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’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.