Despite record warmth and no snowfall, the world's fastest cross-country skiers are still coming to Minneapolis

For the first time in more than 20 years, the world's fastest cross-country skiers will come to the United States to compete in World Cup competition.

After years of planning, advocacy, fundraising and trail construction, not to mention the race cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic four years ago, the Loppet Cup will be held in Minneapolis on February 16-17. organizers had no intention of allowing historic warming. And the practically snowless winter stops them.

“We have a very busy week ahead of us getting the venue ready. It's not the prettiest park right now, but we're going to get there,” said the Loppet Foundation, which holds the race at Theodore Wirth Park. Executive Director Claire Wilson promised.

30,000 spectators are expected for the World Cup races on both Saturday and Sunday. It comes at a time when the U.S. men's and women's teams are enjoying unprecedented success on the World Cup tour, including local hero Jesse Diggins leading the standings.

“I set an alarm on my phone to get free tickets,” said Lisa Garretson of Minneapolis, who competed in the City of Lakes Loppet at Theodore Wirth last weekend. Tickets sold out quickly. Because it happened,” he said.

“There will be insane numbers of people here to watch the cross-country ski races.”

The sport is rapidly gaining popularity in Minnesota. Thousands of youth skiers participate in clubs and high school teams. Thousands of adults are participating in civic races in the area, including the American Birkebeiner in Wisconsin later this month. Currently, there are four parks in the Twin Cities with ski trail systems that create artificial snow.

harsh winter

There was a time this winter when Wilson doubted whether the Loppet Foundation would be able to pull off the race in the face of record temperatures, rain and lack of snow — the biggest snowfall in the metropolitan area since the new year. The amount was only about 2 inches.

“We were in a precarious situation all winter,” Wilson said, adding that she and other race organizers thought they were playing it safe by scheduling the event in February.

“We didn't think that was a possibility. We didn't think it would be difficult to postpone this race in Minnesota in February,” Wilson said.

Organizers were preparing for a year with less snow. They were unprepared for a long winter too warm to make artificial snow.

Over the past 20 years, the Loppet Foundation has raised millions of dollars to build an elaborate snowmaking system at Theodore Worth. Water is piped to various locations along the trail, where giant snow guns are connected to create artificial snow.

In fact, Wilson said without snowmaking capabilities, it is no longer possible to even bid to host a World Cup ski race. Because of climate change, natural snow is now too unpredictable, she said.

Robert Ibler, trail manager for the Loppet Foundation, said the park got off to a good start with snowmaking earlier this winter. But around Christmas, things changed.

“It rained for about three days, the temperature reached 50 degrees, and we lost a lot of the snow we had made,” Ibrar said.

We basically had to start over from scratch.

“It was a really heart-breaking moment. I mean, we were really seriously worried that we wouldn't be able to put the course together,” Wilson recalled.

What saved this year's race was a 10-day cold snap that hit the region in mid-January. During that period, Loppet's crew worked his third shift making snow around the clock. Snow guns were also borrowed from Ramsey County and the Three Rivers Park District.

Snowfall can occur at temperatures as low as 28 degrees Fahrenheit, but when temperatures dip into the single digits, as they did in January, Ibrar estimates that the device can produce 30 times as much snow in the same amount of time.

“At that point, we were probably able to make about half of the snow that we needed on the course. And in those 10 days, we were able to probably make the other half of the snow that we needed for the event,” Ibrah said. he said.

Right now, densely packed snow, 1 to 3 feet thick, winds through the trees and is surrounded by mud and grass. This equates to approximately 6 feet of naturally compacted snow.

Matt Laue, assistant chief of racing, toured the course last weekend for FIS, the international governing body for cross-country skiing.

“Honestly, I think they probably got 75 percent of the snow that we were hoping for,” Laue said. “In some places it may not be as thick as we would have liked,” he said, but it was enough to host a safe event.

When the Loppet Foundation heard the news that the race would be held, Wilson said staff members burst into tears.

“Honestly, we felt like we couldn't afford to lose this in a winter that was feeling a little hopeless. So we were very excited to be able to have this race in a winter that we're all missing so much. I think the truth is that it made it all the more profound and special. ”

Following this week's rain and warm temperatures, trail crews are taking additional steps to rebuild the course. They place blankets on vulnerable parts of the trail to protect from the rain. They brought in snow from Bush Lake Ski Jump in Bloomington. And they plan to bring more snow next week as temperatures drop.

late return home

The star of the race is Diggins, a former Stillwater High School star and Olympic gold medalist who, at 32 years old, leads the World Cup standings in a sport long dominated by Scandinavian countries.

Diggins has long advocated for the World Cup to be held in the United States. The last time a World Cup ski race was held on U.S. soil was in Utah in 2001. A race was scheduled to take place in Minneapolis in March 2020, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“It's kind of crazy to finally be able to do this in your own country after 300 races in a country other than your own, but that makes it even more special,” Diggins said at a press conference earlier this week.

Diggins recalled that her only exposure to World Cup races in high school was by watching old VHS tapes.

“And now all these little kids, all the families, all the people in the community who taught me how to love skiing and supported me and raised me, they're all there. It's going to be great to share this with them and finally give all these kids the opportunity to see the best skiers in the world.”

Five more skiers from Minnesota will compete, including four women. There were also several state high school champions and runners-up.

“Imagine you're a Vikings player and you've never played in Minnesota. So they're professional athletes who never ski in front of their hometown crowd. So their excitement is It’s obvious,” Wilson said.

Wilson said other stars of the sport are also excited to be in Minneapolis, including five-time gold medalist Johannes Klebo of Norway.

“I think the whole world is watching this projection and rooting for us to accomplish this plan,” Wilson said. “Everyone's attention is on Virus.”