Ester Dome singletrack with newly fallen snow

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Mike takes the trail less traveled up Ester Dome

Today, Mike Schmoker, Sonot Kkaazoot woodel guru was back in town after several weeks spent high altitude trekking in Peru. As he was the only SCUM showing up for our Wednesday Ester Dome ascent, I let him choose the route. Given that temperatures were around 30 deg with 12 to 18 mph SW winds, we opted to take the single-track trail up Ester Dome to Henderson Road.

The wind protection was marvelous, but Mike’s high elevation acclimation made his pace rival that of Bernardo.

The clouds lifted and blue skies turned the trails magical

And unlike the SCUM mother, who is geographically challenged, Mike had a map in his head that mirrored those posted on the trail.

Unlike Bill’s maps that are sketched in the snow, Mike’s map was printed, sealed in plastic and posted on the trails.

Mike and I were both smiling through out hike:

Smiling Mike enjoying views of the valley

Mike’s fitness was again demonstrated when he fell but was too quick getting up for me to get a photo of his tumble:

Site of Mike’s first fall of the winter season.

If the National Weather Service is correct, we should be skiing soon. However, in the meantime, some of the trails less traveled will make for fun SCUM adventure workouts.

Best skate skiing of the season today

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Sonot Kkaazoot

SCUM enjoy sunshine on upper N40 loop–*photo by Joanna Fox*

Tom Helmers groomed many of trails this morning and conditions for skate skiing were the season’s best. Glide was great so the uphill sections were effectively shorter.

Here’s Robert Hannon, whose training for the past month has been sightseeing in Portugal, yet the N40 loops were just a good workout for him:

Robert climbs a hill on the upper N40 trail–video and encouraging commentary by Joanna Fox

The downhill tracks were solid (without debris or birch seed) so that even SCUM elders could descend the Tower loop safely. Bob (shown below), skied down Tower even when it had over 2 inches of new snow on Friday:

Bob descends the Tower Loop–video by Joanna Fox

Thanks to the grooming, there was no surprises like the SCUM found on the White Cub two weeks earlier, Wednesday (27 March 2024) when trails hadn’t been groomed:

SCUM on White Cub trail —video by Eric Troyer

If you’re enjoying the spring skiing and haven’t added to your Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks trail donation, please do so now.

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate

Fantastic Sonot Kkaazoot grooming (and beyond)

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers got little sleep before Saturday’s Sonot Kkaazoot. Tom Helmers, NSCF head groomer spent 9 hours on the larger club Pistenbully between late Friday night and early Saturday morning. Bill Husby spent 5 hours in the smaller Pistenbully grooming the black and blue loops. After just 3 hours of sleep, Bill skied the 30- km Sonot Kkaazoot, winning the second-place award in M09 age category.

If you appreciated the trail conditions during the Sonot Kkaazoot and would like to continue to ski on groomed trails this spring, please consider adding to your donation to the NSCF trails fund. With little snow in the second half of the winter, the snowpack became highly compacted requiring the groomers proceed very slowly, which consumes more diesel fuel.

Here’s the URL to the secure donation site:

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate

Consider the donation to be an investment in your mental and physical health as we move toward the dreaded breakup season.

Sunshine & perfect trails

Posted on February 16, 2024 by Sonot Kkaazoot

SCUM with two of our amazing groomers (Bill Husby on left, Tom Helmers in the center) —*photo by Mike Mathers*

The recent chinooks knocked a lot of vegetative debris on the trails and the warm temperatures had compacted the trails. However, last night the groomers worked until about 1:00 a.m. to transform the trails into perfection for the final Town Race of the season and for recreational skiers like the SCUM.

Today we skied Outhouse, Sunnyside and Cliffside to the Fort Wainwright alpine lodge and then skied from this low point on the trails to the high point via Cliffside, Sunnyside, Outhouse, Blue Slot, and South Tower:

We finished by skiing Medevac where we met up with Tom Helmers, head NSCF groomer. We had to take a photo with two of the groomers responsible for our awesome ski. We’ve contributed to the NSCF trails fund because we want the guys to continue their magic through the spring skiing season.

Here’s the URL to make or add to your contribution:

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate

Christmas Eve Candy Canes on the Roller Coasters

Posted on December 24, 2023 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Festive SCUM elves at biathlon range–*photo by Joanna Fox*

Although the SCUM can often be naughty rather than nice, on Christmas eve (before dawn), the SCUM were busy decorating the Roller Coaster trail with candy canes. Even if their ornaments were tossed by the wind and broken, they’d still be edible.

Poles and Mom struggle with candy canes and pole straps-*-photo by Joanna Fox*

Poles goes down skiing while carrying a bag of candy canes:

Santa down, but candy canes still fine–*photo by Joanna Fox*

We separated and distributed candy canes through the Roller Coasters:

Bernardo hides a big candy cane full of Hersey kisses-*-photo by Bill Husby*

Thoroughly cold after searching for somewhere to discard our detritus, we headed out the White Bear and had professional lighting for our photos there:

Elves: Jerome, Bill, and Greg at the biathlon range–photo by Joanna Fox

And despite the protests of some of us who were freezing as the temperatures were rapidly dropping, we documented sunrise on the WB:

Sunrise on the White Bear-*-photo by Joanna Fox*

After skiing White Bear and Moilanen Meadows, we encountered a group of young skiers and urged them out onto the Roller Coasters, where some of them found their rewards: