It’s Bad Bob’s Birthday and he got to race the 15km free on a beautiful day, sunny and 38 degrees with fast snow.
Owen had the race of the day collecting a silver medal in the 10km classic M11, Sharon placed 5th in the M8 15km free, Bad Bob placed 27th in the M8 15km free, Bruce finished his 15km free in the M9 while Chris completed his M9 classic.
Fun day for all..
From Bad Bob:
“. . all of us Fairbanksans skied the race course today. After a major snow storm yesterday and a 5 hour bus ride from Venice that normally take 2 1/2 hours, we all arrived safely. 37 degrees and fast snow greeted us on our first ski outing. 1st race happens Saturday.”
Hopefully, Bad Bob, Sharon, Bruce, Owen, and Chris will send us updates when they have a free moment.
With temperatures at Birch Hill this morning still below 0 deg F, the SCUM showed up for their workout with classical skis. Our aging bodies were still recovering from the Frank Soos Distance Race #2 (10 and 20 km freestyle) that followed 6 weeks of extremely cold conditions that precluded geezers from skate skiing. Although the temperature in the Birch HIll stadium was 5 deg on race day, for the SCUM, whose technique isn’t terribly efficient, skating 20 km was challenging, and we felt the hurt during and after the race.
So today after skiing the firm hard tracks on the Flat Black trails, we decided to give ourselves a break and have an adventure for the rest of our workout. We skied out White Cub and White Bear to the Sonot Cutoff and then onto the Northside Classical trails. We skied Aurora Run and then skied Classical Bear backwards:
Fun is an important aspect of training. Our adventure was fun and only one SCUM acquired the snow of shame on the single track, whereas two of us fell on the groomed trails.
After roughly 6 weeks where temperatures were below the -15 deg F cutoff for FXC Masters classes, temperatures warmed up for the start of Kristen Rozell’s 19th annual Sonot Kkaazoot Training Class. By the low number of entrants in the 20 km Frank Soos Distance Race #2 and the hurting bodies resting during the race, the extended cold spell has taken a toll on skier training. If you need motivation to get back into the groove, Kristen’s class still has 8 slots open and 8 weeks of training remaining. The class meets Tuesdays from 5:45 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.
Here is the URL to the registration site:
Kristen’s class will definitely prepare you to successfully ski the 30 or 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot.
After six weeks of classical skiing with minimal glide while temperatures and newly fallen snow remained bitterly cold, skiers have been given roughly 10 days to train for the 10 and 20 km Frank Soos Distance Race #2. You can read specifics of this event and register here:
https://www.nscfairbanks.org/programs/races/distance-series/distance-series-2/
https://zone4.ca/event/2025/ZqeYmP/
The Gingersnap Special involves many of the intermediate blue loops at Birch Hill Recreation Area so the SCUM wanted to see if they could leisurely skate 10 km today. However, the dramatic warm up in temperatures came with intense winds leaving the trails littered with debris and snow and ice globules dropped from the trees. So the SCUM had to work a little harder than planned and some of us fell when our skis encountered materials not compatible with our glide waxes.
After finishing our tour of the 10 km race course today, we knew that we’d be able to ski 20 km on Saturday when the trails will have newly laid corduroy on them. Join us in honoring our friend, Frank, whose spirit will be accompanying us. We need this 20 km test. The 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot is just 2 months away.
Skiing with glide and on skate skis for the first time since 2 December 2025, meant that the SCUM felt like it was October. It was +35 deg when we headed out today at 10:30 a.m. This was a 56 deg temperature swing from Wednesday when several of us skied at -21 deg with 1″ of snow in the set tracks.
After skiing South Tower and the Blue loop, we had shed even more clothes:
We could hardly recognize Jerome without his mask and walrus-like “snotsickle”. Shedding layers made all of us look thinner than last week.
Hopefully, the NSCF groomers will be able to work their magic and grind up the snow/ice/debris globules that have fallen onto the trails after this storm ends. After having both of our FXC Masters Ski Power Lunch sessions canceled this week due to cold temperatures, it was a novel treat to be overheating even without chemical hand and toe warmers.
On Sunday, we hope to ski enough kilometers to be prepared for next weekend’s Frank Soos Distance Race #2, the Ginger Snap Special, 10 or 20 km freestyle. This is one of the stepping stones to the Sonot Kkaazoot on 21 March 2026.
After having to brave a half foot of ungroomed powder on the black loops to locate LOL ornament #2, our LAST of the 12, the SCUM decided to shred all the black downhills. In the process we also did some trail maintenance–moving downed trees from the trails. Most of us fell (Greg and Mom, 4 times), but the video below records the best one. Click on the full screen icon on the lower far right of the image to appreciate the moment more fully.
Here are Greg Kahoe’s photos of Bill leading us on our first shedding adventure:
Here is a photo gallery provided by Pam of our fun on the black loops:
Sometimes you have to discard your training plans to have a little fun.
It was -14 deg F when we started and -16 deg F when we finished 2.5 hours later. However, the SCUM persevered and found 3 LOL ornaments. I thought that finished our tally of all 12 LOL ornaments, but it looks like we are still missing one.
The first ornament, LOL ornament #9 was spotted by Bill Husby on a trail that we had all skied multiple times during the holidays without seeing it.
After skiing Sunnyside through deep powder, we returned to our quest for LOL ornaments and Mike Schmoker found LOL #11:
With cold toes and thumbs among his fellow SCUM, Mike spotted LOL ornament #1.
After finding LOL ornament #1, Jerome did some trail breaking through the entire winter’s snowpack to allow us to take a short cut back to the Birch Hill stadium. Even taking this short cut (and the groomer’s ramp instead of the rest of the WB access), we skied over 10 km. Jerome had already skied before we arrived so he probably skied 12 to 15 km.
Unfortunately, it appears that the SCUM missed LOL ornament #2, so maybe we’ll find it on Sunday. Sorry, guys! Mom found out when she added our haul today to our prior tally.
A huge thanks to Pam Laker, who took a break for organizing volunteers and volunteer care for tomorrow’s Town Race, to join us. She took photos when Mom’s thumb wouldn’t stay warm.
Temperatures were almost 20 deg warmer than Sunday, so SCUM skied through 2 inches of ungroomed snow. Bring it on.
Sonot Kkaazoot 