A day after seen posing in a 34th annual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot facemask, Carl Hemming (known among the SCUM as the Oosik Poser), took off ahead of the gang this morning. Carl’s official 10 km time was 1:04.
Carl wrote: “Great fun on the trails w/scum.”
Carl was wearing his Oosik bufff during his 10 km virtual Sonot Kkaazoot. He wanted Bad Bob to know that the ear slots on his Sonot Kkaazoot face mask don’t work for him.
A group of 9 SCUM, who had been COVID-19 vaccinated, gathered to ski the Denali State Bank Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot 10 km course this morning (or to improve upon their previous times). It was about 5 deg F in the stadium when we started with skies clearing as we skied.
As the only female and oldest skier among those skiing today, I had the distinction of being the red lantern, but the SCUM were still in the finish area when I fnished with a time of 1:07:12, which included the time of getting mitts on and off to push my watch’s buttons.
Here is my Polar GPS trace than is slightly shorter than that of Garmin watches.The 30 km and 50 km virtual Sonot courses remain.
Now just the 30 and 50 km courses remain.
Bad Bob writes:
“Got the 10km out of the way this afternoon. ½” of fresh cold slow snow blanketed Birch Hill, but I SKATED anyway…only my second race of this season, my first was the Skiathon. My time….47:47, and that was with MUCH EFFORT! And PAIN, as I have not been skating much at all. So, just the 30 and 50k to go. I will wait for faster snow for those two. I measured the SONOT KKAAZOOT 10k on my Garmin GPS @ 10.08 kilometers…pretty close. Ended up double poling quite a bit. Most definitely the hardest effort this season.
We also received the face masks today. I’ve given out about 30 of them already! I’ll be working out some method of distribution.”
Congratulations, Bad Bob! You’re our first skate skier and the fastest submitted time (so far) for the virtual 10 km Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot.
Bill Husby writes: “Classic skied the 10K Course this morning.The temperature read 9 deg F and there was a dusting of gritty dry snow in the tracks. My time was officially 54:49. The best part of day was running into Bad Bob Baker and receiving a 34th annual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot mask.”
We’ll believe Bill because he is such a great trail groomer. He becomes the first skier to finish the 10 km Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot in under an hour.
The special swag from this year’s Sonot Kkaazoot may be able to keep everyone safe from COVID-19 if you happen to be in the warm-up hut when these guys are there.
Did Carl ski a virtual Sonot Kkaazoot or is he a professional model?
Eric Troyer reports:
“Only the 50 and 10 K versions left!”
He continutes, “After I did the 30K I went and got my first COVID vaccination shot. Then I picked up Thai takeout and when I got home Corrine had a chocolate cake for me (my birthday was yesterday). It was a good day!”
Happy belated birthday, Eric! You are the first official entry in the 2021 Virtual 30 km Sonot Kkaazoot with a time of 3:01.39!
When three of the groomers for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks spend their Saturday night grooming and tracking all the major trails at the Birch Hill Recreation Area, the SCUM felt compelled to ski these trails on Sunday morning.
Unfortunately, only four of us showed up at 10 a.m. Sunday morning as the snow that fell after midnight posed a preliminary scooping and shoveling workout on our driveways before arriving to 4 inches of newly fallen snow at Birch Hill.
Only Bill Husby, our SCUM groomer, arrived suitably attired with flashy googles that proved essential while skiing through pelting snow that the wind and our awesome speed created.
After checking out whether we could stay in the tracks on the downhill of the Blue Loop, we ventured out to the Sunnyside and Cliffside where were created rooster tails as we skied downhill.
Once we got to the bottom of Cliffside and skied onto the Fort Wainwright alpine ski facility, we found newly groomed corduroy heading straight up the Fort Wainwright alpine hill to the left of the tubing hill. We abandoned the idea of skiing up the Sonot Connector (under a half foot of unpacked snow). Instead we skied up the right side of the FWW alpine hill like we did during the first decade of the Sonot Kkaazoot. Unfortunately, the grooming didn’t extend over to the top of the Sonot Connector, so we had some deep new snow to traverse.
