Jerome P. Poling next to the cover of his book, 'American Birkebeiner.'
Author Jerome Poling, left, a veteran Birkie participant, knows whereof he writes.
In the early 1970s, the owner of a grandiose hotel tucked deep in the Northwoods made a move that turned Wisconsin into the Mecca of cross country skiing.
Faced with the reality that more Midwestern skiers were flying out West to get their snow fix, Hayward entrepreneur Tony Wise needed something to lure new visitors to Telemark Lodge.
Wise saw an untapped market in cross-country skiing. It was an easy-to-learn, low-cost winter sport in which participants provided their own power both up and down the hills. The rolling terrain and forests of northern Wisconsin seemed a perfect place to build a cross-country ski trail.
Ever the promoter, Wise spearheaded a ski marathon modeled loosely after Norway’s legendary Birkebeinerrennet. He hoped to unite skiers of all abilities and backgrounds in the Scandinavian spirit of embracing winter. That first event in 1973 drew just a few dozen entrants but numbers swelled quickly as word spread of the well groomed trails around the Telemark resort outside the tiny community of Cable.
Today, the American Birkebeiner has grown into the nation’s largest cross-country ski festival, drawing participants from more than 45 states and beyond the U.S. While Telemark Lodge eventually fell into bankruptcy and was razed in 2021, the race itself has endured. An estimated 300,000 people have skied in one of the Birkie events over the past five decades — with the Madison area boasting perhaps the greatest number of participants outside the Twin Cities. Even if you hate cold weather and have never clipped on a pair of skinny skis, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of the Birkie.
But for those who return year after year, the Birkebeiner is as much a pilgrimage as a race. Each February, thousands of skiers and their families descend on northwest Wisconsin, filling hotel rooms and restaurants, creating traffic jams on the narrow highways, and amusing locals with multi-colored ski suits. There are events throughout race week, culminating on Saturday morning with the feature 50-kilometer trek from the start in Cable to a snow covered Main Street finish in downtown Hayward.
The race attracts elite racers from around the world who cruise the distance in just over two hours. But the event is open to all and for many just getting to the finish line is a victory. The Birkie is considered the toughest event of its kind, with men and women from age 18 to 80 battling the hills, the weather and themselves.
It’s all captured in journalist Jerome Poling’s new book, American Birkebeiner: The Nation’s Greatest Ski Marathon (Wisconsin Historical Society Press). A 25-year Birkie veteran himself, Poling has written a book that is part history, part commentary, and part celebration of the annual spectacle.
“Frankly, there wasn’t much Nordic skiing in Wisconsin until the Birkie came along,” Poling tells Isthmus in an interview. “It’s probably the main reason so many cross-country trails have been built here over the years.”
A former editor at the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Poling conducted some 60 interviews in the course of writing the book. Key figures include Frances Wise, daughter of the late Tony Wise, and Ernie St. Germaine, the legendary Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe skier and only person to finish the first 50 races. Photos from the early days of knickers and wooden skis to contemporary figures complement Poling’s snappy prose.
There’s a local angle as Poling interviews ex-Madisonian Ned Zuelsdorff, who served as race director from 2005 to 2013. A Birkie skier himself, Zuelsdorff realized not everyone was up for a full marathon so he introduced new events that have since grown the number of entrants to more than 13,000.
Poling also addresses the giant elephant in the room: a rapidly warming planet. Since 1950, the average winter temperature in Wisconsin has risen by almost four degrees, enough to turn snow into rain or melt the snow that’s already fallen. The Birkebeiner has faced weather challenges from below-zero temperatures to heavy snow on race day, but amazingly there have been only two cancellations. In 2024, after virtually no snow had fallen in the state, officials even pieced together a 10-kilometer ribbon of manufactured snow with entrants skiing laps.
Still, with an estimated economic impact of some $25 million and thousands gearing their exercise routine around it, Poling doesn’t see the event disappearing any time soon.
“The Birkie has become too big to fail and I think that’s a good thing,” he says.
The 52nd annual American Birkebeiner is scheduled for Feb. 21 and so far Mother Nature has come through with a good old-fashioned Wisconsin winter.
