Mike Schmoker and Chris Puchner carbo load and taper for World Masters–photo by Margaret Mannix
The twice postponed Frank Soos Distance Race #3 Unpleasantries is Saturday, 8 March 2025. Unless you are part of the SCUM travel team in Klosters, participating in Masters World Cup, you should be skiing the Unpleasantries 30 km event.
Fairbanks skiers enjoying the trails in Switzerland–photo by Mike Schmoker
Today Colin had groomed the Black loops so we skied them easily in preparation for tomorrow’s 30 km challenge. However, some of the SCUM won’t be participating in Unpleasantries so they did an extra ascent of the Black Funk today.
David slogs up Black Funk as his kick wax doesn’t work
Bill leads Bernardo up Black Funk
Some SCUM failed to show up today at all:
Where’s Dan, who hammered the inverted double omega yesterday? —photo by Bill Husby
So, enjoy the beautifully groomed White Bear trails tomorrow as we honor our friend and primordial SCUM, Frank Soos. It’ll be >3.5 hours of unalloyed pleasure.
Who wouldn’t want to help out Sonot Kkaazoot race organizer, Bad Bob Baker who has been involved in timing virtually all the major NSCF races this season?
Here’s how:
We need 10 timers for the Sonot Kkaazoot on Saturday, 21 March. Volunteers can work for all or part of the day with the busiest time when the 10 km racers are finishing. Claire Ferree, head timer for the Sonot Kkaazoot will train everyone and Gina Chythlook will have hot beverages and tasty treats to keep you fueled while you work. It’s much warmer now being a timer at Birch Hill than it was during the first three decades of the Sonot Kkaazoot, when the start and finish was on the Chena River.
Please send an email to me at contact@sonotkkaazoot.org if you can help out. We’ll try to work around your availability on race day.
Wolfman shredding snow down the Black Cross–all photos and videos by Bill Husby
There was at least three inches of new snow atop the firm pistenbully groomed black trails so it was a good day to ski all the downhills. There was no sun this morning, so we saw no shadows.
No guts, no glory. Bernardo and Greg (below) are “dusted with the snow of shame” from the Black Funk and Competition downhills (yeah, Black Funk is supposed to be skied uphill, but the trails needed packing and Bill is a groomer, so we went down then up the Black Funk).
Bernardo and Greg dusted with the snow of shame
Latest SCUM to be “dusted with the snow of shame”–photo by Bill Husby on 2/5/25
Bill had so much fun packing the trails and setting tracks with his skis, he swapped hats and decided to pack the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails using one of their machines:
He saw lots of animal tracks while traveling down the sunlit Cliffside trail. Could some of them belong to a groundhog?
At least on the Cliffside trail, the sun was out, so a groundhog could see his shadow.
With the 4 to 5 inches of new snow on the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails since they were last groomed, I think the ice storm remnants will be well buried before the Gingersnap Special, the Frank Soos Distance Race #2 scheduled for Sunday, 9 February 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Homemade gingersnaps (Frank’s favorite) will be available if you ski either race or volunteer to help out.
Scroll up to: https://sonotkkaazoot.org/ and you’ll find the URL to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks Zone 4 registration system. Early registration through 28 February is your best deal.
Silverback Dermot and Silverback Wolfman JACKson–photos by Joanna Fox
Wolfman JACKson is emulating Dermot lately when it comes to dressing for SCUM workouts. The Silverback twins, shown above, had dermotized so that they wouldn’t get cold waiting for the slower SCUM.
SCUM enjoying Bill’s PistenBully groomed White Bear trails
Travis Kulp had groomed the White Bear and Moilanen Meadows with the PistenBully Friday night and with the 2025 U.S. National XC Ski Championships taking place in Anchorage this weekend, we had the awesome trails virtually to ourselves on Sunday.
Dan admiring the corduroy on Moilanen Meadows
Some SCUM take the path less traveled around corners like Dan Johnson, above.
It was a treat to have firm, fast tracks set by the PistenBully and allowed to set up overnight without having to be racing.
On the first day of 2025, we had much to celebrate. Bill Husby, SCUM groomer and classical skier par excellence, was back from his medical tests and consultations in Seattle. We missed his spirit and his quality grooming. In his honor, one of the other groomers had packed and tracked the North and South Classical only trails yesterday.
So after skiing the Tower and Medevac on firm PistenBully tracks, we headed out the White Bear to the helicopter trails on Fort Wainwright off the Sonot Connector. With 46 inches of snow this winter at the airport. where the snow depth currently is 22 inches, we are not suffering from the snow drought that Anchorage currently has. Birch Hill has received more snow and retained more of what has fallen than the airport so even though the Blackhawk trail had been packed and groomed several times this winter, the tracks and pole line was still pretty soft.
Bill, Dan, and Don on the Blackhawk trail–photos by Joanna Fox
Being a wily skier, Bill chose not to lead us on the Blackhawk trail. Instead, Mike Mathers was voted that honor. Former firefighter, Mike was so much faster than the rest of the SCUM that we only saw the evidence of his headfirst tumble: the divot in the snow at the side of the trail and his snow-covered hat:
Mike Mathers after skiing Blackhawk trail and waitng for the slower SCUM to emerge from the trails
Skiing the winding singletrack through the Blackhawk trail
It was a magical ski, and we enjoyed the sunrise in route:
Eight of the SCUM on the fifth day of Christmas in front of LOL ornament #8–all photos by Joanna Fox
On the fifth day of Christmas, some the SCUM were a little weary having skied 100 minus their age in kilometers on Saturday, or the age of her oldest child in kilometers. So, we skied slowly in search of the three LOL ornaments we hadn’t located.
With a hint provided by Byron, who is married to a LOL, we started out in search of #8 and quickly found it. Although a huge ornament, which Joanna dubbed the “disco ball”, we’ve skied by multiple times without seeing it because of its golden color:
Close up of LOL ornament #8, the disco ball
Ornament #3 was more challenging because the trail on which it is located has only been skier groomed since December snowstorms. Because most of the SCUM remember skiing regularly on skier-groomed trails, we headed out.
SCUM in front of LOL ornament #3
Once we found ornament #3, Dermot decided to blaze a new trail out of the woods and made it back to groomed trails before any of the rest of us who kept on the “skier groomed trail.”
On Christmas, Eric Troyer, who joins the SCUM very irregularly, had spotted the last remaining ornament that the regular SCUM needed to find, so we headed out to where he had seen it. Finding the red LOL ornament #4, we had found our dozen ornaments.
Bright red LOL ornament #4 finally located after being skied by numerous times
Since Eric had helped us out, we took him out to LOL ornament #11 that he hadn’t found:
Eric captures LOL ornament #11 that was on a trail that he didn’t check on Christmas ski
The SCUM found all 12 LOL ornaments and noticed that some of their candy canes still remain on trees, free for the taking.
Happy New Year! May you find good health and great friends on the trails next year.
Sonot Kkaazoot 