Once on the White Bear Trail, we needed to ski to Hilltop junction because it’s Norma Haubenstock’s favorite hill, and in doing so we passed a trail marker that Don had placed on a tree on in the 1970s as part of his first job in Interior Alaska.
Eventually, the slushing through the deep powder was tiring out everyone except the “Every Ready” Husby who taunted us around the rest of the White Bear and Moilanen Meadows:
It was an absolutely lovely day on the trails and except for the tubing hilll where we saw kids enjoying the snow, we saw no one until we were nearly back to the Birch Hill stadium after our 2 hour ski.
With the Sonot Kkaazoot less than a month away, we were getting our long overdistance training done. How about you?
As care coordinator for volunteers of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks race events, Norma Haubenstock plays a huge role in making sure things run smoothly. So for her birthday on Sunday, the SCUM feted her during our tour of the Nordale Flats.
The 20 km course had been carefully marked by Pat Lovely and John Estle, who had started at 0800 on two snowmachines to ready the course for the 1000 start by the slower skiers led by Don Pendergrast. The 1100 wave of skiers were led by John and finished right behind the last the 1000 skiers.
Here’s a map of our popsicle course, where the major climb parallels Heart Rate Hill at Birch Hill Recreation Area:
Leaving from John and Norma’s driveway, we walked down Wilderness Drive to the start of the trail:
When we left it was roughly 6 deg F at Birch Hill and -5 deg in the valley, so we started skiing to warm chilly fingers:
By the time we reached a small pond (where you can see the North Star classical trail at Birch Hill), we stopped to sing happy birthday to Norma:
With any group, certain individuals play key roles. For us, there was Don Pendergrast, our fearless leader, who made sure none of us got left behind:
The cabooses, Susan and Bernardo, who switched off being the red lantern.
And of course, Bill Husby, the chief instigator of falls and crashes:
As you’ll note, Bill had a face mask handy as he was not always social distancing when he was luring SCUM into potential crash sites with his phone rolling in video mode.
By the time we had finished the loop and needed to ascend Heart Rate Hill again, additional kick wax was needed:
The temperature and trail conditions were perfect for a several hour tour of woods very close to Birch Hill Recreation Area. Huge thanks go to Pat Lovely and John Estle for course marking (and take down) and John and Norma for hosting the group of very happy skiers.
Used to jumping into lukewarm water at 6 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Joanna Fox, Norma Haubenstock, and Susan Sugai teamed up on Saturday to collectively ski a virtual 50 km. Joanna, who routinely swims 30 km most months, hadn’t skate skied recently, so was hesitant but yielded to peer pressure.
After skiing the relay, ramp, and east ramp, and up to the top of the tower loop, the team’s attitude had improved significantly.
and we had no problem social distancing with Joanna always pushing the pace.
Joanna hung with us for 10 km but was unconvinced that she could ski the White Bear. So, Norma and I, the two distance swimmers, headed off and skied White Bear and Moilanen Meadows. Susan had to also ski the warm-up loop to dark alley to compensate for the stadium loop Joanna and Norma had done before the Sonot blogger had arrived.
Here’s my Polar heart rate monitor documentation of my 20 km contribution to our team effort that took 3:15:47. I intend to individually ski a virtual 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot on the installment plan before Bad Bob ends the event.
If three swimmers can ski the virtual Sonot Kkaazoot, you can, too. I challenge Coach Kristina to borrow some skis from her uncle and do her own virtual Sonot Kkaazoot on the trails named for her Grandpa (https://www.nscfairbanks.org/trails/jim-whisenhant-trails/ ).
From Sonot Kkaazoot Race Director, Bad Bob Baker:
Sonot Kkaazoot 