On Sunday, Glen Gambrell, who is 54 years old, a pup compared to the first two entries in this year’s virtual Denali State Bank Sonot Kkaazoot, finished his 10-km Sonot Kkaazoot course in 1:25:19 on classical skis. He commented “it was a glorious sunny Sunday afternoon with temps in the upper teens. Snow was fast and I was not!”
Speed is relative and anytime you can skii long enough to burn 1333 kcals, I think you’re moving right along. I’m glad you enjoyed the sunshine and glorious tracks.
If you’ve been waiting for warmer temperatures to do your virtual Sonot Kkaazoot, you might find yourself plodding through more new snow. The extended weather outlooks for the remaining weeks before the 2021 Denali State Bank Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot ends are not springlike.
Here are the predictions for this weekend’s temperature and precipitation:
And here are the predictions for the following week:
So, those skiers who wait until the Sonot Kkaazoot weekend may have kilometer markers, but there’s no guarantee of springlike weather. So enjoy the great grooming now and start skiing your virtual Sonot Kkaazoot.
Byron Broda has finished his 10-km Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot for 2021. He wrote in submitting his result:
“Old guy on slow snow but great tracks. Fun, sunny morning. About 5 degrees F in the stadium. Get out and enjoy the grooming. “
Byron’s time was 1:06.00. So right now SCUM skiers are the only official Sonot Kkaazoot entries. Where are all the younger skiers?
Eric Troyer reports:
“Only the 50 and 10 K versions left!”
He continutes, “After I did the 30K I went and got my first COVID vaccination shot. Then I picked up Thai takeout and when I got home Corrine had a chocolate cake for me (my birthday was yesterday). It was a good day!”
Happy belated birthday, Eric! You are the first official entry in the 2021 Virtual 30 km Sonot Kkaazoot with a time of 3:01.39!
With temperatures a chilly -16 deg F in the Birch Hill stadium and -23 deg F at Fort Wainwright at 10 a.m., the remedial SCUM opted out of doing a Birch Bakken climb. Instead, seeing as the South Classical Loops had been groomed yesterday (Thursday), we decided today would be a great day for the South Classical Loops.
Being guided on our workout by one of the illustrious Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers meant that we were allowed to break some of the trail guidelines. To stay in the sun, we skied the Relay loop backwards, and then skied the Outhouse backwards until we intersected the Sunnyside and Cliffside Trails. After a quick descent in the set tracks, we all arrived at Fort Wainwright with chilly hands but still upright.
Climbing the Sonot Connector in the deep Yellowstone tracks, we first tackled the Chinook Loop as several of us hadn’t skied it yet this season. Conditions were perfect and even the downhills were easily traversed as shown below by Don Pendergrast:
The remedial SCUM were a little stunned when we emerged from the Chinook Loop with no snow adhering to our ski gear. No one had fallen. A historic day in the making.
Figuring that we were on a roll, we decided that our work could be postponed another hour so we could also ski the Blackhawk Loop. The sunshine felt so good after a gray week of snow scooping. Here is the SCUM salute to the groomers as we alll finish the Blackhawk loop in the tracks and without any sitzmarks.
With real work and school work to return to, we skied up the rest of the Sonot Connector and back on the White Bear to the stadium, where we met up with Tom Helmers, head groomer, out for a ski on the trails he set yesterday. That called for one more selfie by Joanna of the remedial SCUM and two of our NSCF groomers:
What a great way to celebrate the return of the sun. Remember, to spring forward your clocks on Sunday.
Thanks to Denali State Bank, title sponsor for the Sonot Kkaazoot for 34 years, and the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks, all virtual Sonot skiers will receive at no cost, 34th Annual Denali State Bank Virtual Sonot Kkaazoot facemasks.
These facemasks were designed by Daniel Baker, son of Bad Bob Baker, Sonot Kkaazoot race organizer. We’ll let you know where to pick-up your facemask after you report your time(s).
After our warm and dry January in Fairbanks, February brought back the cold and snow. According to the National Weather Service Fairbanks, here’s how the month stacked up.
