With enough snow to groom the Birch Hill trails, the SCUM met for the first time this season on Tuesday and Friday.
We were just getting our snow legs, so trying to get the entire group together was challenging. Please join us on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10:30 a.m. Note this is a change of time on Friday, which will allow SCUM to take FXC Masters yoga and ski on Fridays.
When the SCUM started back in the 1995 to 1996 winter, most of us were in our 40s. SCUM offspring were skiing for high school teams. Thirty years later, most SCUM are in their 70s and many are grandparents. In our first two decades, the 50 km Sonot Kkaazoot was our end-of-season goal and our “final exam.” However, by 2022, winters precluded the Chena River staying frozen to late March, so the Sonot Kkaazoot was moved entirely to Birch Hill. The new course traded 20 km of flat terrain on the river for 20 km of challenging hilly trails. Fewer of the SCUM were able to ski the 50 km course.
Now the SCUM can no longer ski and volunteer for organizing the Sonot Kkaazoot. With no race director for 2026 stepping forward to date, we will continue to ski and volunteer, but at an intensity and duration that is feasible given our advanced age.
Many years ago, Bill Husby, a SCUM and longtime NSCF groomer, issued the challenge for the SCUM to complete 4 ski walking ascents of the Fort Wainwright alpine hill by the Fourth of July. This season, between travel and air quality issues, only three SCUM (Bill Husby, Eric Buetow and Dave Prusak) successfully achieved that challenge. Five more SCUM (Joanna Fox, Mom, Robert Hannon, Bernardo Hernandez, and Tim Wooster) did their 4 ascents in the week following the 4th of July.
Carl Hemming, who spent much of the early summer rebuilding an outhouse at his Quartz Lake cabin and then spent several weeks in Michigan visiting family, finished his 4 ascents today. They weren’t fast, especially compared to those we’ve done in the past, but they were done under brilliant blue skies and golden leaves. Instead of mosquitoes, only a few no-see- ums flew around our faces.
Although negative splits would be desirable for well-trained athletes, for SCUM who are closer to 80 than 70 years old, and injured, we were happy to do 4 ascents.
Our workout included 735 m (2414 feet) of climb and a total distance of 9.24 km. The average climb on the chairlift ascents was 22% (170 m climb over 0.84 km).
So, please let us know if you know anyone who is willing to take on the organization of the Sonot Kkaazoot. Bad Bob Baker and the rest of the SCUM will be happy to help you out. Woodels for this year have been cut and sanded already.
Note from Scott Brucker, Minto trail builder, skier, musher, and teacher:
If you know any skiers or outdoor enthusiast, there’s a Middle School and/or Sci-Math opening in Minto. It would be nice to share these trails with another person.
Thanks
Scott
If you have any questions, you can contact Scott at: sbrucker@yksd.com
After last Sunday’s delightful Easter ski on over 10 km of pistenbully-groomed trails, weather conditions weren’t favorable for additional grooming. We skied Wednesday and Friday as more ground and less snow as visible on the trails. So today we made the switch to dryland training and headed up Ester Dome.
Ester Dome Road was ice free and dry to Ullerhaven and had patchy wet spots beyond the first set of towers. However, at the second set of towers, the trail was still wet and icy. The roadway lacks sufficient dry ground to turnaround so park at or before the first set towers. While we were on the top of Ester Dome, one offroad vehicle ended up backing up on the road from the second towers to the first towers.
It was a great day for an Ester Dome ascent as it was 45 deg at 10 a.m. when we started and in the mid-50s when we finished 2 hours later. We saw a number of runners on Ester Dome Road–all of them in shorts.
Thus, Wednesday SCUM workouts will officially move from Birch Hill to Ester Dome starting 30 April 2025. We’ll start from the bike trails parking lot on Ester Dome Road (roughly one mile above St. Pat’s Road) at 10 a.m. The general plan is to ski walk down to St. Pat’s Road from the bike trails and then ski walk up to Ullerhaven for a 5 km uphill ski walk and then walk back down (2 miles) to our cars. Starting out, you could just start ski walking uphill (like we did today) and you can turnaround whenever you feel like you’ve done enough or have to get back to work.
Ski walkers, hikers, or runners are welcome to join us for all or part of our workout.
4/28/25 NOTE: The SCUM made their training transition Sunday before the Nenana Ice Classic tripod on the Tanana River had gone out. We make our weather observations based on our 29 years skiing together and act accordingly. We’re not climate deniers.
