Callie Underwood was out training for the Sonot Kkaazoot in the sunshine and fast snow, how about you?
Late registration is 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, 26 March 2015 at the Doyon, Ltd. Headquarters (downtown).
Photo by Bill Husby
The Chena River is really looking good. To keep the ski bottoms of Sonot Kkaazoot skiers looking good, we need volunteers to haul clean snow over to the icy and gravel covered area under the Steese Highway bridge. Volunteers with shovels and sleds are needed from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday evening, 25 March 2015. Bill Husby is organizing this event and will have sleds and shovels available if you don’t have them. If we get enough help, we can set up several snow stockpiles to be spread on Friday night/Saturday morning.
Meet at the Graehl Land boat launch. Questions: Bill Husby at 460-2130.
Here’s what the trail looked like today.
Photo by Bill Husby.
We skied from Birch Hill to 2 km from the Sonot Kkaazoot start and the trails look amazingly good considering the week of warm weather. If the river still looks good at mid-week, we’ll need some snow enhancement work on the Sonot Connector (where a errant truck got stuck), some brushing and snow enhancement on the ditch between the Fort Wainwright alpine hill and the river, and some additional snow under the highway bridges. However, the ditch looks pretty good in most areas thanks to the brushing done by the Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks groomers and Bad Bob Baker, and the piston bully work of Jeff from Fort Wainwright.
The Chena River itself has the usual spring open water spots but was still very enjoyable today.
Late registration and bib pick-up for the 2015 Sonot Kkaazoot is this Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Doyon Ltd Headquarters downtown.
Enjoy the Spring skiing.
Although the current 7-day forecast isn’t optimal for training for the Sonot Kkaazoot, it is optimal for setting up the traditional Sonot Kkaazoot course that has skiers skiing 20 km on the Chena River.
Yesterday, Bad Bob Baker spent 5 hours dragging and grooming the entire Chena River section of the Sonot Kkaazoot to “race width.” The thick new blanket of snow has now been compressed and mixed with unfrozen areas so hopefully things will freeze back up thicker and firmer than before. So, keep your fingers crossed that a week of consistent cold will allow the 2015 Sonot Kkaazoot to be held on our traditional course with the Chena River start and finish. Stay tuned!
Also on Monday, groomers Tom Helmers, Bill Husby, and Ken Coe assisted by Bad Bob cleared brush near the 20 km turnaround and along the ditch from the river to the Fort Wainwright alpine hill. It’s up to Mother Nature now.
Although two recent Nordic Ski Club of Fairbanks events have been postponed due to cold, 2014 was the 4th warmest year in Fairbanks in over a century.
http://akclimate.org/Summary/Annual/Fairbanks/2014
Nordic skiers in Fairbanks are just not acclimated yet. Look at how much warmer (red bars) we’ve been than normal this winter. Also, remember we had a cold dip last January as well as a colder than normal February.
We should embrace our cold because our ski trails are snow-covered, and they won’t be melting soon. This cold weather is also good news for skiing on the Chena River this winter and spring.
Six hardy volunteers (aged 56 to 71) moved large quantities of snow last night to prevent Sonot Kkaazoot skiers from damaging their ski bottoms on highway gravel embedded into the icy surface of the Chena River underneath highway bridges. Huge thanks go out to Bill Husby, Chris Puchner, Donovan Granger, Mike Schmoker, Owen Hanley, and Carol Kleckner, who worked for three hours to make the river even better skiing.
As of 6 p.m. on 3/27/14, Bad Bob (chief of course) is now 99% sure the race will be on the river!
The Arctic Winter Games are over and the secret is out: the best skiing of the season at Birch Hill Recreation Area is now. Today at 11:00 a.m. ADT, it was 24 deg F and sunny at Birch Hill but air temperatures had risen above freezing by 1:00 p.m. However, with low temperatures near zero predicted for the river this week, the Sonot Kkaazoot should be able to safely start and finish on the Chena River near the Cushman Street bridge. The plan is for the groomers to head out on Tuesday to look over the length of the river and ditch course sections, and then if they deem the course safe, will groom on Wednesday. Thus, a final decision on the course will be made before bib pick-up, to be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, 27 March 2014 at the Doyon, Ltd., Headquarters Building in downtown Fairbanks.
Look at these happy skiers who had already skied about 10 km before they were planning to ski down the Black Hole:
All 50 km of trails will look this wonderful on Saturday, too.
All photos by Sam Lamont
Sonot Kkaazoot 