Don Pendergrast skied his 10 km classical virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot today in an official time of 52:52.
Don writes:
“After being away for a week I skied the 10K classic style today, Sunday, March 21.
I report a slightly different time to account for taking poles, gloves off, starting GPS on phone, fumbling around to put the phone in the pocket, reversing all and finally starting, repeating all at the finish.
I carefully counted One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi . . . For a total of 52 Mississippi seconds. I subtracted the fumbling time from my skiing time.”
We appreciate Don’s scientiic approach to calculating his official time.
Donovan Granger became the first skier to skate the virtual 30 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot today in 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Donovan writes:
“It was another beautiful day in paradise, and a stellar day for a Tour deBirch under the post equinox mid day sun! Finished the 30 k course and the tracking device indicated I was a little shy of the mark,so I did another stadium lap with a sidewinder groomer ramp addition. Big fun under the Equinox sun!”
Donovan was an overachiever on his virtual 30 km Sonot so I’m expecting a virtual 50 km report from him later. All skiers are reporting the 30 km course to be somewhat short.
Congratulations, right now Donovan is the fastest virtual 30 km Sonot Kkaazoot skier by over 10 minutes.
Joanna Fox had a long “to do” list before a week long regional swim meet trip with her son to Phoenix during the traditional Sonot week. Thus, she told the remedial SCUM that she wouldn’t be doing the virtual Sonot Kkaazoot. However, when this weekend turned out to be lovely weather, it didn’t take much arm twisting to get her to leisurely ski with the SCUM mom on Saturday and then pace the SCUM on Sunday.
Joanna’s official 30 km classical virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot time was 3:11.
She wrote:
“Today I actually PR’d on a total of 8 sections of the route, including Outhouse, which I’m finding hard to believe given I stopped twice, including one long stop to take off my mittens and move my handwarmers to the thumbs. I did stay in the tracks on the downhills (which often I don’t), so that must have helped. I was also feeling really good during that section. I also got a PR yesterday on the North Forty A-Climb, which I think is the last one coming out of the Blacks.”
Here is the documentation for Joanna’s virtual 30 km classical ski installment from Saturday:
And from Sunday:
Congratulations, Joanna. You were definitely faster on Sunday when you weren’t trying to keep me company.
This morning, SCUMs Dan Johnson and Robert Hannon paced their mom (and coach) as she completed her 50 km virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on classical skis in two installments. In doing so, Susan Sugai keeps her streak of completing all “50 km” Sonot Kkaazoot intact.
On Saturday, she skied the 30 km course, where Joanna Fox kept her company for the first 11 km as they chatted and noticed that the black loops were enjoyable at their leisurely pace. After the blue loop, Joanna called it a day and took the requisite selfie of us at that point.
Then SCUM mom had to get to work and push through on the remaining trails of the 30 km course. Thanks to the beautiful tracks on the White Bear and Moilanen Meadows (yes, she made an additional donation to the trails fund, NSCF trails fund), her kickwax held up even though the temperature increased from 1 at the start to 15 deg F at the finish. Temperatures in the black loops were well below zero.
Here is the documentation for the 30 km course (click on figure to enlarge map):
On Sunday, Dan Johnson and Robert Hannon skied the 20 km loop with Joanna and Susan. Susan wrote: “After we got onto the White Bear, the guys started chasing Joanna who had left us after the Outhouse and Relay loops. However, catching a glimpse of Dan or Robert at times motivated me to keep moving faster than I would on my own. My pace for the 20 km was much faster than for the 30 km and at a lower heart rate. Tracks were much faster so I doublepoled or tucked a lot more than Saturday.”
While skiing up the penultimate major climb in Moilanen Meadows, a gray and white bird larger than a kestral dove right over my head. I’ve since learned from Mark Ross, ADF&G bird biologist, that it was likely a goshawk. I viewed the sighting as a good omen.
Illustration by Mark Ross, who notes that an adult goshawk has red-orange eyes–very appropriate for the Sonot Kkaazoot
Here’s the data for the second installment:
Thus, 71 year old Susan Sugai skied her classical 50 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot in an official time of 5:57:41. This leaves only the 30 km Sonot to do over Sonot weekend when she hopes snow temperatures will increase enough to make skate skiing (her preferred technique) feasible for her aging carcass and bionic knees.
The SCUM mother and Sonot blogger is looking forward to the 35th annual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 2022, when she hopes there will be timers, 50 km of perfectly groomed trails, feed stations with music and enthusiastic supporters of springtime skiing, and handmade woodels for age class winners.
Jerome Jackson completed his 30 km classical virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot today in 3:05:26.
Jerome writes:
“Pine cone almost killed me.”
Congratulations, JJ. I understand the trail hazard today as the tracks were much faster than yesterday but the winds have brought down ample spruce cones and snow from the trailside trees.
Taking advantage of the afternoon sunshine and warmth together with the newly set tracks on White Bear, Bill Husby moves into the lead on the 30 km classical version of the Denali State Bank Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot.
The powerline poser in black
Bill writes:
“Started down the White Bear Access with plans to complete my 3rd leg of a three day 30 Sonot. The White Bear/MM were perfect (thanks to Tom). As I was completing the Warm Up I decided to continue on and ski the entire 30K course. Today’s trail conditions were definitely faster than Thursday and Friday’s cold gritty snow. So, today’s 30K no rest, no water, no feed time was 2:41:38.
Oh yes, it was a perfect day for Skins with the adjustable bindings set at 0.
See you tomorrow.”
Yes, the remedial SCUM will see Bill on Sunday as we complete our virtual Sonot Kkaazoot on the installment plan.
After skiing the virtual 10 km Sonot Kkaazoot twice, Byron Brode completed his classical virtual 30 km today. He writes:
“Beautiful sunny day. The dusting of snow made the trails look covered in jewels, squeaky slow jewels to start. You’re missing out if you not on these trails. My longest ski of the season and I can feel it.”
So Byron Broda becomes our second finisher for the classical virtual 30 km Sonot Kkaazoot with an official time of 3:18. Congratulations on the great effort.
Jerome Jackson like Bill, Byron, and Carl decided to ski the 10 km Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot a second time.
He writes: “Had to take grandkids to birch tonight. So why not give it another go?”
So Jerome Jackson’s official time for the classical Denali State Bank virtual 10 km Sonot Kkaazoot time is 59:42. Congratulations! For Jerome, going solo was faster than chasing SCUM.
Carl Hemming improved upon his 10 km classical virtual Sonot Kkaazoot that he did on Wednesday (not Sunday when he was in Anchorage or Talkeetna).
He wrote: “Conditions were faster today than on Sunday so this may account for a slightly faster time. I started at 2 so it may have been 10 degrees warmer. The time on my watch was 1:01.14; the time on the phone included removing phone from fanny pack removing poles and gloves and finding the right button to push, which is quite a big deal for someone approaching 70 yo. This process occured at both start and finish.”
So Carl Hemming’s official classical 10 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot is 1:01.14 .
The Sonot Kkaazoot reporting guru (and Carl’s coach) won’t take any additional 10 km results from Carl unless he skate skis. He needs to ski the 30 or 50 km virtual Sonot next if he doesn’t want to be reminded of his underachievement for the next 20 years.
It looks like Carl was the fastest bombing down the Tower loop and White Bear access. Congratulations on your improved time.
Sonot Kkaazoot 