In spite of over an inch of rain in the 24 hours preceding our Friday workout on the FWW alpine hill, 11 hearty souls showed up to wish Dan Johnson a happy birthday. However, the birthday boy had other plans and ended up glamping on the Kesugi Ken with his grandkids.
It’s been an extremely wet September, but NOAA NWS is predicting a warmer and drier than normal October thanks to the super El Niño. Join us at Birch Hill at 10 a.m. on Fridays, regardless of weather.
It was a sunny day, four days after the last grooming at Birch Hill, but by starting at 9 a.m., the SCUM were able to ski over half of the White Bear with minimal difficulties. Our pole baskets were too small for the trails in many places, but high speed snowplowing still allowed injured SCUM to safely get down the downhills and the uphills were faster than our skills would normally dictate.
Kent, who had been injured all winter, was leading the pack.
En route to Beacon Cutoff, we encountered a minor water hazard at the Sonot Connector:
The photo above shows those of us who skied the White Bear in the normal direction until Dermot met us at Beacon Cutoff having skied White Bear backwards in hopes of finding us.
We turned back at Beacon and found the downhills exciting with the mix of icy and slushy surfaces. However, we all stayed upright, until the Warmup Loop, when our most skilled skier discovered he hadn’t fallen enough to know how to get back up. Fortunately, our photographer wasn’t quick enough to catch him on the snow.
Even with the snow enhancement on Wednesday, the trail under the Birch Hill Recreation Building was reduced to an isthmus this morning:
but was a wonderful way to end an exciting, but low effort ski in the sunshine.
This winter, my first ski was the FXC Masters power lunch workout on November 3, 2025 so if today is my last ski, it’s been a 174 day season, or almost 25 weeks. A huge thank you to all the groomers and to the skiers who contributed to the NSCF trail grooming fund. You made the coldest winter in recent history fun for even the oldest skiers on the trails.
With temperatures at Birch Hill this morning still below 0 deg F, the SCUM showed up for their workout with classical skis. Our aging bodies were still recovering from the Frank Soos Distance Race #2 (10 and 20 km freestyle) that followed 6 weeks of extremely cold conditions that precluded geezers from skate skiing. Although the temperature in the Birch HIll stadium was 5 deg on race day, for the SCUM, whose technique isn’t terribly efficient, skating 20 km was challenging, and we felt the hurt during and after the race.
So today after skiing the firm hard tracks on the Flat Black trails, we decided to give ourselves a break and have an adventure for the rest of our workout. We skied out White Cub and White Bear to the Sonot Cutoff and then onto the Northside Classical trails. We skied Aurora Run and then skied Classical Bear backwards:
Fun is an important aspect of training. Our adventure was fun and only one SCUM acquired the snow of shame on the single track, whereas two of us fell on the groomed trails.
Although December had 12 days with temperatures below -40 deg F at the airport and January has continued that trend, the SCUM workouts have been no colder than -25 deg F in the stadium, although temperatures dropped much colder on lower lying trails. Descending the Warmup Loop (not an accurate descriptor today) at the end of our workout, I developed a severe ice cream headache that didn’t resolve even on the uphill sections. It was definitely below -25 deg on Wake Up Loop.
Today the thermometer on the building said -19 deg F when we started and -12 when we finished. We managed to ski 10 km (all but about 1 km on pistenbully tracks) in a little more than 90 minutes. This is not bad considering that 3 of us are well over 70 years old and the kid among us had gotten her second shingles vaccine earlier in the week.
Here’s Bernardo and Mom gliding down the stadium hill with the full moon over our heads:
Although just two years ago, the SCUM skied on a -37 deg F Sunday, we’re getting soft in our old age. If it’s colder than -25 deg F at Birch Hill at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday, we’ll cancel our workout and make up the kilometers on Tuesday:
However, if the inversion holds, skiing above the ice fog is good for the mind and body.
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.
Sonot Kkaazoot 