Ari Ofsevit

Description

If you don’t know the spectacle of watching several thousand people stand in the freezing cold and then ski 30 miles, this is the place to start. Think of a running marathon. A big marathon. Now, drop the temperature. A lot. Usually down to between 0 and 20 above, sometimes as cold as 10 below. Those big marathons in cities? Put a big marathon in a small town. Throw in a snowstorm if you want. And take each of the people running a pair of 6-foot-long, $600 skis, 5-foot-long, $200 poles, and a ski trail. That’s the Birkie.The Birkie started in 1973 (I’m not writing a long history here) with about three dozen skiers. It proceeded to double or treble every year until the early 1980s when 6000 h | Back in 2010, I had a ski blog . I was the most prolific poster of trail reports on skinnyski.com and also posted the reports on the blog, along with race reports, weather (read: snowfall and snowmelt) speculation and other assorted tidbits (I gave out awards in 2010 which no one really cared abo

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