This week’s snow had the Sonot Kkaazoot blogger sidelined with snow removal and berm relocation at her house. Living below Birch Hill, the snow was very wet and heavy. On Thursday, although my shoulders and core were quite sore, I skated the blue, relay, white cub and white bear for 12 km with just the piston bully and overtaking skiers for company.

Today I recruited some fellow skiers to help motivate me through the last 8 km that I needed for my virtual 50 km Sonot. I was just missing the incoming portion of the Outhouse Loop and all the Black loops. Since it was zero deg F when we headed out with a 8 mph wind, we decided to do the Outhouse loop first since it gets more sun. However, when we got to the intersection with the Sunnyside Trail, we couldn’t resist getting a view of town and beyond. So we skied Sunnyside enjoying the bright blue skies and glittering snow.

Joanna Fox was so far ahead of Bernardo Hernandez and me on the Sunnyside, I was unable to take any group photos.

We took the relay return and headed for the Black loops so that I could finish my Sonot Kkaazoot grand tour. Once again Joanna was in the lead, however, she hasn’t skied the traditional 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot so she wandered off skiing portions of the N40 repeatedly while Bernardo and I skied leisurely along the Sonot course. Meanwhile, unknown to the three of us, Bill Husby had missed us at the start so he’d been doing loops of the Blacks, too, trying to catch us.

Eventually, we were all reunited near the end of the N40 loop:

With Bill and Joanna together, the pace got more frenzied, so I used the former luge run downhill on the Black Cross as an opportunity to catch up. Bill and Joanna were waiting for us at the bottom. Bill suggested that I make a snow angel in the untouched snow on the Black Funk loop. The result is what I call the “snow flounder on the Black Funk” because snow angels don’t work well with classical skis and poles. However, thanks to 8 years of PT with Denise Jerome, I was able to get up without taking off my skis.

We finished the rest of the Black Loops with Bill doing a little grooming with his skis.(https://sonotkkaazoot.org/2020/03/27/what-a-trail-groomer-does-in-his-spare-time/).

The motley crew finished the black loops (and my virtual 50 Sonot Kkaazoot) just about in time for lunch.

Here’s hoping that your virtual Sonot Kkaazoot is as much fun as my four installments were. Stories and photos are more important than times for the Sonot blog, but Eric Troyer is compiling times on the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks website so here are the first two installments of my virtual 50 km Sonot.

Installments 2 and 1 respectively:

https://sonotkkaazoot.org/2020/03/22/norma-and-susan-add-10-more-km-to-their-virtual-sonot-kkaazoot/

https://sonotkkaazoot.org/2020/03/22/fairbanks-master-swimmers-ski-virtual-50-km-in-snowstorm/

Last two photos by Joanna Fox

To summarize my virtual Sonot Kkaazoot math rounded to 1 significant digit:

Saturday 20 km + Sunday 10 km + Thursday 12 km +Friday 12 km = 50 km

My total elapsed time isn’t as important as the stack of student proposals I need to review and the lit crit reading assignment I need to finish. I will trust whatever Eric Troyer reports.

Please send your virtual Sonot Kkaazoot stories, times, and routes to contact@sonotkkaazoot.org

Don’t worry if you’re too exhausted and seized up on Sunday and can’t submit your report until Monday or Tuesday. Please get it to us by 11:59 pm. ADT on 31 March 2020.

I’ll post your stories and Eric will tally the times and distances.

Warning: Your report may be an April Fool’s joke if we don’t get it by the end of March.