Monthly Archives: March 2020

End of Virtual 20 km on Chena River

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From Sonot Kkaazoot race director, Bad Bob Baker:

I just got off the River ….. not good…All of these pictures are of different bad spots on the Chena RIVER..  There is no way to avoid getting wet.  This overflow extends from one side of the trail to the other.  It’s 3 to 6 inches deep.

The section near the Ft. Wainwright bridge is very narrow now, with moving water on each side of the trail.  There is no way I can pull my groomer thru most of these areas without getting trapped in the overflow.  I took my snowmachine all the way around the 20 km  course.  Most of the worse areas begin beyond the Hamilton Acres area.

Tonight’s forecast is to stay quite warm, with more snow possible.  My experience with these conditions on the Chena River over the past 33 years…is that I will not be groomable until a major weather change..which is not forecast until Thursday at the earliest!    SO…at this point, the VIRTUAL  SONOT  has all moved up to BIRCH  HILL.

For those of you who got your virtual SONOT  KKAAZOOT  in early,  good job!!!   I think everyone from this point on, can ski whatever  VIRTUAL  SONOT  KKAAZOOT  course they can dream up. You just CANNOT  include any part of the CHENA  RIVER..

THERE WILL BE NO GROOMING  OR SKIING ON THE CHENA  RIVER…….  UNSAFE  CONDITIONS!!!
Bad BOB   Sonot Kkaazoot  Race Director..
1724 sm wet start1715 sm1712 sn1717 wet bridge1711 smDo not ski on Chena River

Chena River UNSAFE for skiing!!

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Do not ski on Chena River

THERE WILL BE NO GROOMING  OR SKIING ON THE CHENA  RIVER…….  UNSAFE  CONDITIONS

Race Director Bob Baker has deemed the Chena River to be ungroomable so the VIRTUAL SONOT KKAAZOOT has been moved up to Birch Hill.

So get out there and ski any trails or multiple trails on different days. It’s a virtual Sonot Kkaazoot.

Bad Bob Baker, who has 33 years experience grooming the Chena River, warns that the Sonot Kkaaoot course on the Chena River is no longer safe. (Photos will be posted shortly)

Ski trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area until you reach 20, 40, or 50 km (or any other distance). Send us a screen shot of the display from your GPS route, date, and time to us at: contact@sonotkkaazoot.org . We’ll post the virtual 33rd Sonot Kkaazoot times for all three distances. If you ski low tech, send us your time, date, and detailed course description. The main goal is to get out and ski while we can.

Grooming always depends upon Mother Nature. 

 

A plea for help from Virtual Sonot skiers

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If you haven’t already signed up for the Sonot Kkaaoot and would like to ski the Virtual Sonot Kkaaoot on groomed trails, please sign up for the Sonot at:

https://register.chronotrack.com/reg/form?kioskID=54564

Proceeds will go to the grooming efforts at Birch Hill and on the Chena River. If you are struggling financially because the coronavirus, go ahead and just ski. But if you can, please donate to the Sonot or the NSCF trails fund.

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/

Here’s the latest grooming report from Tom Helmers, head NSCF groomer:

Bottom line is the Trail Fund is at its lowest amount.  The Board of Directors of the ski club has asked all  programs including Grooming to watch expense till this virus thing is straightened out.   Word on the street is a fair number of skiers are planning to ski the Virtual Sonot Saturday, so my plan is to do a single pass of the entire trail system in the morning starting with the White Bear. The forecast is calling for some amount of snow pretty much every day for the next week to 10 days.

So please help us out if you possibly can. If not, please enjoy the groomed trails while you can. 

Stay healthy!

 

Virtual Sonot updates

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from race director, Bad Bob Baker at 10:04 a.m. today:

THE weekend is coming..I just talked with TOM and with the wild winds he’s not sure when he’ll groom, but he plans to do what he can, when he can..  and often as possible.  Tom also mentioned that there is also a possibility of the administration shutting down the groomers.  SO..anything can happen on this VIRTUAL  SONOT  KKAAZOOT.

