When you’re a PistenBully guru, you know your ski trails under all conditions, so Bill Husby and the SCUM Rat Pack hit the Rat Ponds this morning:
Sunrise was spectacular (and warm)::
and even Bill shed his hat. He definitely approved of the classical tracks on the Rat Ponds.
Race director, Bad Bob Baker and Tom Helmers, head groomer for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks have been working through the night to make the 37th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot a memorable one for all the skiers.
At 1146 pm, on his first pass of the 5 km marker on White Bear, Tom reported the air temperature was +33 deg F and the snow temperature with infrared thermometer was +15 deg. Their plan was to groom the Sunnyside and Cliffside trails last after freeze-up.
At 6:15 a.m., it is currently +25 deg in the Birch Hill stadium so the trails should be set up and firm.
Have a wonderful Sonot Kkaazoot.
The National Weather Service is currently predicting warmer than normal temperatures for 8 to 14 days out (including the day of the 37th Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot). They are also predicting higher than normal precipitation outlook so maybe there’ll be some new snow to mix with the ground ice and birch seeds from the past two months.
So, plan to ski or volunteer for the Sonot Kkaazoot. Remember that all registration ends on Thursday, 21 March 2024.
Before there was SCUM, there was Team Brain Dead. In the late 80s, when winter temperatures were colder, Team Brain Dead was formed to celebrate those hardy skiers who would continue their workouts regardless of temperature. They had t-shirts made when they ran the 1990 Midnight Sun Run on skis, extending their ski training range from -48 deg F to +68 F deg, a 110 deg range:
Team Brain Dead points are awarded for skis done at temperatures of -30 deg F or colder. One point is awarded for each degree below -30. So today each skier earned 7 points multiplied by the 5 skiers to total 35 TBD points.
We skied Tower Loop, Green Dot, Flat Black, Tommy Knocker Extension, Roller Coaster, White Cub to Zoomer Cutoff, and back to the stadium (or to the Groomer’s garage). Here’s the photo Bill took of the scariest skiers:
And here’s Joanna and Mom (whose claustrophobia prevents her from wearing anything over her nose or mouth):
It was a “strange” day as there was no temperature inversion: it was -37 deg F in the stadium, -40 deg (both F and C) on the top of the Tower Loop, and -31 deg F at the biathlon range.
With the cold temperatures, the corduroy and deep tracks remain pristine except for the abundant birch seed and spruce cones that have been deposited on the trails. Air quality was moderate according to the Purple Air station at Birch Hill, so our workout did more good than harm to our aging carcasses.
Today some of the SCUM didn’t make it down the Sunnyside although we headed out the Outhouse loop with them. No Hawaiian shirts were worn today.
Thanks for the reminder of Frank and Pat, who have left us for warmer locations.
After 8 weeks of immobility in a cast from toes to knee, it felt SOOO good to be skiing again. On my second outing of the season, the SCUM waited for me on the Tower loop:
Conditions were FAST today but when I fell, I was even faster getting up. However, when Bob fell, he didn’t take time to remove the telltale snow:
As I crutched inside for two months, I never expected to be skating in late November in temperatures hovering above freezing. Thanks to the groomers for making the trails skiable for a 74-year-old skier with a fractured 5th metatarsal.
Thanks to Tom Helmers, Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks head groomer, today I was able to ski Tommy Knocker Extension to the Comp Loop and up the A climb without stopping to rest. Thanks to our late season PistenBully grooming, hero skiing is possible.
The trails and stadium look lovely. At 0800, the sun was out and the temperature was +10 deg F. A lovely day is in store for Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot skiers and volunteers.
Thank you for your support.
Thanks to the volunteer brushing by Mike Schmoker and David Prusak, the SCUM were able to ski Blackhawk (and Chinook) on set tracks today! The volunteer effort by Mike and Dave not only assisted the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks in contributing labor match for the club’s RTP grant, but their work also allowed us to ski these classical only trails on machine set tracks in November (with half the normal snowfall to date).
As groomer, Bill Husby had the inside information on where the tracks were lifted on downhill corners, so he avoided falling. But he did drop one knee to the trail causing a three-SCUM-pile-up on Chinook.
However, these skiers didn’t have the quantity of snow on them that others had.
They just had the misfortune of falling when someone had access to their phone. Given the -5 deg F weather, most of us were well dermotized and our phones were zipped into inner pockets. However, one phone was recovered from a Blackhawk tumble when its owner got up too quickly to note its absence.
Enjoy the groomed trails and please contribute to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks grooming fund: https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/
A huge thank you to the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers who made possible for the SCUM to ski the entire White Bear on their first outing on skis for the season. Seeing as we had just finished a major trail brushing effort, we were disappointed to see that the wet snow created hazards that we hadn’t seen last week.
I didn’t need to get beyond the Warm-up Loop to have my first fall, which my friends rushed to document. It was practice for the falls I would do throughout the morning as I attempted to remove fallen branches while skiing:
The sensible approach after this tumble would have been to stay in the stadium area and practice technique and balance. However, the White Bear had been rolled and combed, and I needed to check on the brushing we’d done last week. As early as the cutoff from the biathlon to White Bear, I discovered I didn’t have enough kick, but continued on with my slick skis:
We followed the tracks of Eric Troyer and Corinee Lestikow until Coronary Bypass, where Joanna wanted to head back. However, with virgin groomed trails ahead, Dermot and I wanted to continue. Joanna yielded to subtle pressure.
Dermot was attempting to do brush hazard removal, but the snow was still sticking to the branch:
The most serious trail hazard we found was a large section of a birch tree that had probably fallen during an earlier wind event as the leaves were still attached. Additional snow on this suspended section of tree (with leaves) could definitely be a hazard to a groomer or skier who passed under this tree at the wrong time. This tree is just outbound from the Heart Rate Hill sign:
Thanks to the groomers, we had a wonderful first ski around the White Bear today. The snowpack is very thin, so we were classical skiing to preserve the snow. We hope other skiers will do the same and contribute to the trail grooming fund:
Sonot Kkaazoot 