FasterSkier

Tag: bill

  • Crust Ski To Twentymile Glacier

    The Twentymile River valley has lots of great terrain for crust skiing, and a couple of cool lakes to explore.  But it can be finicky.  Often times, when enough melting has occurred to create crust, the alders have started popping up, or the section near the road has turned to swamp.  You need a lot of snow to get a good crust window.  So this year Twentymile, like most other crust destinations in Southcentral, was the best I’ve ever seen it.

    Bill and I only had a few hours before work, so we made a quick out and back run straight to the glacier.

    GPS Track here

    Heading upriver
    Heading upriver
    Hope you sharpened your edges
    Hope you sharpened your edges
    Twentymile Glacier
    Twentymile Glacier
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski - P4110026.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski – P4110026.JPG
    There's white gold in them thar hills!
    There's white gold in them thar hills!
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski - P4110029.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski – P4110029.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski - P4110030.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski – P4110030.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski - P4110035.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski – P4110035.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski - P4110036.JPG
    Twentymile Glacier Crust Ski – P4110036.JPG
    Cruising along the Glacier River
    Cruising along the Glacier River
    Heading home
    Heading home
    Yeehaw!
    Yeehaw!

     

  • Tokositna Loop

    I like a lot of variety in my ski routes, and so I don’t often do the same trips multiple times.  But this was my third time doing the Curry Ridge Rider’s Tokositna Loop.   It is such a great ski, its worth doing a few times.

    Rob, Bill, Kate, Chris and I are all trying to get ready for the White Mountains 100, and the Tokositna loop is great training for that.  For a little variation, we skied it counter-clockwise this year, and I have to say, I think I like that way better.  We hit a pretty good snowstorm that dumped at least 4 inches of snow on us during the day.  So it was slow going and I didn’t take any photos, but it was fun and really good training.

    GPS track here

     

  • Frosty Bottom 50

    I did the Frosty Bottom 50 mile race this year for the first time since 2007.  The race goes from Kincaid Park to Hilltop and back to Kincaid.  You  can bike it, ski it or run it.  I am sure you can guess my chosen mode of travel.

    My friends Seth and Bill were doing the 25 mile version and I had a great time skiing with them  to Hilltop.  Unfortunately, I didn’t eat or drink enough during that first half of the race, and I paid for it in the second half.  On the way back down the Chester Creek trail, I finally slowed a bit to reload on food and water, but by then it was too late.  Chet Fehrman caught and passed me at Westchester Lagoon.  I rebounded slightly on the coastal trail, and managed to keep Chet in sight, but I just couldn’t reel him in.  I finished as the second skier, 36 seconds behind Chet.  I was happy with my time and the way my body performed.

    Last time I did this race, there were seven people who finished the 50, and about 30 racers in both the 25 & 50 mile events.  Man, things have changed.  There were 70 people in the 50 miler, and close to 150 in the in 25 this year.  Wow, not bad for a day that was barely above zero degrees F!

    Results here

    GPS track here

  • The Long Commute

    In early January, Bill and I were looking to do a long ski, but close to home.  My original idea was to try to ski from his house to my house, taking the long way around town.  We ended up modifying the route to minimize walking, and it became more like a ski from my office to my house.

    I try to ski to work occasionally during the winter, and it takes about an hour each way.  Clearly that wasn’t going to cut it for a “long” ski, so we took inspiration from Tim Kelley  (as usual) and used the Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge to connect the two main multi-use trails in town.  We started down the Campbell Creek trail, across the amazingly groomed trail on Campbell Lake, along a snowmobile track on the coastal plain to Kincaid Park, then took the Coastal Trail to the Chester Creek trail, and the Tour trail to Service High School.

    A four and a half hour commute home from work – probably not something I can fit in every day!

    View our GPS track & stats here.

    The Long Commute - IMG_1333.JPG
    The Long Commute – IMG_1333.JPG
    The Long Commute - IMG_1336.JPG
    The Long Commute – IMG_1336.JPG

  • Crust Season 2011

    Crust skiing is hard to predict. That is part of the attraction, and it adds to the thrill when you nail a perfect crust day.

    2011 was a relatively low snow year in southcentral Alaska, and it seemed that the general consensus was that the lack of snow would result in a poor crust season. But snow is only one factor that goes into baking good crust. Clear, sunny weather is just as important, and April this year had a lot of clear, sunny weather. As a result, there was a lot of good crust to be found this spring. It just goes to show that we should never try to predict crust conditions more than 12 hours in advance.

