Having classical skied all three Sonot Kkaazoot official distances, Bill Husby has started skating the virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot courses. Today, Bill skate skied the 10 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot in 51:41.
Bill writes: “As Tom H and Corrine L would say, “ Skating is not real skiing”. Oh well! Here’s today’s skate time around the 10K course. See you tomorrow.”
Ben Bragonier skated the virtual 30 km Denai State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on Monday in 2:13:30.
Ben writes:
I just wanted to see if I could complete the course and remain lucid enough to drive home.
(A word to the wise — give bindings and baskets a wiggle and shake before setting out. My right binding came off my ski a little bit after Heart Rate Hill. I thought I was going to have to walk out. I can tell you that this was a horrifying prospect ! I was saved after I located a missing part as well as by my thought to use a pole tip in lieu of a binding tool to get things repositioned).
Beautiful skate conditions made this stout course possible for me. I made attempts/probes/slogs for the 30 KM on three prior occasions only to “call it” before heading out onto White Bear. In contrast to last week’s conditions, Monday evening was perfect.”
Ben’s persistence paid off, and it sounds like he was still quite lucid on the White Bear to be able to repair his binding during his race. Congratulations!
Dan Johnson skied the virtual 50 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in three segments, where he used his classical skis with grip tape for the first two days and skated the third. His time was 4:48:24.
Dan writes:
“I skied the 50 km Sonot over three days, Sunday (19.3 k), Monday (16.2 k) and Tuesday (13.4 k), March 21,22,23. Total time was 4:48:24.
It was beautiful skiing all three days although a little cold on Sunday and some fresh snow today (Tuesday).”
Although retired, Dan still has a current RN license, so he documents his work. Here’s how he tallied up his 50 km Sonot:
I got almost 49 km:
19.3 @ 1:57 (the 20 k loop we all did together… allowing for starting timer in car before walking up and putting on skis);
16.2 @ 1:35:04 (Stadium to Relay to South Tower, down Tower to Stadium, Warmup, Blacks, Blue, Outhouse, Relay, Tower, Medevac, Roller Coaster to Stadium);
13.4 @ 1:16:20 (WB Access to WB, WB, MM, WB Access to Stadium, Warmup back to start point) = 48.9 (call it 49) @ 4:48:24
Thus, Dan Johnson becomes the fourth SCUM to complete the 50 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot. In between doing the virtual 10 km Sonot Kkaazoot on Wednesday, and the 50 km over Sunday through Tuesday, Dan shot more arms with COVID-19 vaccine than kilometers skied in doing his virtual 10 and 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot.
So what is your excuse for not skiing the virtual Sonot Kkaazoot? Where are all the younger skiers?
Monday evening, 13-year old Kieran Kaufman, a U14 skier, finished his virtual 10 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on classical skis in an amazing 35:55!
His father Max reports:
“Kieran skied the 10 km classic Sonot course Monday eve 3/22
actual finish time: 35:55.”
Laura and Sven Grage took advantage of the afternoon warmth and the encouragement of Coach Turman to skate ski around the 30 km Virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in a sizzling 2:05.
Laura writes: “We skied the 30 km course this afternoon in the last of the sunshine. The course was in great shape. We stuck together and finished in 2:05. We ran into coach Turman midway through the course and of course she picked up on our labored but steady pace and took to cheering us on; thank you coach for the positive energy! Thank you to all the groomers and volunteers at NSCF who make everything awesome, no matter what! We don’t carry a phone usually, so didn’t catch an “on-course” photo, but given how fun all the pictures are, here’s one from our spring break trip in the White Mountains.”
Thanks for the report and great photo. Given that this year’s event is virtual, it is really nice to be able to see the smiling faces of fellow Sonot Kkaazoot skiers who we won’t see at this year’s event.
Emily Watson-Cook skated her virtual 10 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in an official time of 50:33.
Emily writes:
“I skied the 10 km Sonot course this afternoon and finished up around 3:38 pm. It was partly sunny t-shirt weather and the grooming was great – a perfect day for it!