This post was actually assembled after a SCUM workout on 16 February 2025 at UAF. However, I was lacking enough brain cells then to figure out how to embed a large video that was a key part of this post. Now with my MFA thesis defense postponed until Fall 2025 and training for and assisting with the organization of the 38th Sonot Kkaazoot finished, here is a look back to 16 February 2025
Joanna earned the right for a finish line collapse after setting a new segment record for the Double Theta today in -3 deg F chill.
After our approximately 2.5 km time trial chasing the youngest skier among us (and the most stressed this week), our bodies were fatigued but our minds were more relaxed, so our judgement was slightly impaired.
Somewhere on the t-field, the decision was made to wallow in the untracked snow. While in other areas of America, winter swimming in frozen lakes becomes an extreme sport, snow wallowing requires just taking the path less traveled.
Bill started out the challenge on the T-field:
Following Bill’s leadership, Dan accepted the challenge in the middle of the potato field:
Only to be outdone by Joanna, who was ready to really take a dive:
Thanks to NSCF timer, Claire Ferree, the three SCUM signed up to ski 30 km were allowed to start our ski an hour earlier than the rest of the field. This would allow the timers and course crew to head home before dinner. Unlike the World Championships in Trondheim, our trails were awesomely groomed with a trace of new snow. It was 24 deg and snowing lightly when we started and 28 deg when I finished 3.5 hours later. Although I was the red lantern, I was overjoyed because my longest ski this season before Saturday had been 17 km (1.7 x the White Bear course).
https://zone4.ca/race/2025-03-08/e263c35e/results
Jerome Jackson finished in under 3 hours and Byron was not that far behind him. However, Jerome had Sarah as his support team.
Thanks to FXC Masters Power Lunch and Strength workouts, I was able to ski 30 km without falling. After dislocating my right shoulder before Thanksgiving, I had to skate ski with one pole for weeks with my physical therapist’s warning not to fall. Knowing that I had skied the White Bear loop with one pole made it possible to ski it the third time yesterday when multiple body parts were screaming.
Even at 75 years old, you can refine your ski technique and develop strength to overcome the inevitable slowing down that comes with aging. Thanks, Christina Turman!
The twice postponed Frank Soos Distance Race #3 Unpleasantries is Saturday, 8 March 2025. Unless you are part of the SCUM travel team in Klosters, participating in Masters World Cup, you should be skiing the Unpleasantries 30 km event.
Today Colin had groomed the Black loops so we skied them easily in preparation for tomorrow’s 30 km challenge. However, some of the SCUM won’t be participating in Unpleasantries so they did an extra ascent of the Black Funk today.
Some SCUM failed to show up today at all:
So, enjoy the beautifully groomed White Bear trails tomorrow as we honor our friend and primordial SCUM, Frank Soos. It’ll be >3.5 hours of unalloyed pleasure.
Congratulations to all Skiathon finishers.
From UAF Trails Club website:
https://uaftrailsclub.weebly.com/skiathon.html
Skiathon Results
March 2, 2025
UAF Trail System
20 Kilometer – Classic Technique
Disclaimer: While everyone started together a number skied alternative routes as the course was poorly marked.
There was at least three inches of new snow atop the firm pistenbully groomed black trails so it was a good day to ski all the downhills. There was no sun this morning, so we saw no shadows.
No guts, no glory. Bernardo and Greg (below) are “dusted with the snow of shame” from the Black Funk and Competition downhills (yeah, Black Funk is supposed to be skied uphill, but the trails needed packing and Bill is a groomer, so we went down then up the Black Funk).
Bill had so much fun packing the trails and setting tracks with his skis, he swapped hats and decided to pack the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails using one of their machines:
He saw lots of animal tracks while traveling down the sunlit Cliffside trail. Could some of them belong to a groundhog?
At least on the Cliffside trail, the sun was out, so a groundhog could see his shadow.
With the 4 to 5 inches of new snow on the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails since they were last groomed, I think the ice storm remnants will be well buried before the Gingersnap Special, the Frank Soos Distance Race #2 scheduled for Sunday, 9 February 2025 at 11:00 a.m. Homemade gingersnaps (Frank’s favorite) will be available if you ski either race or volunteer to help out.
Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day, so if the Sunnyside Marmot is to see his shadow, we need to be out there skiing.
Sonot Kkaazoot 