Recover Quickly, Poles!

Posted on February 11, 2022 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Tuesday evening, Bill Husby, who was Chief of Course for the recent Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association (RMISA) and Besh Cup races, was attempting to put bins of directional arrows overhead in the old shop. The step ladder slid out from under him. Bill fell backwards about 5 feet and landed on his right side injuring his ribs and his elbow (shown below):

Friday evening update from Bill:

Here’s the scoop: cracked lower rib (just let it heal) and a broken bone in the right elbow.

We need a mended Bill because of all his excellent grooming and the course work he does for Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks races. In addition, Bill has been racking up the most miles for our Race Across Alaska Winter Challenge team, Creme de la SCUM

Results/TeamDetails-11790-233994

Here’s are team photo with our ski poles substituting for Poles Husby:

Creme de la SCUM–*photo by Mike Mathers*

Heal quickly, Bill.

Not only do we miss your pace setting, without you out in front, no one gets the picture when one of us head plants into a snowbank. Joanna thought that her documentation of a snowy hat 0.5 km after the fact would stand up as evidence in a court of public opinion. I beg to differ.

She did not get the picture–*photo by Joanna Fox*

Recover quickly, my friend. We miss you. I hope that you get some sort of high-tech cast that allows you to ski and groom while your elbow heals.

Minto Ski

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Are you getting tired of skiing the same trails here in the Fairbanks area? Scott Brucker would like folks to come try out his ski trails in Minto in hopes that we’ll help promote his trails for future ski events.

He emailed:

I’d like to invite you and some folks for a personalized ski session of my trails. It was about 3 weeks ago I had a ‘jib’ ski and skate skied 14 miles of my trails, it was absolutely glorious. I’m trying to obtain/build better drags and figure out a way to put corduroy in the trail. I exploded my snow drag the other day, which really pissed me off when the hitch failed and caught a tree. I figure if I show people it is a good trail, they will pass that on by word of mouth and might be able to help host a race or get school ski programs to come out this way.

Here’s updated google earth Imagery of my trail system.

Roughly 400+ cords of wood now cut and stacked in the past 7 years. So exciting to see the scars I’ve let on the planet. I added about 1.5 miles to the trail from last year. Here is an image of a 9.5 mi route.

They can be combined with other trails for 24 miles of skiing if I really wanted to, but I’ve found maintaining that much trail is exhausting, time consuming, and costly. Right now I’m maintaining 14.5 mi trail as my longest, and a total of 17 miles of trail.

A trip to Minto might make a perfect spring break trip.

Contact Scott if you’re interested: email: sbrucker@yksd.com

Good News! 6 more weeks of winter

Posted on February 2, 2022 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Today, on the Blackhawk Loop, the SCUM groundhogs determined that we’ll have at least 6 more weeks of winter.

Look at the shadows that Bill and Mike saw today:

Bill’s shadows and groomed tracks on the Black Hawk-*-photos by Dan Johnson*

Newly retired Mike Mathers casts long shadows

Don’t be discouraged by the temperatures on the Birch Hill web thermometer. The sun makes the trails feel much warmer now. You can ski under natural lights from about 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. now.

Frank Soos Distance Race #2 Saturday starting at 11:00 a.m. AST

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Sonot Kkaazoot

The groomers have been busy and the weather has cooperated. The biggest uncertainty regarding tomorrow’s 10 or 20 km freestyle event is whether the moose will be foraging along the classical tracks on the Sunnyside after the groomers set the racecourse. This might be a good reason to skate ski.

However, our easy ski today on the Black loops revealed something else on the ski trails that we haven’t seen in a while: amazing glide. Three of us crashed because our skis got away from us. Byron went down on the Corkscrew, I crashed on the Black Baron, and Joanna took a headfirst tumble on the Black Abyss. Byron was wearing teflon pants so he didn’t carry any evidence of his fall like Joanna and I did:

Join us tomorrow, starting at 11:00 a.m. (unless you are Bad Bob Baker) for the Frank Soos Distance Race #2. Homemade gingersnap cookies (Frank’s favorite) at the finish.

Last ski of 2021

Posted on December 31, 2021 by Sonot Kkaazoot

After a week of shoveling out from the two recent storms that dowsed the area with snow and rain, the SCUM were delighted to ski in firm PistenBully tracks today. However, the only photos taken were when they ventured off into the ungroomed snow.

Here the SCUM set “old school” tracks on the Old Tower:

And here’s what the White Bear trail beyond Sonot Junction looks like:

Mom, Joanna, and Norma decide against skiing WB-*-photo by Dan Johnson*

Joanna and Norma were feeling adventuresome so took off and skied Moilanen Meadows following these set tracks:

Moilanen Meadow tracks–*photo by Joanna Fox*

In addition to finding two downed trees on the trail, they found a Winter Trails sign:

Joanna and Norma with Winter Trails sign–photo by Joanna Fox

Norma led them out of the Meadows and back to the Birch Hill stadium but the chilled SCUM had already headed home.

