Above are some of the happy sounds and faces seen on groomed trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area on Easter Sunday. An absolutely fun ski for all.
SCUM enjoy Easter grooming
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Category Archives: Sonot Kkaazoot grooming
Have a great ski
As of 0530 on race day, the trails are groomed, temperature is 24 deg in the stadium and 4 deg at Fort Wainwright.
Have a great ski and we’ll see you at the awards ceremony and dinner at 6 p.m. in the Birch Hill Recreation Center.
Should be a perfect Sonot Kkaazoot day
Race director, Bad Bob Baker and Tom Helmers, head groomer for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks have been working through the night to make the 37th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot a memorable one for all the skiers.
At 1146 pm, on his first pass of the 5 km marker on White Bear, Tom reported the air temperature was +33 deg F and the snow temperature with infrared thermometer was +15 deg. Their plan was to groom the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails last after freeze-up.
At 6:15 a.m., it is currently +25 deg in the Birch Hill stadium so the trails should be set up and firm.
Have a wonderful Sonot Kkaazoot.
-20 deg F ski on helicopter trails
On the day after skiing 20 km with Frank Soos on the Ginger Snap Special course that climbed 30.7 m/km, we needed an easy recovery ski. It was -12 deg F in the stadium, -20 deg in the biathlon range, and -17 deg on the Sonot Connector. So, it was the perfect day for SCUM with tired legs to do the helicopter trails (Blackhawk and Chinook) on Fort Wainwright. In faster conditions, the downhill corners on these trails are dangerous for skiers of SCUM vintage, but today, even tired legs could step around the corners.
Until 20 February 2024, you can follow our route here:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0d
The “No Y SCUM” were well-dermotized so were taking it easy in the back of the train. Thus, Bill was able to document their skiing fashions:
Nothing is better than friends and groomed Birch Hill trails to start off a Sunday morning. If you haven’t already done so, please donate to the Birch Hill Trails fund. All grooming is done by the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks and Fort Wainwright.
Real SPRING skiing NOW!
Although the Sonot Kkaazoot has traditionally been our spring celebration of nordic skiing, the calendar of the weather gods was different than Bad Bob’s this year. April 2023 has been our March. With record snowfall on some of our April days, the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers have been busy. If the Sonot Kkaazoot had be held today, I might have been able to finish the 50 km course.
Yesterday, the groomers had done their magic on the FWW trails, specifically the trails necessary to do the SCUM “military transit” that includes the Sunnyside, Cliffside, and Sonot Connector. The White Bear was also being groomed as we skied. With the sun out, I was eager to climb the Sonot Connector (as penitence for not skiing it in the Sonot Kkaazoot). Thus, I kept skiing as the others paused for a photo in the sun.
All of the SCUM are faster than me, so it was only a matter of time until they caught me on approach to the Sonot Connector. Again, they wanted a group photo (SCUM excuse for a rest break), but I wanted to continue slowly uphill. However, Mike’s ski on top of mine was a persuasive argument against that option.
To extend the break, they pointed out Byron’s facial injury from a head plant on the Cliffside downhill. If appears that a crazed squirrel grabbed his ski as he tried to get out of the tracks and the impact broke his sunglasses:
Seriously, the skiing was great. Here’s the entire gang enjoying the sun and vistas:
At the top of the Sonot Connector, half of the group decided to ski back to the stadium on the White Bear. Jerome battled the ungroomed snow to ski the trail in the designed direction while the other two, skied backwards on the corduroy that had been set within the hour or so. Three of us decided to ski back down the Sonot Connector and up the Cliffside and Sunnyside trails that were firm, sunny, and provided fantastic views of the Alaska Range and Tanana Valley.
Enjoy the spring skiing. Now is the time to work on technique so that you start next season with good muscle memory of what is needed for the Sonot Kkaazoot in March.
