With shorter days and colder temperatures, we will start our weekday workouts at 10:30 a.m. beginning this week. This will allow us to sign up for FXC Masters Yoga with Amy Kulp o Fridays at 9:15 a.m.
In spite of over an inch of rain in the 24 hours preceding our Friday workout on the FWW alpine hill, 11 hearty souls showed up to wish Dan Johnson a happy birthday. However, the birthday boy had other plans and ended up glamping on the Kesugi Ken with his grandkids.
It’s been an extremely wet September, but NOAA NWS is predicting a warmer and drier than normal October thanks to the super El Niño. Join us at Birch Hill at 10 a.m. on Fridays, regardless of weather.
Although the Fort Wainwright alpine hill mowing was being finished while we descended the chairlift trail for our first ascent, we decided only to do one ascent before returning to our cars via the Cliffside, Sunnyside, and Outhouse trails.
Ascending Sunnyside, we encountered a broken tree that was a potential tripping hazard on the trail.
However, through cooperation between a retired Alaska Department of Transportation engineer and a retired Alaska Department of Fish & Game biologist, the tripping hazard minimized.
Meanwhile, Bill and Robert, were taking a shortcut trail, seen here:
Thus, our long time Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks trail groomer wasn’t available to oversee our efforts. So Bernardo, a retired Fairbanks North Star Borough lands manager (shown wearing a Chena River Run t-shirt in the above photos) supervised this minor “add on” to our Friday workout.
SCUM were out training yesterday in the rain, what was your excuse?
With mostly sunny skies, a gentle 3 mph breeze, and temperatures in the high 60s, the SCUM were able to finish their 4 ascents of the FWW alpine hill before the 4th of July. In fact, six of them did 4 ascents today, one did 5 ascents. All of the SCUM had done 4 ascents cumulatively by the end of today. The three dogs joining us did multiple ascents for each of ours.
Congratulations to the SCUM who did four or more ascents in one outing: Jeff Conn, Pam Laker, Patricia Baer, Eric Buetow, Robert Hannon, Susan Sugai, Dave Prusak, Carl Hemming, and Dan Johnson. Today’s workout involved 685 m of elevation gain and 3.7 km of uphill ski walking. The chairlift trail has an average of 19% slope.
As Robert Hannon pointed out, we used to be able to finish 4 ascents in less than 2 hours but that was back when we were younger (in our 60s, not 70s). Today it was nice to not have to deal with wildfire smoke or mosquitoes.
Years ago, Bill Husby issued a challenge for the SCUM to do 4 FWW alpine hill ascents before the 4th of July. Today in the morning sunshine, there was some debate whether the 4 ascents had to be done in one day, or if they could be done over a period of time with breaks in between.
Jeff Conn and Pam Laker ski walked 4 ascents today, unfazed by the heat and mosquitoes. Pam, who had been sick this week, was just happy to be out and breathing:
The rest of us did 2 or 3 ascents with crane watching and stone structure building as necessary distractions.
Today was Dan Johnson’s and Carl Hemming’s first SCUM workout of the dryland season. Dan has been out because of a back injury while Carl had been in Reno getting altitude training after the Sonot Kkaazoot. Patricia Baer also joined us for the first time.
Everyone’s goal today was different, but both Patricia and Carl did three ascents of the FWW chairlift trail on their first SCUM workout. Patricia was out in front of everyone while Carl was behind everyone who bailed at less than 3 ascents.
We waited for Carl and called him on his cell phone. When we got no answer, we decided he was enjoying his tech free time on the FWW alpine hill. After lunch, I checked in with Carl and he had indeed finished his third ascent successfully.
Today’s sunshine brought out two SCUM who had been MIA because of 1) side effects of cancer treatment and 2) a persistent heel injury. Although both were still suffering from their ailments, they joined us today with the understanding that they could turn back at any time. However, after ascending the Tower Direct trail and Beacon Road to the FWW alpine hill, everyone except Joanna decided to get away from the dusty road and play among the lupines on the FWW alpine hill.
We took the more gradual and scenic route to the bottom of the chair lift where the mounds of remnant manmade snow was down to just two. The iron oxides from the local groundwater had been concentrated as the snow melted leaving a rusty surface for Sarah to tuck on. Once we got to the bottom of the ski hill, everyone opted to ski walk up the chairlift trail and everyone made it to the top.
The “no Y” SCUM decided to do a second ascent at a leisurely pace (set by the elderly Mom) so we got a chance to encourage our male counterparts as they were well on their way to conquering their first (or second) ascent of the season.
The sun and breeze kept the mosquitoes away from us on the FWW alpine hill but they found us once we returned to our cars in the south Birch Hill lot. However, it had been a fantastic morning and workout with friends.
A little over a week ago, huge mounds of snow remained on the Fort Wainwright alpine hill, but pasque flowers were blooming as we ski walked on the eastern snowgun trail around the island of trees to avoid the muddy sections of the chairlift trail.
By Friday, 29 May, we were able to ski walk the chairlift trail without getting our feet wet. Today we discovered that the Sunnyside, Cliffside, and Sonot Connector trails were all dry and lupines were in full bloom on the Sunnyside.
So training options are now fully open. On Tuesdays at 10 a.m., we’ll meet at the Ester Dome bike trails parking lot to ski walk up the dome with various turnaround points.
On Friday, we’ll meet at Birch Hill at 10 a.m. and head over to the FWW alpine hill and ski walk the chairlift trail in preparation for the Bill Husby challenge of 4 ascents before the 4th of July. If you don’t like doing the same trail more than once, you can take the Cliffside and Sunnyside trails back.
Be forewarned, it’s now officially summertime. You’ll need to wear bug dope as the mosquitoes are out. Right now they are still the big and slow ones, but the smaller, faster ones will soon join them. Thanks to recent rains, the birch pollen levels have decreased significantly at Birch Hill.
It was a sunny day, four days after the last grooming at Birch Hill, but by starting at 9 a.m., the SCUM were able to ski over half of the White Bear with minimal difficulties. Our pole baskets were too small for the trails in many places, but high speed snowplowing still allowed injured SCUM to safely get down the downhills and the uphills were faster than our skills would normally dictate.
Kent, who had been injured all winter, was leading the pack.
En route to Beacon Cutoff, we encountered a minor water hazard at the Sonot Connector:
The photo above shows those of us who skied the White Bear in the normal direction until Dermot met us at Beacon Cutoff having skied White Bear backwards in hopes of finding us.
We turned back at Beacon and found the downhills exciting with the mix of icy and slushy surfaces. However, we all stayed upright, until the Warmup Loop, when our most skilled skier discovered he hadn’t fallen enough to know how to get back up. Fortunately, our photographer wasn’t quick enough to catch him on the snow.
Even with the snow enhancement on Wednesday, the trail under the Birch Hill Recreation Building was reduced to an isthmus this morning:
but was a wonderful way to end an exciting, but low effort ski in the sunshine.
This winter, my first ski was the FXC Masters power lunch workout on November 3, 2025 so if today is my last ski, it’s been a 174 day season, or almost 25 weeks. A huge thank you to all the groomers and to the skiers who contributed to the NSCF trail grooming fund. You made the coldest winter in recent history fun for even the oldest skiers on the trails.