For average temperatures:
and for snowfall:
Our Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers have been putting a lot of hours of work to keep up with the nearly constant snowfall. Please help them continue their grooming as the days become longer and warmer in March by making an additional donation here:
https://nordicskicluboffairbanks.wildapricot.org/Donate/
Remember the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks supports all grooming at Birch Hill Recreation Area. To allow safe skiing during the COVID-19 pandemic as in more normal times, please support trail grooming efforts.
When three of the groomers for the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks spend their Saturday night grooming and tracking all the major trails at the Birch Hill Recreation Area, the SCUM felt compelled to ski these trails on Sunday morning.
Unfortunately, only four of us showed up at 10 a.m. Sunday morning as the snow that fell after midnight posed a preliminary scooping and shoveling workout on our driveways before arriving to 4 inches of newly fallen snow at Birch Hill.
Only Bill Husby, our SCUM groomer, arrived suitably attired with flashy googles that proved essential while skiing through pelting snow that the wind and our awesome speed created.
After checking out whether we could stay in the tracks on the downhill of the Blue Loop, we ventured out to the Sunnyside and Cliffside where were created rooster tails as we skied downhill.
Once we got to the bottom of Cliffside and skied onto the Fort Wainwright alpine ski facility, we found newly groomed corduroy heading straight up the Fort Wainwright alpine hill to the left of the tubing hill. We abandoned the idea of skiing up the Sonot Connector (under a half foot of unpacked snow). Instead we skied up the right side of the FWW alpine hill like we did during the first decade of the Sonot Kkaazoot. Unfortunately, the grooming didn’t extend over to the top of the Sonot Connector, so we had some deep new snow to traverse.
Once on the White Bear Trail, we needed to ski to Hilltop junction because it’s Norma Haubenstock’s favorite hill, and in doing so we passed a trail marker that Don had placed on a tree on in the 1970s as part of his first job in Interior Alaska.
Eventually, the slushing through the deep powder was tiring out everyone except the “Every Ready” Husby who taunted us around the rest of the White Bear and Moilanen Meadows:
It was an absolutely lovely day on the trails and except for the tubing hilll where we saw kids enjoying the snow, we saw no one until we were nearly back to the Birch Hill stadium after our 2 hour ski.
With the Sonot Kkaazoot less than a month away, we were getting our long overdistance training done. How about you?
It’s official, from the National Weather Service:
The Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers have been doing their magic without new snow to dilute the birch seed and other vegetative debris.
As care coordinator for volunteers of the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks race events, Norma Haubenstock plays a huge role in making sure things run smoothly. So for her birthday on Sunday, the SCUM feted her during our tour of the Nordale Flats.
The 20 km course had been carefully marked by Pat Lovely and John Estle, who had started at 0800 on two snowmachines to ready the course for the 1000 start by the slower skiers led by Don Pendergrast. The 1100 wave of skiers were led by John and finished right behind the last the 1000 skiers.
Here’s a map of our popsicle course, where the major climb parallels Heart Rate Hill at Birch Hill Recreation Area:
Leaving from John and Norma’s driveway, we walked down Wilderness Drive to the start of the trail:
When we left it was roughly 6 deg F at Birch Hill and -5 deg in the valley, so we started skiing to warm chilly fingers:
By the time we reached a small pond (where you can see the North Star classical trail at Birch Hill), we stopped to sing happy birthday to Norma:
With any group, certain individuals play key roles. For us, there was Don Pendergrast, our fearless leader, who made sure none of us got left behind:
The cabooses, Susan and Bernardo, who switched off being the red lantern.
And of course, Bill Husby, the chief instigator of falls and crashes:
As you’ll note, Bill had a face mask handy as he was not always social distancing when he was luring SCUM into potential crash sites with his phone rolling in video mode.
By the time we had finished the loop and needed to ascend Heart Rate Hill again, additional kick wax was needed:
The temperature and trail conditions were perfect for a several hour tour of woods very close to Birch Hill Recreation Area. Huge thanks go to Pat Lovely and John Estle for course marking (and take down) and John and Norma for hosting the group of very happy skiers.
Sonot Kkaazoot 