My time was 50:33:38. I’m a 26 year old female and I was skating.”
Thanks Emily for your report and great selfie.
Max Kaufman sked his classical virtual 30 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on Sunday in a time of 1:49:12. Like most skiers to date, he reports that his actual course distance was a little shy of 30 km.
Max writes:
“Golden sunlight filtering through the trees, with birch shadows across the trail. I finished the course at sunset with the red chalet ablaze. The snow out White Bear is still cold and fine. This is the first imaginary race I’ve done where the groomers start ripping out the tracks while you’re still on the final kilometer. All in good fun: nice job groomers!”
Dermot Cole, a writer and journalist, skis without hinderance of electronic devices to record his workout data. However, unlike Frank Soos and me, Dermot does own a smart phone that he carries when he skis to keep tabs on the pulse of the news.
He reported Saturday that he skated the 10 km virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on Friday. He writes:
“Did the 10K course Friday, skating. Took an hour. More or less. Probably more. This is an estimate because I did have a timing device.”
This explains why Dermot misses most of the SCUM workouts as he arrives “more or less” at the appointed time. However, he thoroughly enjoys his workouts without the SCUM nagging him to look up.
Frank Soos, who normally handles the Sonot Kkaazoot bib distribution during normal years, skied his virtual 50 km classical Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on Saturday with a time of 5:07.10. Frank is an award-winning writer and professor emeritus of English and Creative Writing at UAF so he doesn’t rely on electronic gadgets. He wears a watch that stores laps. He doesn’t need anything else than his skis and poles. Saturday he also had a cooler of food and beverages that he situated in the stadium area.
Frank writes:
“I did the first 30 km in 3:04.48. And did the whole thing in 5:07.10. What surprised me was that I did the last 20 at about the same pace as the first 30, and that I was pretty consistent over that distance. I did think I was going pretty slow as I went. At one point on the last White Bear I thought about looking at my watch, but thought, “What’s the point?” I could not go any faster. And in that mix was the 20 minute or so break for food and ski swap.
The trails did seem faster, at least White Bear did until the bottom—0 when I went by the thermometer. But judging from the pole marks not many people are doing this event. Or maybe they’re just waiting for warmer weather. The weather yesterday was perfect for me. The blacks were slow going down, and I had to herring bone very little getting out of there. I like the downs to be slow, the ups to offer good kick.
I did use tar green wax on both pairs of skis, Start binder, and I did still have wax after 30 km on the first pair, whether it would have gotten me another 20 or not I can’t guess. But if you think about the traditional Sonot, I probably could have made it on one pair of skis since the river doesn’t ask much of the wax.”
Congratulations, Frank. You’re the first skier to finish the virtual 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot all in one day. That’s an awesome accomplishment for a 70 year old skier.
To make sure that he was going to ski his virtual 90 km of Sonot Kkaazoot courses over the widest possible trail conditions, Bill Husby skied his virtual 50 km classical Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in three installments for a final official time of 4:37:08 (corrected at 2322 on 3/21/21). Total distance was 49.44 km.
On Thursday, Bill skied the start of the 30 km course: Relay, South Tower, RC bypss, Warm-up, and Black Loops
On Friday, he skied the bottom of ramp, Blue, Outhouse, Relay, Tower, Medivac
Today, Sunday, Bill skied hut to Blue, Outhouse, Relay, Tower, Medivac, WB, MM, Warmup twice.
Congratulations to Bill Husby, who becomes the first skier to classical ski all three virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses. This week he skied the 10 km course twice, the 30 km course yesterday, and today he finished the 50 km. Bill skied the Sonot loops so many times that he mistakenly added the wrong 30 km loop to his earlier calculations for his virtual 50 km. However, his official corrected time and documentation are now shown above.
Now that he has classical skied the 90 km of virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses, he should skate ski all three courses this week.
Sonot Kkaazoot 