Sonot Kkaazoot skiers at 20 km turnaround

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

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All photos by Eric Troyer

Sonot Kkaazoot 20 km skiers at turnaround point with Alaska Nanooks, Isaac and Sarissa Lammers shoveling snow onto trail

For non-Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks members, here is the URL to the full-resolution version of all 226 of Eric’s photos.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzjlmfEIEdZ7SnRPcnA2XzhGMVU&usp=sharing

Feel free to download any that you like. If you do, please consider donating to the Birch Hill Trail Fund. Thank you.

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/

20 km Sonot Kkaazoot skiers

Posted on March 31, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Photos by Chris Broda and Johnna Underwood

Bib pick-up and Sonot Kkaazoot start

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

All photos by Dan Johnson

40 and 50 km skiers on Ski Road trail

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

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All photos by Eric Troyer

Alaska Dispatch News on Galena ski team

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Here’s the URL to Dermot Cole’s column in the Alaska Dispatch News, “In Galena, Alaska, it takes a village (and a mayor) to train a ski team”

http://www.adn.com/article/20160329/galena-it-takes-village-and-mayor-train-ski-team

The 20 km race wasn’t enough for the Galena ski team, so they went up to Birch Hill in the afternoon.

Oldest 2016 Sonot Kkaazoot 50 km finisher

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

If you thought trail conditions were a little challenging on Saturday, here’s a finish line photo of Alan Delamere, the oldest finisher of the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot and woodel winner for the men’s M10 age category (80 and over).

Alan edged out Dermot Cole, 18 years younger and not wearing a lycra speed suit. The Delamere family in the 2016 Sonot Kkaazoot included Alan, son Peter (top skier in Men’s M4 category for the 50 km), and granddaughter Hannah (top skier in U12 girls in the 20 km event).

As Sharon Baker (who co-founded and organized the Sonot Kkaazoot for many years with her husband, Bad Bob) said at the Sonot Kkaazoot awards ceremony, Alan is our role model and why we HAVE to keep skiing the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot.

Congratulations, Alan!

Dermot & Alan at Sonot 50 finish

Dermot Cole (left) and Alan Delamere (right) finishing the 50 km Sonot —photo by Susie Frei

2016 Sonot Kkaazoot 20 km video clip

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

About a km into the 20 km Sonot Kkaazoot, skiers were sliding their feet across water as well as snow in these two video clips taken by Chris Broda:

Kudos to out-of-town youth ski teams

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

The 2016 Sonot Kkaazoot ski conditions required ski experiences that most local skiers haven’t had.

The soft slushy snow conditions are more common to the Anchorage bowl area so the skiers from Dimond and West Anchorage High Schools that Kyle Whisenhant brought to the Sonot Kkaazoot had an advantage there.

Here is a team shot taken by Kyle of his team on the Cushman Street bridge: Dimond High team at Sonot Start

Jon Korta, ski coach (and mayor) of Galena, has some first hand experience dealing with flooding when his Yukon River community was inundated during a rapid break-up in spring 2013. He brought a large team from Galena, who skied through water as well as over snow.

photo by Dan Johnson

Thank you for coming to Fairbanks and to the 2016 Sonot Kkaazoot. We hope that you will return for our 30th annual Sonot Kkaazoot in 2017.

SCUM also rises on Easter Sunday

Posted on March 27, 2016 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Easter Sunday for the Sonot Kkaazoot organizers felt like a resurrection after we watched winter melt away during our event Saturday that from start to finish took barely 6 hours. Seeing as none of us wanted to ski out onto the Chena River today, we decided to examine the largest south facing slope whose melting snow helped feed the river flow as yesterday unfolded. The Sonot Connector is south facing and by mid afternoon it was a combination of deep slush and bare ground. This morning, it was icy and the trail rattled beneath our skis. Don missed one of the curves and face planted a foot shy of a tree:

Don was fine and we progressed downhill to where the Sonot Connector joins the Fort Wainwright alpine hill. A slush pond had formed there and Poles (the Eddie Haskell of the SCUM) tried to splash those of us nearby and ended up cooling off in the slush pond.

Poles down on Easter off Sonot Connector