It’s a big year for the American Birkebeiner, their 50th anniversary.

And despite the warm weather and lack of snow, the celebrated event is still on…with necessary adjustments.

It’s the largest cross country ski marathon in North America and on Monday night organizers announced those adjustments because of the current trail conditions.

During a virtual news conference, leaders tonight confirmed the multiple birkie races will be held, just on a 10 kilometer course.

Professional computer modeling was used to create what birkie leaders feel will be a workable solution.

Kristy Maki is the event director. She said all the computer modeling and course analytics lead them to decide on the 10-kilometer course. “We’ll still have 700 feet of elevation per lap,” Maki said. “We know there will be alot of you out there, and we want to have alot of you out there, to celebrate the 50th American Birkebeiner, so we’re making as safe of a course for you and that’s one of the reasons we’ve reduced it to 10, 20 and 30K for most of the events.”

The many other events and races that typically take place during Birkie week will also go on as planned, but with altered times.

World cup elite skiers, including olympic gold medal winner, Jesse Diggens will be racing.

More than 7,500 participants signed up for the 50th anniversary event forcing registration to close earlier than ever before in it’s five decade long history.

Birkie week is February 21st through the 25th. Updated details can be found at their website https://www.birkie.com/.