At the 35th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot, on the new 50 km course that has a total climb of 1,689 m, no SCUM finished the designated course for the first time in 25 years. Several of the SCUM are seriously geographically challenged, and one SCUM skied 50 km of the Sonot Kkaazoot trails but not as Bad Bob designed the course. A couple of SCUM attempted the 50 km course and were unable to finish it. Seeing as SCUM are rapidly getting older and feebler, we figure that 2023 is going to be our best chance to redeem ourselves.
Although one SCUM was out skiing as early as October 14,
most of us waited until October 23rd, to enjoy our first on snow ski as we posted earlier. The snow from this first major storm created a good base on Birch Hill’s well-maintained trails, but the snow cover was thin, and with use by the Nanooks, high school teams, FXC, and recreational skiers, conditions were challenging for 70-year-old SCUM with their various bionic joints.
Bill Husby discovered that the Noyes Slough provided a great venue for skate skiing so the SCUM practiced their V2 and ski jumping techniques, between and over the beaver dams:
Once FXC Masters workouts began, the SCUM realized that we needed hill workouts so Sunnyside and Cliffside trails called us:
Skiing down to Fort Wainwright was the fun part, and we discovered that they are not snowmaking yet on the alpine hill:
but the sun came out, so we had vistas to gaze at while we climbed up Cliffside:
and we celebrated when we made it to the Cliffside gate:
From there, the workout became more of a struggle, and Bernardo skied ahead leaving the rest of us to claw our way back up Sunnyside. We were able to see our little hamlet at Powerline cutoff on our return whereas it had been in the clouds on our descent. Mike took some photos on Sunnyside but I think that they are too embarrassing to share.
We managed to ski almost 10 km with 261 m of climb. This represents 15% of the climb and 20% of the distance of the Sonot Kkaazoot—our first small ski toward our goal of finishing the 50 km course on March 25, 2023. However, thanks to the trail groomers, we were skiing on a couple of inches of packed snow in November at temperatures in the mid 20s. It was heavenly even though we were wiped afterwards.
I’ve made my trail donation and received a thank you letter from Chris Puchner, NSCF president, who is working to strengthen his new bionic knee. If you haven’t already, please donate to the NSCF trails fund, because we have fantastic early skiing thanks to our groomers:
Sonot Kkaazoot 