This coming week looks very warm and lots of snow…but by next Friday the sun starts to come out and the temp really drops …down to just below zero downtown….
NEXT SATURDAY…the true SONOT  KKAAZOOT  race day is forecasting some sunshine and a high of +12 downtown.. 
SO, the big question is how the Chena River will hold up from now till then…  
It looks like tomorrow and Sunday are going to be the best skiing snow wise until Friday and Saturday of next week.  Lots of snow and high temps Monday through Thursday…  SO…get out tomorrow and Sunday for the the most assured SONOT  KKAAZOOT  conditions… it might get better, it might not, and the River may hold up, or it may not..  
Bad BOB
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Blogger note:
I intend to ski my virtual Sonot Kkaazoot tomorrow so there’ll be no updates once I leave home. Remember, I’m a 70 year old volunteer so I do everything SLOWLY.
Seeing as this is a virtual Sonot, Bad Bob won’t be following me as course sweep. Thus, this year, I may be napping on the Chena River not him in late afternoon. (Maybe Eric Buetow will bring out a beverage in front of his house to revive me). 
Keep your virtual Sonot reports coming. I’ll update this site as soon as I can. I’m also a struggling grad student and my home internet is barely crawling along.

Bruce Jamieson skis virtual 40 km

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Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks board member, Bruce Jamieson is the first skier to complete the virtual Sonot Kkaaoot 40 km.

He writes:

I skied the 40K course yesterday starting around 12:45pm and finishing around 4:15pm.  My GPS distance measured 40.76K.  My moving time was 3:33:02.  My plan is to ski the 50K before the end of next week.  Is that legal in the virtual rules?  If not, then do not count my 40K time.  Great job with the grooming, web site and the virtual promotion effort.

In answer to Bruce’s question, everything is legal in this year’s virtual Sonot Kkaazoot. Any course goes as long as it’s recorded and reported before Bad Bob ends the competition. The idea is to safely get out and work off some anxiety and stress that we’re all feeling during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re aiming for the most km skied by this community during this year’s virtual Sonot Kkaazoot.

Steffi and Lilli Bond do hilly virtual 20 km

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Lilli Bond (10) and Steffi Ickert-Bond (53)

Steffi and Lilli

We started on the Cushman Street Bridge to the turnaround and then up to
Birch hill via the trails near Ski Road, then up the hill using
Sunnyside, South Tower and Tower loop back to the stadium.  We took
our jolly old time and 2 weeks post surgery,  I was happy I could
finish at all. It was a lot of fun. 2 hrs and 16 mins.


My husband Richard Bond (57) did the 20 Km on the river: 2 hrs and 27
mins. and drove to pick us up at Birch Hill.

Richard and Steffi on River

 

Eric Troyer does virtual classical 50 km

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Eric’s virtual ski in his own words:

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It took me 6 hours, 17 minutes. Classic skiing. (This was my classic year, so I wanted to classic ski the Sonot.)screen shot

 

The trails were generally in great shape. Thanks to Bad Bob Baker for grooming the Chena River and the Birch Hill grooming crew for grooming the Birch Hill trails. A bit of snow over night covered some parts of the route, but those weren’t bad. The newly groomed sections at Birch Hill were outstanding!

Things went pretty smooth. Of course, I had a couple problems at the start. Despite taking a leak at Birch Hill (when I dropped off some emergency water at the Warming Hut), I still needed to tinkle when I started! I had to ski several kilometers before I had enough privacy. 

Empty River at start
Stay on the groomed trail
Newly groomed White Bear

The other thing I noticed right away was that I brought my skate skiing poles! Oh well. I decided to channel my SCUM buddies Bill Husby and Frank Soos. (SCUM = Susan’s Class of Untrainable Men.) I channeled Bill, aka “Poles” because he double poles a lot, in the flats, and I channeled Frank, the tallest SCUM, the rest of the time.

I saw several people skiing the trails near the Birch Hill Stadium, including NSCF Head Groomer Tom Helmers. (Yes, he does ski!) It was good to see several people out skiing in these stressful times. I didn’t see too many farther out on the course, though I did run into fellow SCUM Don Pendergrast and partner on the river. They were doing the 20 k portion of the Sonot. Awesome! Oh, I also saw a coyote cross the river in the morning. That was fun to see!

All in all, a great way to spend the day! I encourage everyone to get out and ski if time and weather permit!

a 11:17 a.m. addition from Eric:

Thanks for the encouragement left on my car:

IMG_3679 copy

Tracie & Don Pendergrast ski virtual 20 km

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Former Sonot Kkaaoot organizers, Don and Tracie Pendergrast skied the Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot 20 km today in 2:32:30. They saw plenty of familiar faces and chatted from a safe distance. Don, who is also a SCUM, will likely ski additional courses in the coming days.

Congratulations to our current second place couple in the Sonot Kkaazoot virtual 20 km.