Birkebeiner-Rennet cancelled - wow

in article , Eddy Rapid
at wrote on 3/21/07 4:38 AM:

Jeff,

Thanks for the on-the-spot report, and sorry to hear about the
situation there. Do you know how the conditions were the next day?
Would it have been feasible to hold the race the next day?

Parham.

On Mar 21, 1:31 am, Jeffery Clarke wrote:
in article , Terje Henriksen at
wrote on 3/18/07 8:29 AM:







"Terje Mathisen" skrev i melding
...
Eddy Rapid wrote:
Wow is right! Safety does come first obviously, especially when people
haven't signed up to an expedition-style adventure.

I'm thinking of doing the Birkebeiner-Rennet next year. I think of
all those people who put serious effort into training and then the
serious money going there from a far, for this to happen... I think of
RSN's Peter Hoffman...

I wonder how bad it really got.

According to the organizers, they had measured a maximal gust of 62 m/s
(!) on Raudfjellet at the moment when they decided to cancel. Average wind
was up to 20+ m/s at that time.

20+ m/s is about 45-50 mph, 62 m/s is well into hurricane territory, i.e.
140+ mph.

Why don't they thing of using sunday as a spare day; bad weather on saturday
may not mean cancelling the race if sunday also is available for racing?

I must say that the organizers of the Norwegian Birke did an awesome job in
setting up the race. The Swix techs were there with a fancy wax bath roller
putting on a perfect KR21 Klister in two seconds followed by about ten
benches of other techs applying hard wax over the top. This is the first
time I have ever had someone else prepare my classic skis and they were
perfect. The start was also well arranged with the wave format. I had no
restrictions from wave 5 getting going and easily skied toward the front of
the wave. If I had wanted to pass, I could have done so at any time. The
feed stations were well manned. I got just a taste of the wind past
Skramstasetern in a couple of open spots and it was pretty hard to control
the poles. Winds were clocked at 70 mph. I'm sure with open spots at the top
of the hill it would have been much worse. It felt like some type of
disaster movie after 3000 skiers skied back down the hill and met with the
other 7500 who never started, everyone walking around, not quite sure what
to do and then finally a mass migration walking back to Rena. The cell
phones did not work due to everyone trying to use the phones all at once and
the organizers pleaded with the masses to stop trying to use the phones to
allow them to call the trucks and buses already on the way to Lillehamar.
It was quite an accomplishment to get all those buses back to Rena and them
get everyone back to where they started from. Everyone was pretty let down.
Jeff- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


The next day there were 8 inches of fresh snow and foggy. The wind had
stopped. The race would have been on hard wax with changing conditions as
it warmed up later in the day. The race could have been held, but it would
have been extremely slow.
Jeff

Eddy Rapid wrote:
Jeff,

Thanks for the on-the-spot report, and sorry to hear about the
situation there. Do you know how the conditions were the next day?
Would it have been feasible to hold the race the next day?


Conditions improved later in the same day, if the wind had started early
enough so they could have postponed the first start by some hours,they
might have made it.

OTOH, this would run the risk of slow skiers not getting across the
mountain before dark. :-(

Terje

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