The Canadian Birkebeiner is the largest classic style cross-country ski event in Western Canada.
The event is organized annually on the second Saturday of February by approximately 500 volunteers of the Canadian Birkebeiner Society.
[2] In 1206 a group of Birkebeiner loyalists, who fought for Sverre Sigurdsson and his descendants in the Norwegian civil war, smuggled Haakon IV, the widely regarded illegitimate son of Norway's King Håkon Sverresson, from Lillehammer to safety in Trondheim.
As in the Norwegian Birkebeinerrennet, the skiers in the Canadian Birkebeiner carry a pack symbolizing the weight of an 18-month-old child.
[4] In total 127 skiers participated in the cross-country marathon starting in Devon and finishing at Fort Edmonton Park.