We need a couple of folks to help out at the Awards Banquet on Saturday from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at Birch Hill Recreation Area.
Please contact me at: contact@sonotkkaazoot.org if you can help the Baker family out on this matter.
In 2022, to avoid using the unpredictably frozen Chena River, Sonot Kkaazoot organizer, Bad Bob Baker initiated three new Sonot Kkaazoot courses. The “all-Birch Hill” 50-km course has 1,689 m of total climb. For comparison: the Birkie Skate Trail has a total climb of 1,398 m.
The last 20 kilometers of the Sonot Kkaazoot are particularly challenging as a skier faces the Sonot Connector (a 116 m long A climb) with 37 km of skiing already on one’s legs. That climb is followed closely by the Hilltop (33 m A climb) and Heartrate Hill (65 m A climb) as the skier skis White Bear for the second time.
Don’t worry, there’s a feed station at Sonot Junction so you’ll be able to rehydrate at the top of the Sonot Connector and again after you descend from the top of Heartrate Hill.
However, the SCUM might be in the market for e-skis by that point. Last year, after 2 years of virtual Sonot Kkaazoot efforts, none of the SCUM were able to complete the new 50 km Sonot course. Fighting accelerating carcass and engine deterioration, the SCUM won’t be racing the clock but rather the calendar. Can skiers over 70 years old with both mental and physical impairments still finish the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot? Stay tuned. Several have registered to try again. They’ll be out at Birch Hill next week volunteering at the Junior National Championships.
Most of the winter the SCUM meet on Sundays at Birch Hill. However, on Sunday, 5 March 2023, many of them competed the Skiathon at UAF, which was a mass start event this year. It was slow going on the graveyard loop for non-lightweight SCUM, but fun was had by all. From entry fees and donations, $1,734 was raised for UAF trails.
By definition, SCUM rises to the top, but nowhere does being a SCUM signify possessing speed. Thus, during SCUM workouts, Mom is frequently left far behind, and she subsequently takes unplanned diversions to amuse herself. So today, Bill Husby, decided that I needed to carry an Apple AirTag so that overachieving SCUM could come back and find me. (Aside: 25 years ago, when the SCUM were much younger, Sgt. SCUM, aka Mark Haas, would ski back and find all the lagging SCUM without any electronic gadgets. FWW Army band members were better at tracking than former Lathrop High School teachers, apparently.)
However, out the South Birch Hill Parking Lot, I had multiple Rosie Brennan moments where my left ski was not attached to my left boot.
Fortunately, after I had inserted my ski boot to binding a dozen times without successful attachment, Dermot came to my rescue. Seven minutes later and with cold fingers and thumbs, we headed up the stadium ramp without a lot of glide.
We started out on the newly groomed and tracked trails by skiing the Tower, Medevac, Blue and Outhouse. At the Sunnyside cutoff, Mom and Dermot decided that Sunnyside would be much more enjoyable since the sun was out today, unobstructed by clouds. Since we were headed downhill the extra inch of snow on the trails wouldn’t be a problem.
However, eventually the air tag told Bill that we weren’t following them:
The SCUM caught us as we had decided to go down Cliffside and up the Sonot Connector. Dan and Bill wanted to turn back at the Cliffside gate because Dan’s feet were getting cold and Bill said Sonot Connector wouldn’t be groomed until Friday. When Dermot and I pointed out that it WAS Friday, the SCUM followed us down Cliffside and up the Sonot Connector, where apparently, Bill was pinging the AirTag:
However, I couldn’t hear the pinging because Dermot serenades everyone around him when he skis with a cacophony of groans, moans, and other animal sounds:
Dan, Tim, and Bill waited for us in the sun at the road crossing at the top of the Sonot Connector, wondering why I hadn’t heard the pinging. We finished off the incoming White Bear, where Doyon Utilities had removed a number of trees touching the power lines recently. Much more daylight was seen on the last km of the White Bear as a result. Finishing on the Warmup Loop, Bill and Dan were humored by their IT success before they headed off for the Skiathon on Sunday.