Happy New Year from the SCUM
Even though the SCUM hadn’t been skating for several weeks because of the the recent cold spell, they took full advantage of the pistenbully groomed trails today and skated 15 km of them in around 2 hours. We took rest breaks once we had crested the uphills as seen above at Hilltop and below the summit of Heartrate Hill.
We saluted Bob Moloney, who at 79 years old, skated Heartrate Hill without stopping for any rest breaks. After we finished White Bear, Moilanen Meadows, Big Surprise, and Warm-up, it was Bob, who pointed out that we needed to ski some additional trails to get our 2-hour long overdistance skate ski today. So, peer pressure made sure we did ski our full 2 hours.
We thank the NSCF groomers who made today’s workout possible. We’ve donated to the NSCF trail fund and hope you will join us.
SCUM ski first White Bear with an eye toward potential hazards
A huge thank you to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers who made possible for the SCUM to ski the entire White Bear on their first outing on skis for the season. Seeing as we had just finished a major trail brushing effort, we were disappointed to see that the wet snow created hazards that we hadn’t seen last week.
I didn’t need to get beyond the Warm-up Loop to have my first fall, which my friends rushed to document. It was practice for the falls I would do throughout the morning as I attempted to remove fallen branches while skiing:
The sensible approach after this tumble would have been to stay in the stadium area and practice technique and balance. However, the White Bear had been rolled and combed, and I needed to check on the brushing we’d done last week. As early as the cutoff from the biathlon to White Bear, I discovered I didn’t have enough kick, but continued on with my slick skis:
We followed the tracks of Eric Troyer and Corinee Lestikow until Coronary Bypass, where Joanna wanted to head back. However, with virgin groomed trails ahead, Dermot and I wanted to continue. Joanna yielded to subtle pressure.
Dermot was attempting to do brush hazard removal, but the snow was still sticking to the branch:
The most serious trail hazard we found was a large section of a birch tree that had probably fallen during an earlier wind event as the leaves were still attached. Additional snow on this suspended section of tree (with leaves) could definitely be a hazard to a groomer or skier who passed under this tree at the wrong time. This tree is just outbound from the Heart Rate Hill sign:
Thanks to the groomers, we had a wonderful first ski around the White Bear today. The snowpack is very thin, so we were classical skiing to preserve the snow. We hope other skiers will do the same and contribute to the trail grooming fund:
SCUM tidy up trails on the fly
The Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers have been busy removing trees downed by recent wind events so that you can enjoy the Birch Hill trails. In the photo below you can see the freshly sawed trunk of a spruce tree that had fallen across the gate to the Sunnyside trail and sprung up after cutting. As you run, hike, or bike on the Birch Hill trails, cross train by hauling or tossing the debris off the trails before ski season.
Today the SCUM ended their ski walking workout on the Fort Wainwright alpine hill by returning to the stadium via the Sunnyside trail and encountered remains of a large, downed spruce tree on the Outhouse trail. What better cool down than removing debris from the trail? Volunteer trail clearing as a short diversion from your run or bike will make trails better for skiing in winter.
If the SCUM (average age of today’s volunteers was 70 years old) can pause their workouts to do some trail tidying, won’t you help, too?
Long spring skiing season possible
From the Alaska Climate Research Center, here’s where this season’s snowpack compares with the longterm average:
With over a meter of snow depth on the ground in March, we could be skiing into May if you donate to the NSCF trails fund:
Sunday without Poles
Sunday was a noteworthy SCUM ski. We had probably 4 inches of new snow that had been newly groomed and tracked. Temperatures were a balmy 8 deg F above zero. But our injured Creme de la SCUM leader, Bill Husby (aka Poles) was not skiing back and forth at the head of the pack. With his cracked lower rib and nondisplaced fracture of the right ulna, Poles will likely be Pole (singular) when he rejoins us. However, a half-strength Bill Husby will still ski faster and further than the rest of the SCUM.
PLEASE support Bill’s recovery by donating to the trails fund:
https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/
I’m willing to wager that Bill will be back on his skis and snowmachine sooner if he knows that his work is needed and appreciated.
Sonot Kkaazoot 