Norma enjoying Moilanen Meadows–photo by Joanna Fox

They’d return for their first ski of 2022 as part of the Ski Your Age in Kilometers event on Saturday.

SCUM ski Moose Mountain (winter solstice + 1 day)

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Today Dan Johnson led the SCUM up Moose Mountain following the trails the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks tour took on Saturday. Once again, Bad Bob Baker had newly groomed their course.

Trees and moon along the trail:

SCUM on Bad Bob’s Moose Mountain trail—*photos by Bill Husby* *unless noted otherwise*

SCUM before sunrise:

Sunrise on Moose Mountain–*photo by Dan Johnson*

Sunrise poses from on top:

Moose Mountain SCUM–*photo by Dan Johnson*

Our leader, Dan raises the SCUM flag (his hat) above Mastodon Rock. He wished he’d had Frank’s poles to raise it higher:

The tour finished with a well-deserved toast, thanks to Eric and his highly fortified and aged eggnog.

And the documentation of their workout:

Santa and SCUM skate FWW traverse

Posted on December 19, 2021 by Sonot Kkaazoot

The amazing Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers had packed and tracked all the major trails at Birch Hill recreation area on Saturday so we had infinite choices today. However, first Santa had to decorate a tree with edible ornaments:

Santa decorates his tree–*all photos and videos by Joanna Fox*

Brightly-lit Santa and Eric decorate the tree

As we were skiing in a winter storm warning, Santa came prepared. Brightly colored lights adorned his hat so that he didn’t need Rudolph or any reindeer for that matter. After skiing the Blue loop (where Dan momentarily lost his “Ho Ho” baseball cap), we skied Outhouse to midway and headed down the Sunnyside trail. At Powerline cutoff, we encountered a mother moose and calf above us:

We chased Eric and Dan down the Sunnyside and Cliffside to the Fort Wainwright alpine hut. Then we headed up the Sonot Connector, where we found amazing glide even on the uphill sections.

We took a break in our climb when the seven SCUM found LOL ornament #7:

However, this feat wasn’t encountered without mishap. Afterall, seven SCUM were involved. See video of how the incident played out:

One SCUM (Dr. Eric Buetow) down at LOL ornament #7

Pointing out our second of the LOL ornaments this week

When we got to the top of the Sonot Connector, we headed back toward the stadium with five of us doing Moilanen Meadows chasing Santa. When we got back to the Santa tree, we encountered the A SCUM.

All of us wish you a wonderful holiday season with family and friends. Plan to celebrate 2022 by skiing the 35th annual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot:

SCUM celebrating the warm weather and new snow around the decorated tree

Lovely new snow brings out the merry SCUM

Posted on December 17, 2021 by Sonot Kkaazoot

New snow and temperatures over 30 deg warmer than they’ve been brought out the merry SCUM on Friday led by a dapper Santa:

Dashing Santa was the only one who could see on the downhills with his goggles–*photo by Joanna Fox*

Here was the gang on the Tower loop:

New retiree, Mike Mathers with arms raised, joins the SCUM–*photo by Joanna Fox*

After Medevac, Dermot was planning on leading us down the Black Baron. However, upon seeing newly set tracks, Santa decided that we’d do the Relay and Tower loops again. The tracks were so fast that one of the younger SCUM was chomping on the tails of Mom, who fell and ended up making a snow angel that destroyed a section of tracks:

Unintentional snow angel with instigator’s ski under victim–photo by Dan Johnson

Everyone agreed that all the new snow made the trails seem magical. It looks like even more snow is headed our way. Hooray for the grooming team. Make sure you’ve made your trail donation.

https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/

Training for the 2022 Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot

Posted on December 15, 2021 by Sonot Kkaazoot

If I recall correctly, it was mid-20s below both at the top of the tower and at the biathlon range. The thermometer on the red building said about -15 deg F.

Rat Ponds Tour at -31 deg F

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Sonot Kkaazoot

Sunset on Rat Ponds tour–*all photos by Bill Husby*

If you dress properly, even -31 deg F, you can enjoy beautiful trails and scenic lakes without leaving Fairbanks. Being part of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks grooming crew, Bill Husby enjoys skiing on trails maintained by others. So, on Monday, Bill headed out on the Rat Ponds tour that had been groomed and marked by Stan Justice. These photos show what he found:

And here is Bill’s documentation of the tour:

Fortunately, for us wimpy skiers, a strong temperature inversion has now set up, so we can avoid the cold temperatures Bill endured by skiing high. However, this post shows, with some advanced planning, enjoyable skiing is possible regardless of the temperature.