Dermot and I won’t be at the Skiathon as we need to do a several hour skate workout as we prepare for the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot. We’ve already signed up at the early registration rate, which ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.
The collaboration between the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks and Fort Wainwright has increased the number and variety of groomed Nordic ski trails available to both civilians and military personnel in the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Through all 36 years of the Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot, Fort Wainwright has been a key sponsor because the race has involved trails on military land.
Recently, Bad Bob Baker, Sonot Kkaazoot race originator and current organizer was interviewed by U.S. Army Garrison Alaska Commander Col. Nate Surrey for Fort Wainwright’s monthly Arctic Vibe show. Here’s Bad Bob’s interview as part of the Arctic Vibe: Ready for Spring program.
Fort Wainwright thinks that skiing the Sonot Kkaazoot is a great way to get ready for spring. We definitely agree.
The warmer weather and winds have brought down gobs of snow from trees along the Birch Hill trails. It also brought down a good-sized white spruce on the lower section of the N40 trail.
Here are the SCUM heroes that moved it off the trail. Doing a good deed is easy when you’re still fatigued from the 30 km Frank Soos Distance Race on Sunday.
Sunday’s Frank Soos Distance Race #3, The Unpleasantry turned out to be a tough tour on trails that were in immaculate condition at 9:00 a.m. before the 2 deg F snow started falling. The 70-year-old SCUM wave started at 10:00 a.m. when the PistenBully corduroy was still visible beneath the fluffy half inch of new snow. The tracks were ghastly slow so the three skiers on classical skis were skiing in the skate platform as were those of us who arrived with skate gear. The snow was absolutely lovely, but we didn’t see any lynx or moose tracks to distract us from our 3-lap tour of the White Cub and White Bear loops. Our tour took the “kid” among us 3:23:44.6, a full 1:34.16 behind FXC coach Jesse Wilkins. I had the opportunity to enjoy almost an hour more time on the White Bear than this “wannabe 70-year-old SCUM”.
A number of skiers didn’t start or finish because of illness, equipment failures, or better judgement than those of us who prevailed. A huge thanks to Chris Puchner, Pam Laker, Anna Sorensen and all the other volunteers who hung in there with smiles and encouragement. We really appreciated you.
Here are the results by distance:
Kent Karns, far left, kneeling, put on a bib and skied 10 km today for his second time on skis this season. Gern, in orange cap, helped Bill Husby set up the course, and then skied with his backcountry skis (the only reason that Dermot and I finished ahead of him–Gern was faster on the uphills, we had far more glide on the downhills and graduals). Tom Helmers, standing in back, far right, groomed fantastic tracks and trails. What a day!
From Frank’s essay “Why Is It That I Do This?”
I cannot stop myself from getting out and living through my body. There is always the recognition, cutting through the satisfaction of doing well or the disappointment of doing poorly, having pushed myself to my limit or beyond it, that after a little rest I will come to see I’ll do it again.
Why is it, then, that I do this? I still can’t say–pleasure comes in many forms, many of them irrational–but I am sure I can do nothing other than hope to continue, getting slower and slower until finally I blink out.
Comment from groomer Bill Husby, “Today’s ski was definitely a change of pace ski. Burned more energy climbing out of snowbanks after crashing than I did skiing today (6+ falls).”
When the trail groomer takes off his skis and walks the downhills that he groomed, you realize that you might have made a mistake.
Snow on Dermot’s vest isn’t from any of his tumbles on the North Classics. However, he chose to bail out of the South Classics and do the Sonot Connector to Sunnyside instead.
However, we all made it back to our cars intact, although some of the snow from the trails was still on our ski gear.
The SCUM skiers were too focused on their workouts so were unable to find all 12 of the LOL Christmas ornaments. However, we did find 8 while skiing:
Bill Husby saw LOL ornament #12 on Little Bird while grooming, but we never got out there on skis, so we failed to nab that one, too. We thank the LOL for this fun addition to our December skiing and an excuse to take a rest break–a SCUM necessity.
Sonot Kkaazoot 