Birkebeiner xc ski race in Norway was cancelled this year; due to wind! I can understand it cancelled due to lack of snow. But wind? Hope that doesn’t happen next year when I travel there from Canada or I’ll be skiing it all by myself.
Birkebeiner xc ski race in Norway was cancelled this year; due to wind! I can understand it cancelled due to lack of snow. But wind? Hope that doesn’t happen next year when I travel there from Canada or I’ll be skiing it all by myself.
Well, at least they did not cancel the swim leg!!! I’m going to Galveston next weekend and not sure if I will be swimming in an oil slick or doing a duathlon!
Do you know what blowing debris does to ski tracks?
There was a rather strong wind the night before the race and during the first few hours of the race day. Then it cleared up sufficiently to ski safely across the plateau.
Normally one would simply postpone the race by a few hours. The problem is that there are so many participants starting at intervalls throughout the day, it is simply not possible to make any major changes in the race. It’s not just ensuring not too many people in the course at any given time and section, but the logistics to transport people to Rena at the right times, and then transport them away from Lillehammer. They don’t have the margins necessary to accomodate changes due to tough weather conditions.
A few friends of mine were supposed to start early in the morning when the wind was strongest. When the race got cancelled, they checked the weather forcast on their mobiles, and it turned out the forcast was fine in 1-2 hours time. So they simply skied the course to Lillehammer on their own, and when they got to the plateau the wind had dropped. (You can’t ban people from skiing in Norway). They had a great ski trip.
It’s sad to say that Birkerbeinerrennet has become so large that it’s more about money than putting on a decent competition. The owners are making several million each year. And no participants get a refund despite the race being cancelled.
The Norseman is a different story. After the tough conditions last year, one wonders what it takes to cancel the race. I’m guessing a nuclear war.
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There was a rather strong wind the night before the race and during the first few hours of the race day. Then it cleared up sufficiently to ski safely across the plateau.
Normally one would simply postpone the race by a few hours. The problem is that there are so many participants starting at intervalls throughout the day, it is simply not possible to make any major changes in the race. It’s not just ensuring not too many people in the course at any given time and section, but the logistics to transport people to Rena at the right times, and then transport them away from Lillehammer. They don’t have the margins necessary to accomodate changes due to tough weather conditions.
A few friends of mine were supposed to start early in the morning when the wind was strongest. When the race got cancelled, they checked the weather forcast on their mobiles, and it turned out the forcast was fine in 1-2 hours time. So they simply skied the course to Lillehammer on their own, and when they got to the plateau the wind had dropped. (You can’t ban people from skiing in Norway). They had a great ski trip.
It’s sad to say that Birkerbeinerrennet has become so large that it’s more about money than putting on a decent competition. The owners are making several million each year. And no participants get a refund despite the race being cancelled.
The Norseman is a different story. After the tough conditions last year, one wonders what it takes to cancel the race. I’m guessing a nuclear war.
To cancel Birkerbeinerrennet is not easy for the organizers. And I do not think it is good for their business. It was a lot of debate about the cancellation since the weather forecast was that the wind will be better and that it should be ok. The forecast was accurate and looking back they should have started the whole thing.
Many skied over the mountain anyway. That is no news in Norway. You can ski on your own even if the weather is bad.
The organizers were afraid of skiers getting in trouble and since the race is a point to point race they had limited abilities to transport skiers down from the mountain with snowmobiles and helicopter.
I have a lot of friends that were ready to race in Rena and they were not happy. But they also understood the complexity of the situation. My guess is that next year the race will happen no matter weather.
Norseman was bad to be summer, it was cold but not too bad 