Birkie Trail Manager Talks About Snow on Opening Day

Happy cross-country skiers converged on Mt. Telemark Village in Cable, Wisconsin, on Saturday, November 22, 2025. The Tormondsen Family Snowmaking Trail opened with a loop of manmade snow. The parking lot was full as smiling skiers clipped into their skis for the first day of the season. Erik Blow sat down next to the fireplace in The Hub to talk about the upcoming season. He’s the Trail Manager for the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) and is starting his fourth winter in that role. 

Blow shared how snowmaking has become part of their operations. “2017 was the last time it [the Birkie] had been canceled. We needed to invest in the next step. How do we solve this problem?” Blow said that snowmaking started at the American Birkebeiner trails in the fall of 2017.

“I came on board just at the end of 2022,” he said. The 2022-23 winter had plenty of natural snow, but the low snow year leading into the 50th edition of the American Birkebeiner in 2024 was a different, challenging story. “How do we make a course? Where does it go? How do you make a loop that makes sense for 15,000 people to ski on? Because it had never been done before.” It wasn’t easy, but they held the anniversary Birkie on a 10k loop. Jessie Diggins famously won the 50th edition a week after competing at the World Cup race in Minneapolis. Saving the Birkie that year with a manmade loop of snow was an educational experience for the ABSF staff. Blow said, “I think it was a good exercise for us to really take note of what worked, what didn't work, and logistically speaking, what’s going to be the plan moving forward? Every department took lessons from what needed to be done to make it happen.” 

Despite the snowmaking infrastructure at Mt. Telemark Village, a full Birkie on the point-to-point course from Cable to Hayward still relies on Mother Nature. “We still have to hope that we get natural snow because we don't have the ability to make snow outside of this system up here.” Blow highlighted their efforts to manage natural snow on the whole Birkie trail. “We're taking more consideration into off-season prep work that can be done to minimize the amount of snow needed. Really being on top of mowing things. Trying to get as little grass as possible. When you get six inches of snow, we can do something. And that comes down to brush removal on the side of the trails and limb removals that help snow fall on the trails instead of getting hung up in trees. We can use our equipment to pull the snow in from the side onto the trail. And sometimes any inch that you bring into the trail counts.”

The choice of grooming equipment also affects the quality of the trails when snow is limited.  “We’re really emphasizing light equipment work again. With our system, it’s way easier to cover the amount of ground we need with larger equipment in Pisten Bullies,” he said. “We’ve always had the good fortune of being able to wait until we got a good amount of snow. Then you can handle most of it with our larger pieces of equipment. But that's not necessarily the trend anymore.” 

There was just enough snow to have the 2025 Birkie on the full trail, and Blow gives the credit for that to choosing the right grooming machinery.  “A lot of light equipment work done early season, particularly in the southern stretches of the trail, from the gravel pit south… We had rollers, compactors, snowmobile packing, ginzu, those types of light equipment a lot more in the south. We were able to establish enough of a base down there that when we did get enough snow in the weeks leading up to the Birkie, we were able to get larger pieces of equipment down there without causing a lot of damage and made enough of a base to race on.”

Limited natural snow also affects the frequency of grooming. “We've been making a lot of those kinds of adjustments with snowpack. What can be done for preservation? Grooming snow, every time you do it, you diminish the snowpack a little bit. You knock some air out, you condense, and transform it a little. If it’s a little icy or a little firm, it doesn't always till up to be as good a product.”

Meanwhile, snowmaking efforts at Mt Telemark Village continue to expand and evolve. They started making snow with two snow guns, but they’ve grown since then. “Now there are five, and we also purchased two “stick' guns. It's like a long wand with a head on top. And those put out less snow, but they're able to put it out in a little more focused area,” said Blow. They’ve also expanded the power and water infrastructure to improve their snowmaking. “Last year, we installed 22 more electrical pedestals. I went through and pinpointed areas that are hard to reach due to our infrastructure. And so we expanded the electrical there. This year, we've been working on expanding our waterline system a little more in certain areas.”

Blow pointed out many events besides the American Birkebeiner at Mt. Telemark Village. In December, they’re hosting a Junior Nationals Qualification event, and the calendar is full after that, bookended by the Junior National Championships in March. “We host Wisconsin high school state champs. We have our women's Ski de She event. It's a full schedule up here.” 

Blow said the ABSF has a bigger, wider goal than snowmaking and trail maintenance for the Birkie and other events. “What we're doing here at Mt. Telemark Village, year-round, with our bike trail construction and the Hovland Rollerski Loop, we're obviously aiming to make this the spot where things happen, where we host training groups, coaches conferences. But also, just for any regular person to come and use whatever facilities we've got. We’re still focused on creating high-quality experiences like the Birkebeiner, but we want to make sure that we’re devoting a lot of focus to providing experiences for people. The regular everyday folks that come out and walk the loops.”

Since it was opening day on the ski trail, Blow brought the attention back to winter and the ski community. “We’re focusing on making the same positive experiences for those people as we are for racers and competitors throughout the year.” Blow pointed out the window in front of The Hub, “We just added some electrical into here, improved our water system so we can make snow in this area. It’s a little flatter terrain. A little more inviting for family and kids. We want to host top-level competitions, sure. But also, do not forget that so many people come out here and use facilities just for daily use and recreation and getting outside in nature.”

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Eric Chandler lives in Duluth, MN where he’s written about outdoor recreation for over 20 years. He wears a purple bib in the American Birkebeiner now and thinks he should be in an earlier wave.