On Friday, March 27, a woman fell through the ice on the Chena River very close to the Sonot Kkaazoot start line in 2018 and most years before then.
Registration for the 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot is closed. One hundred thirty-five skiers are signed up to compete on Saturday. Fifty-nine skiers will head off on their 10 km journey at 10:00 a.m. At 10:15 a.m., 37 skiers doing the 30-km course and 39 doing the 50- km course will start.
Race day bib pick-up is at Rikka’s Roadhouse from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Please join us for the Awards Ceremony and Dinner at 6:00 p.m. upstairs in the main Birch Hill Recreation Building. If you qualify for an overall or age-class award and are unable to attend the awards ceremony, please try to find someone who can pick it up for you.
Results will be posted on the Results tab as soon as they are available. Please notify us if you see any mistakes in names and/or times. Email: contact@sonotkkaazoot.org
Today is your last opportunity to register for the 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot. Please pick up your race bib tonight between 5 and 7 pm upstairs at the main Birch Hill Recreation Building.
Remember tonight is your only opportunity to chance your race distance and all registration ends at 1159 p.m.
As of this morning, 50 skiers are registered for the 10 km event, 68 for the longer distances.
Early bib pick-up will be Thursday, 19 March 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. upstairs in the Birch Hill Recreation Center.
Three reasons you should attend early bib pickup:
You spare yourself (and friends and family members for whom you pick up bibs) the stress of waiting in line on race morning.
Early bib pick-up is the ONLY time that you can change the race event that you are registered in. You may change to a race shorter than you registered for at no-cost. If you want to ski a longer race, you will be responsible for the difference in race entry fee. Bring cash or check for the fee difference when you change your registration. No changes after 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Mark Ross, the artist responsible for this year’s Sonot Kkaazoot poster, will be available at early bib pick-up to sign posters.
Want to be have the best spot to watch skiers finishing the 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot? Volunteer to be part of the Sonot Kkaazoot timing crew.
Head timer Anna Sorensen will train you and you’ll get to work with other key members of the NSCF ski community. Subway, a Sonot Kkaazoot sponsor, will supply sandwiches to fuel timers, while Gina and Margaret will supply sweet goodies. Hot beverages and indoor bathroom facilities will be available.
The unseasonably cold temperatures likely mean that many skiers will not be setting personal records, so we’d really like to have adequate timing volunteers so that Anna can relieve volunteers when additional help arrives.
Email: contact@sonotkkaazoot.org if you are willing to be a part of this essential Sonot Kkaazoot function.
Although it seems that overtraining has been confined to snow shoveling, sandwiched between cold temperatures, the 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot is just a month away. This means that early registration ends this Saturday, 28 February 2026 at 11:59 p.m.
So click on the “register” tab at the top of this page and sign up now. You’ll save some money that you can use for fuel for your snow blower or for yourself, if you are limited to human-powered snow removal.
The 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot is scheduled for Saturday, March 21, 2026!
Thanks to Cyrus Freeman and Alex Morris stepping forward to be race directors for the 39th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot, we will be opening registration in mid-January 2026.
Bad Bob and Sharon Baker are sharing their collective race organization wisdom with these young men so this year’s Sonot Kkaazoot will be great. With our abundant December snowfalls and cold temperatures, this is the motivation we need to get out and train when trails are chilly and glide is less than optimal.
A huge thank you to Cyrus and Alex for stepping forward to continue this spring ski celebration in Fairbanks.
On 29 April 2025, we posted that the current Sonot Kkaazoot director was stepping down after 37 years. To date, no one (or group of people) has stepped up. A lot of work is needed to make the Sonot Kkaazoot happen, so the race won’t be possible without a race director. Bad Bob and Sharon Baker are willing to help the new organizing team but have retired from doing it themselves.
Even in 1988, the Chena River threatened to move the inaugural Sonot Kkaazoot off the Chena River. However, a last-minute cold spell allowed race organizer, Bob Baker to start and finish the first Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on the Chena River near the Cushman Street Bridge.
A total of 23 skiers competed in the 50-km race, and another 8 in the 20-km event. As the Fairbanks News-Miner reports, “the first Sonot Kkaazoot cross-country ski races came off without a hitch Saturday, with Tim Kelley and Dexter Ittner posting victories in the two races.”
Bob and Sharon Baker organized that first Sonot Kkaazoot and the majority of the following 37 events. In his post-race report to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks board of directors, Bob announced that the 38th Sonot Kkaazoot will be his last as organizer. It’s been a long run for the Bakers. Since 1988, the Sonot Kkaazoot has grown almost tenfold in race participants and in the volunteers required to successfully put on the event. Volunteers younger than the SCUM are needed as our physical and mental abilities are rapidly declining.
If you know of someone interested in taking over the organization of the Sonot Kkaazoot, urge them to contact Thad Keener, executive director of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks. His contact information is: executivedirector@nscfairbanks.org.
Sonot Kkaazoot 