Tomorrow is Ground Hog Day, so if the Sunnyside Marmot is to see his shadow, we need to be out there skiing.
Ski tomorrow or no shadow
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Category Archives: Training Ideas
Happy 2025!
On the first day of 2025, we had much to celebrate. Bill Husby, SCUM groomer and classical skier par excellence, was back from his medical tests and consultations in Seattle. We missed his spirit and his quality grooming. In his honor, one of the other groomers had packed and tracked the North and South Classical only trails yesterday.
So after skiing the Tower and Medevac on firm PistenBully tracks, we headed out the White Bear to the helicopter trails on Fort Wainwright off the Sonot Connector. With 46 inches of snow this winter at the airport. where the snow depth currently is 22 inches, we are not suffering from the snow drought that Anchorage currently has. Birch Hill has received more snow and retained more of what has fallen than the airport so even though the Blackhawk trail had been packed and groomed several times this winter, the tracks and pole line was still pretty soft.
Being a wily skier, Bill chose not to lead us on the Blackhawk trail. Instead, Mike Mathers was voted that honor. Former firefighter, Mike was so much faster than the rest of the SCUM that we only saw the evidence of his headfirst tumble: the divot in the snow at the side of the trail and his snow-covered hat:
It was a magical ski, and we enjoyed the sunrise in route:
Happy New Year!
SCUM find LOL #7 on a -12 to -16 deg day
It was a chilly and somewhat breezy day at Birch Hill this Sunday, but we had a decent turnout. Glide was somewhat compromised in cold and newly fallen snow, but we prevailed, and the SCUM were able to locate LOL ornament #7:
This means we’ve found 2 ornaments in two weeks. We need to up our game but once the groomers catch up with all the snow dumped this week, perhaps we can do better.
The SCUM will be decorating Birch Hill trails with candy canes soon. So, keep your eyes open as you ski this week.
SCUM travel team moves workout today
To avoid “biting the dust” (see post from earlier today), the SCUM travel team moved their workout to UAF today to avoid the speed bump SCUM. Several of the skiers shown here will be heading to the Masters World Cup in Klosters, Switzerland on March 8 – 16, 2025 along with other Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks Masters skiers.
SCUM thankful for:
**Over 9 km of newly groomed and set tracks on lighted loops, which were groomed overnight.
**Temperatures at 10 a.m. AST of +2 deg F after temperatures at Fairbanks International Airport reached -29 deg F at 10:01 a.m. yesterday. Thanks to the inversion, Birch Hill only dropped to about -14 deg F.
**The friendship and company of 10 SCUM enjoying well-groomed trails and balmy temperatures.
**All the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks staff and volunteers who help our community enjoy winter outdoors with lessons, tours, training groups, races, and other fun events. They keep us healthy, happy, and at times, slightly sore or tired–but motivated for more.
P.S. Although SCUM may not be fast, two of the skiers in the photo above are skiing on skis that once belonged to World Cup nordic skiers!
Ester Dome singletrack with newly fallen snow
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.
And unlike the SCUM mother, who is geographically challenged, Mike had a map in his head that mirrored those posted on the trail.
Mike and I were both smiling through out hike:
Mike’s fitness was again demonstrated when he fell but was too quick getting up for me to get a photo of his tumble:
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.
SCUM training now for 38th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot
Eleven SCUM, all over 70 years old (except for newly retired Dave in center front) with at least one physical or mental handicap, made it up 5 km with 460 m of climb and an equal distance of elevation loss today. Like Alaska Senior Games, we allow youngsters who are at least 50 years old to play with us.
SCUM swim the Birch Bakken
Most of the SCUM aren’t discouraged by a little rain, or cold temperatures, or heat. However, today one of our regulars opted for Planet Fitness over Birch Hill Recreational Area. Here’s what he missed:
Unlike the Seine, water quality remained high on the Birch Bakken in spite of steady rain.
No SCUM took the mud wallowing challenge, but our most gullible member was not with us. No marmots were observed on the trails although some blooming lupines remained. It was the day for seeing and stepping upon the fungus among us.
SCUM combine ski walking with plastic-free disc golf
Today the SCUM opted out of doing the Fort Wainwright alpine hill ascents since several of us plan to do the Golden Heart Trail Run tomorrow. Instead, we ski walked the black and blue loops and finished with some disc golf. However, in honor of the Plastic Free July Challenge, we used a wooden disc. Here is a close up of the disc and Bernardo who ended up tossing the disc the closest to the goal:
SCUM back after RAIN and winds remove smoke hazard
SCUM ski walked up Ester Dome on Wednesday when winds were gusting to 40 mph, and today a few SCUM tackled the FWW alpine hill after almost an inch of rain. The three Gramps (all over 71 years old) and Mother SCUM tackled the Fort Wainwright alpine hill that is currently involved in the installation of new snowmaking guns. The recent rains around the excavation on the chair lift trail made for some muddy steps that added as much as 5 pounds to one’s boot,
but all four of us made it to the top intact.
Although wet and muddy, we fared better than one birch tree that we found toppled on the Tower Loop.
Bill Husby, a NSCF trail groomer, supervised us while we removed the tree from the trail. Here’s the after photo:
So, we not only got our endurance workout today, but we also got some strength training, too.
Sonot Kkaazoot 