{"id":481,"date":"2016-02-24T06:33:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T12:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wisconsinverbs.com\/?p=481"},"modified":"2016-02-24T06:42:00","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T12:42:00","slug":"wisconsin-skis-the-2016-kortelopet-24k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wisconsinverbs.com\/wisconsin-skis-the-2016-kortelopet-24k\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Skis: The 2016 Kortelopet 24K"},"content":{"rendered":"

Date:<\/strong> February 20, 2016
Distance:<\/strong> 24K \/14.9 miles
Time:<\/strong>\u00a02:23:56.7<\/p>\n

Although I had signed up to ski the American Birkebeiner, or Birkie again, as the change cut off approached a month ago it became clear that this was going to be a Kortelopet, aka Korte, year. For a variety of reasons, I knew I wasn’t going to be prepared for a 51K ski race, so the 24k race\u00a0sounded just right.<\/p>\n

My Dad and Younger brother were both skiing the Birkie this year, so we all boarded a school bus at 6 a.m. to travel from Hayward, Wis. to the race start in Cable, Wis. My race wave wasn’t set to start until 9:50 a.m., so I was happy for the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of the skiers were concerned with trail conditions due to warm temperatures this year.\u00a0My dad has now completed 22 Birkie events. There was one year that it was so warm and the course received so much rain that they needed to cancel it.<\/p>\n

As I drove up from Madison on the Thursday prior to the race, it was raining so hard in Eau Claire and Rice Lake that I was concerned there wouldn’t be enough snow to even hold the race this year. Thankfully, when I glanced at the radar, I noticed that the storm was swirling around the Birkie trail, but the trail itself didn’t receive much rain. Also, the closer that I got to Hayward, the more snow I started to see. \u00a0<\/p>\n