Anna writes:
I finally got around to doing my longer ski, the wind last Sunday and blisters yesterday stopped me from doing it sooner. I cut it shorter than intended when they closed the Warming Hut, so only got 80 k instead of my intend 100 k to complete the “Virtual White Mountains 100”. I managed only about 118 k at Birch Hill during the virtual Sonot (skied on 3/21, 3/27, 3/28, total time about 12:20). I did ski 86 k at UAF during the virtual Sonot, but I not going to calculate that total time.
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Anyways, for today, I was going to break the ski into the first 50 k, which was all classic. My 50 k route was a tour of all the groomed trails. I started out with the black loops, then West Ramp, Blue, Outhouse, Sunnyside to Clifftop, rest of Outhouse, rest of Relay, Tower (including Classic Tower), Medevac, East Ramp, Rollercoaster, White Bear with Moilanen’s Meadow, and Warm-up. After one lap, I stopped to wax a different pair of classic skis, shed some layers, and refill my drink belt. I said hi to Donovan. For the second tour lap, I started off trying to get a few of the bits that I was missing: Main Ramp into the part of Relay I was missing by doing Blue, up the sprint wall to the second half of Green Dot, Rollercoaster bypass, somehow ended up taking the sprint elbow downhill, then I started another Tour lap. Tower, Rollercoaster, White Bear with Moilanen’s Meadow (more enjoyable when the kick wax is still kicking), got Sidewinder and the Roundabout on the way out of White Bear Access, at some point I did Loki and the other one in the stadium (could have been before with Rollercoaster bypass), Warmup, and onto the Black Loops. I hit 50 km just before finishing off North Forty’s Corkscrew. 50 k classic total: 5:18 total time, 5:05:45 ski time.
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For the next 30 k it was a mixture of skate and classic. I finished by Tour lap finishing with the trails with more debris, so the rest of Black Loops, Blue Loop, Outhouse (which was pretty clean and not many people ventured onto the full version), Sunnyside, and Relay. I went back to the Warming Hut to change socks, coats, gloves, headband, and boots. Onto skate skiing! I started out by taking White Cub and all of White Bear (Shalane zoomed by me) to the Groomers Ramp, Warmup, White Bear access out to the biathlon range (since I hadn’t ski that trail), took Zoomer’s Cutoff back and went to change to my other skate skis when I heard that the Warming Hut was closed, I grabbed my stuff out and skied part of North Forty, then Green Dot, Rollercoaster Bypass, and a lap in the stadium to bring my total distance for the day up to an even 80 k. That way my stuff didn’t freeze and I didn’t feel like changing into my other classic boots in the cold (my original plan was to change to my classic skin skis for the last 10-15 k). So, for the 40 k add the 13.2 k I did on Friday on my skin skis, the black loops, blue, outhouse, sunnyside (stopped and tried to readjust my boot), and relay before quitting to stop my blister for getting bigger (I put moleskin around it today). 40 k mixed techniques and day’s total: 5:04 total time, 4:44 ski time.
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For the next 30 k it was a mixture of skate and classic. I finished by Tour lap finishing with the trails with more debris, so the rest of Black Loops, Blue Loop, Outhouse (which was pretty clean and not many people ventured onto the full version), Sunnyside, and Relay. I went back to the Warming Hut to change socks, coats, gloves, headband, and boots. Onto skate skiing! I started out by taking White Cub and all of White Bear (Shalane zoomed by me) to the Groomers Ramp, Warmup, White Bear access out to the biathlon range (since I hadn’t ski that trail), took Zoomer’s Cutoff back and went to change to my other skate skis when I heard that the Warming Hut was closed, I grabbed my stuff out and skied part of North Forty, then Green Dot, Rollercoaster Bypass, and a lap in the stadium to bring my total distance for the day up to an even 80 k. That way my stuff didn’t freeze and I didn’t feel like changing into my other classic boots in the cold (my original plan was to change to my classic skin skis for the last 10-15 k). So, for the 40 k add the 13.2 k I did on Friday on my skin skis, the black loops, blue, outhouse, sunnyside (stopped and tried to readjust my boot), and relay before quitting to stop my blister for getting bigger (I put moleskin around it today). 40 k mixed techniques and day’s total: 5:04 total time, 4:44 ski time.
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Might be too tired to explain what I was thinking, to remember my course, or edit my write up but I attached proof of my ski.
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Anna, I’m tired just reading what you skied. Congratulations!
Sonot Kkaazoot 