    But the predictions were right about one thing – my crust season wasn’t very good. The sunny weather just didn’t seem to mesh with my schedule. This is why I am continuing my campaign to make every sunny day in April a state holiday.

    But I did get out a few times to the usual spots: Portage, Center Creek, Glen Alps. And last weekend, Tim’s photos tempted Bill, Chris and I into a great day at Dogsled Pass.

    Here is a “quick hits” photo gallery of my crust season 2011:
     

    Center Creek

     

  • Crust Season 2011

    Crust skiing is hard to predict. That is part of the attraction, and it adds to the thrill when you nail a perfect crust day.

    2011 was a relatively low snow year in southcentral Alaska, and it seemed that the general consensus was that the lack of snow would result in a poor crust season. But snow is only one factor that goes into baking good crust. Clear, sunny weather is just as important, and April this year had a lot of clear, sunny weather. As a result, there was a lot of good crust to be found this spring. It just goes to show that we should never try to predict crust conditions more than 12 hours in advance.

    But the predictions were right about one thing – my crust season wasn’t very good. The sunny weather just didn’t seem to mesh with my schedule. This is why I am continuing my campaign to make every sunny day in April a state holiday.

    But I did get out a few times to the usual spots: Portage, Center Creek, Glen Alps. And last weekend, Tim’s photos tempted Bill, Chris and I into a great day at Dogsled Pass.

    Here is a “quick hits” photo gallery of my crust season 2011:
     

    Center Creek

     

  • Crust Season 2011

    Crust skiing is hard to predict. That is part of the attraction, and it adds to the thrill when you nail a perfect crust day.

    2011 was a relatively low snow year in southcentral Alaska, and it seemed that the general consensus was that the lack of snow would result in a poor crust season. But snow is only one factor that goes into baking good crust. Clear, sunny weather is just as important, and April this year had a lot of clear, sunny weather. As a result, there was a lot of good crust to be found this spring. It just goes to show that we should never try to predict crust conditions more than 12 hours in advance.

    But the predictions were right about one thing – my crust season wasn’t very good. The sunny weather just didn’t seem to mesh with my schedule. This is why I am continuing my campaign to make every sunny day in April a state holiday.

    But I did get out a few times to the usual spots: Portage, Center Creek, Glen Alps. And last weekend, Tim’s photos tempted Bill, Chris and I into a great day at Dogsled Pass.

    Here is a “quick hits” photo gallery of my crust season 2011:
     

    Center Creek

     

  • Crust Season 2011

    Crust skiing is hard to predict. That is part of the attraction, and it adds to the thrill when you nail a perfect crust day.

    2011 was a relatively low snow year in southcentral Alaska, and it seemed that the general consensus was that the lack of snow would result in a poor crust season. But snow is only one factor that goes into baking good crust. Clear, sunny weather is just as important, and April this year had a lot of clear, sunny weather. As a result, there was a lot of good crust to be found this spring. It just goes to show that we should never try to predict crust conditions more than 12 hours in advance.

    But the predictions were right about one thing – my crust season wasn’t very good. The sunny weather just didn’t seem to mesh with my schedule. This is why I am continuing my campaign to make every sunny day in April a state holiday.

    But I did get out a few times to the usual spots: Portage, Center Creek, Glen Alps. And last weekend, Tim’s photos tempted Bill, Chris and I into a great day at Dogsled Pass.

    Here is a “quick hits” photo gallery of my crust season 2011:

  • The Best Ski Loop In Alaska

    A quick peek around the internet today revealed that a lot of skiers and bikers were out on the back-country trails of Alaska getting in one last training run/ride/ski before the Susitna 100 in two weeks. Looks like most of them were on the Su 100 course somewhere between Point Mackenzie and Luce’s Lodge. It’s […]

  • Eureka

    Eureka has some of the most scenic snow machine trails in Alaska, and its always fun to ski there. Bill, Kate, Rob and I are all trying to get ready for the White Mountains 100 race in March.  So we wanted to get out for a long ski on some trails with good hills.  Eureka […]

  • The Annual Trip To Willow

    On December 12th, Bill, Rachel, Kate, Danielle and I headed up to Willow to ski the same loop that, coincidentally, we skied exactly a year ago.  I say that it was a coincidence, but the Su Valley rivers usually don’t start freezing up safe for travel until early December, and we’re always itching to get […]