pole section to Sjusjøen, where as always, the crowds are big with people cheering, loud music, and all sorts of liquids being offered for the last few kilometers, all of which I declined.
The section from Sjusjøen and down is the second part of the race which I find very challenging. Some find the speed of 40+ miles an hour through turns and with trees a few feet away on both sides of the trail exhilarating but at this stage of the game, I have turned more cautious and will have one foot outside the track for balance and to slow down the speed, if necessary. Good thing there were no fallen skiers that I could observe and no loss of speed compared to skiers around me, although the speed felt crazy fast at times. By the time the downhills end, the rest of the course is only a few kilometers of flat double poling, but as we know from the US Birkie, even the lake at the end can feel like it is uphill, the entire lake! I reached the finish in a time of 3:30, which for me is relatively slow compared to previous years but I ended up 18th in my age group out of 411, so all in all, a beautiful day and a great race.
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