Elva Crist
Every winter, early on a February morning, the highway outside of the small town of Cable, Wisconsin, is unusually crowded with cars. As exhaust rises from the still vehicles, thousands of skiers wait in the cold to start North America’s largest cross-country ski marathon: The American Birkebeiner.
This is the picture that Jerome Poling paints in his new book, American Birkebeiner, which documents the history of this legendary race since its origin to the present day, when the event and the community that has sustained it are stronger than ever.
Poling started reporting on the Birkebeiner (also known as the Birkie) as a journalist in the early 1980s and quickly became enamored with it.
“The more I reported on it, the more I thought, ‘Man, it would sure be fun to be a part of this, because it looks like a really great challenge,’” Poling explained. “I love the event itself. There is so much positive energy around it. I love the sport. It's like a blue-collar sport in the sense that you really have to work for everything you get. If you go down a hill, you've had to climb the hill. It's a sport where you don’t have anything given to you. It’s all you out there.”
The American Birkie is the most difficult cross-country skiing marathon trail in the United States, spanning over 30 miles of trail from Cable to Hayward in the north woods of Wisconsin. The trail is packed with curves and hills, and the challenge of speeding through these obstacles in such a large crowd is a formidable athletic challenge.
Birkie Start, 1973
Poling has raced in twenty-five Birkies, making him a member of an elite group called the Birchleggers. The distinction is given to skiers who have participated in at least twenty races. Poling has taken this achievement to another level, simultaneously skiing and reporting on the race for many years.
Although the Birkie began only a little over a decade before Poling began participating in it, and thus his experience encompasses much of race history, the origins of the race are much older.
A large portion of the book is focused on the creation of the race by the founder, Tony Wise, a Norwegian American who, in 1973, was inspired to create this race by the Birkebeinerrennet, an internationally significant Norwegian ski race. It began in 1932; however, its roots date back centuries, to 1206, when according to legend two warriors rescued the young heir to the Norwegian throne by skiing over the mountains.
Through extensive research, Poling discovered many other stories of the Birkie. This research included over sixty personal interviews with everyone from Tony Wise’s daughters to a Norwegian academic to the first person to set the track in 1973.
In addition to these invaluable conversations, Poling also spent copious amounts of time delving into the Wisconsin Historical Society and Birkebeiner archives, as well as personal collections.
The information unearthed through this research reflected the years of community and positivity that Poling has experienced as a racer.
“You feel like you are a little part of a brotherhood or a sisterhood part of a community of people who are enjoying not only winter but doing it in a special way.”
“You feel like you are a little part of a brotherhood or a sisterhood part of a community of people who are enjoying not only winter but doing it in a special way,” Poling said.
Another iconic element of the sport is the famous ending on Hayward’s Main Street. Many of the experienced skiers that Poling interviewed called it the best ending in the sport.
It is this finish, coming after the most difficult marathon trail in North America, that helps to foster the competitive nature of the race and draw skiers from well beyond the Upper Midwest. Each year, competitors come from most states and many countries around the globe.
“People like me who are just average skiers, you're never going to see the winner or anything,” Poling said, “but it's cool thinking there’s some Italian or American Olympian up front and they are battling it out to win this thing, and we’re part of it.”
This internationalism, and well as the immigrant culture which built the cross-country skiing community in the Upper Midwest, is celebrated on the International Bridge, which is lined with the flags of numerous nations. It is also one of Poling’s most treasured memories from the race.
“As a skier, when you crest that bridge, you go up that little knob, you get to the top and just for a moment, you take a look at Main Street in front of you feel like ‘Ah, this is it.’ It's a beautiful sight.”
The images of the race play just as much of a role in American Birkebeiner as the written narrative. Much of the book is photographs of the Birkebeiner throughout the years, from classic race pictures to rare archival findings.
A large part of the power of the Birkie is its ability to inspire a great love for skiing, for both its visual beauty and athleticism.
“It gives you time to think,” Poling says. “You’re enjoying nature, but you’re also doing it at your own power.”
The Birkie, and skiing in general, encourages people to embrace the nature of Wisconsin and its fickle weather, which Poling sees as an integral part of the race.
“Too many of us dread winter around here,” he says. “And we shouldn’t. We live here.”
The Birkie has had a strong ripple effect, spreading this love of winter and skiing far beyond the north woods. Many people wanting to train for the Birkie have created networks of ski trails all around the upper Midwest.
The Chippewa Valley is a significant part of this web of American Birkebeiners. Poling described how Karl Andresen, a Norwegian immigrant who taught Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire for many years, began the trail system in the Eau Claire County forests, inspired by his experience at the race. Andresen is considered a Birkie Founder, a skier who participated in the first thirty Birkies.
The valley’s legacy does not stop there. Ernie St. Germain, a University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire graduate, is the only person to have skied each of the first fifty Birkebeiners. He retired last year after his fiftieth race and is renowned amongst the race community.
Poling and American Birkebeiner will make an invaluable addition to this connection between the Chippewa Valley and the Birkie. He integrated his perspectives as a skier, writer, and historian to create a narrative made great for his contagious passion for the Birkebeiner and the community that it fosters.
“The universe was telling me it’s time and you can do it. I felt that I had the skills and enough love for the race and the background,” Poling said. “I felt it needed to be done.”
Poling was greatly supported by The American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, as well as the Wisconsin Historical Society, whose press is publishing American Birkebeiner. At the request of the author, a portion of the proceeds will go to the foundation, in order to support the continuation of this great Wisconsin tradition.
Above all, though, Poling remains focused on the core of the Birkebeiner.
“That's the beauty of it,” Poling said. “It's the challenge and the reward at the end. Feeling the accomplishment that you've finished. Put yourself to the test and succeeded.”
Join Jerome Poling in Cable on Saturday, November 29th, for the launch of American Birkebeiner, which can be purchased at Dotters Books. He will also read as part of a CVWG and Waldemar Ager Association co-sponsored reading at the Chippewa Valley Museum on February 10th.