To make sure that he was going to ski his virtual 90 km of Sonot Kkaazoot courses over the widest possible trail conditions, Bill Husby skied his virtual 50 km classical Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in three installments for a final official time of 4:37:08 (corrected at 2322 on 3/21/21). Total distance was 49.44 km.
Photo by Joanna Fox
On Thursday, Bill skied the start of the 30 km course: Relay, South Tower, RC bypss, Warm-up, and Black Loops
On Friday, he skied the bottom of ramp, Blue, Outhouse, Relay, Tower, Medivac
Today, Sunday, Bill skied hut to Blue, Outhouse, Relay, Tower, Medivac, WB, MM, Warmup twice.
Congratulations to Bill Husby, who becomes the first skier to classical ski all three virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses. This week he skied the 10 km course twice, the 30 km course yesterday, and today he finished the 50 km.Bill skied the Sonot loops so many times that he mistakenly added the wrong 30 km loop to his earlier calculations for his virtual 50 km. However, his official corrected time and documentation are now shown above.
Now that he has classical skied the 90 km of virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses, he should skate ski all three courses this week.
Don Pendergrast skied his 10 km classical virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot today in an official time of 52:52.
Don writes:
“After being away for a week I skied the 10K classic style today, Sunday, March 21.
I report a slightly different time to account for taking poles, gloves off, starting GPS on phone, fumbling around to put the phone in the pocket, reversing all and finally starting, repeating all at the finish.
I carefully counted One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi . . . For a total of 52 Mississippi seconds. I subtracted the fumbling time from my skiing time.”
We appreciate Don’s scientiic approach to calculating his official time.
This morning, SCUMs Dan Johnson and Robert Hannon paced their mom (and coach) as she completed her 50 km virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot on classical skis in two installments. In doing so, Susan Sugai keeps her streak of completing all “50 km” Sonot Kkaazoot intact.
On Saturday, she skied the 30 km course, where Joanna Fox kept her company for the first 11 km as they chatted and noticed that the black loops were enjoyable at their leisurely pace. After the blue loop, Joanna called it a day and took the requisite selfie of us at that point.
Then SCUM mom had to get to work and push through on the remaining trails of the 30 km course. Thanks to the beautiful tracks on the White Bear and Moilanen Meadows (yes, she made an additional donation to the trails fund, NSCF trails fund), her kickwax held up even though the temperature increased from 1 at the start to 15 deg F at the finish. Temperatures in the black loops were well below zero.
Here is the documentation for the 30 km course (click on figure to enlarge map):
On Sunday, Dan Johnson and Robert Hannon skied the 20 km loop with Joanna and Susan. Susan wrote: “After we got onto the White Bear, the guys started chasing Joanna who had left us after the Outhouse and Relay loops. However, catching a glimpse of Dan or Robert at times motivated me to keep moving faster than I would on my own. My pace for the 20 km was much faster than for the 30 km and at a lower heart rate. Tracks were much faster so I doublepoled or tucked a lot more than Saturday.”
While skiing up the penultimate major climb in Moilanen Meadows, a gray and white bird larger than a kestral dove right over my head. I’ve since learned from Mark Ross, ADF&G bird biologist, that it was likely a goshawk. I viewed the sighting as a good omen.
Illustration by Mark Ross, who notes that an adult goshawk has red-orange eyes–very appropriate for the Sonot Kkaazoot
Here’s the data for the second installment:
Thus, 71 year old Susan Sugai skied her classical 50 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot in an official time of 5:57:41. This leaves only the 30 km Sonot to do over Sonot weekend when she hopes snow temperatures will increase enough to make skate skiing (her preferred technique) feasible for her aging carcass and bionic knees.
The SCUM mother and Sonot blogger is looking forward to the 35th annual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot in 2022, when she hopes there will be timers, 50 km of perfectly groomed trails, feed stations with music and enthusiastic supporters of springtime skiing, and handmade woodels for age class winners.
Taking advantage of the afternoon sunshine and warmth together with the newly set tracks on White Bear, Bill Husby moves into the lead on the 30 km classical version of the Denali State Bank Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot.
The powerline poser in black
Bill writes:
“Started down the White Bear Access with plans to complete my 3rd leg of a three day 30 Sonot. The White Bear/MM were perfect (thanks to Tom). As I was completing the Warm Up I decided to continue on and ski the entire 30K course. Today’s trail conditions were definitely faster than Thursday and Friday’s cold gritty snow. So, today’s 30K no rest, no water, no feed time was 2:41:38.
Oh yes, it was a perfect day for Skins with the adjustable bindings set at 0.
See you tomorrow.”
Yes, the remedial SCUM will see Bill on Sunday as we complete our virtual Sonot Kkaazoot on the installment plan.
After skiing the virtual 10 km Sonot Kkaazoot twice, Byron Brode completed his classical virtual 30 km today. He writes:
“Beautiful sunny day. The dusting of snow made the trails look covered in jewels, squeaky slow jewels to start. You’re missing out if you not on these trails. My longest ski of the season and I can feel it.”
So Byron Broda becomes our second finisher for the classical virtual 30 km Sonot Kkaazoot with an official time of 3:18. Congratulations on the great effort.
Carl Hemming improved upon his 10 km classical virtual Sonot Kkaazoot that he did on Wednesday (not Sunday when he was in Anchorage or Talkeetna).
He wrote: “Conditions were faster today than on Sunday so this may account for a slightly faster time. I started at 2 so it may have been 10 degrees warmer. The time on my watch was 1:01.14; the time on the phone included removing phone from fanny pack removing poles and gloves and finding the right button to push, which is quite a big deal for someone approaching 70 yo. This process occured at both start and finish.”
So Carl Hemming’s official classical 10 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot is 1:01.14 .
The Sonot Kkaazoot reporting guru (and Carl’s coach) won’t take any additional 10 km results from Carl unless he skate skis. He needs to ski the 30 or 50 km virtual Sonot next if he doesn’t want to be reminded of his underachievement for the next 20 years.
It looks like Carl was the fastest bombing down the Tower loop and White Bear access. Congratulations on your improved time.
“I went to the Sonot blog site and enjoyed the depiction of my fall as Bugs Bunny, I left unaware how to post to it other than a reply to someone’s comments. My time was 56 flat.”
From Frank Soos:
“my time was 1:01.47
wayward scum”
From Jerome Jackson:
“Sorry. Did not time. Finished about 25 secs behind Big Frank.”
No problem. So your time will be 1:02.12 based upon Frank’s result.
From Dan Johnson:
“I had to rush home and then here to the Carlson Center. Still here. My time was 60 minutes 45 seconds.”
Thank you, Dan for spending your Wednesday giving Fairbanks residents their COVID-19 vaccine.
Robert Hannon submitted his 10 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot result with just the time and his documentation. However, had our SCUM photographer been there, Robert would have been the best dressed skier.
Time: 1:03:26
However, Robert must have taken some shortcuts on the course as his GPS shows a 5.82 mile outdoor walk.
While you may be cursing Bad Bob Baker for his Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot courses all at Birch Hill, in 2010, the Sonot Kkaazoot had NO HILLS. Both the 20 and 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot races were held all on the Chena River. No resting on the downhills.
Here is the pre-race class of 2010 SCUM photo with Bill Husby in his Lathrop High School speedsuit. Back then, Owen Hanley also wore a speedsuit but it was less flashy.
Sonot Kkaazoot 