Spencer Glacier Crust Ski

Placer Valley to Spencer Glacier
April 27th, 2013
44 kms (28 miles); 3 hrs 10 min.

For me this is a "Must Do" trip every year.  I had been watching the conditions for a while and Saturday, April 27th, promised the right conditions and great weather.  I started out at about 8:20 am.  The temperature was around 28 F (-2 C) and the crust had set up nicely.

The first few miles up the Placer Valley were hampered by heavy snow machine traffic earlier in the year.  But once I got past Skookum Creek, the conditions improved.  The conditions up valley did not disappoint, and the farther I went, the better the crust got.  Spencer Glacier was in great condition.  I was able to ski 2 miles up the glacier.  With a small detour I would have been able to gain the upper snowfield, but the time was getting late and I decided to turn around and get back to the car before the snow got too soft.

I got back at noon which was perfect timing because the crust was just beginning to break down.  On the return, I stayed on the west side of the railroad tracks all the way down to Skookum Creek.  The crust and snow conditions were better on the west side, and there were also fewer snow machine tracks to deal with on this side.

Once again the Placer Valley delivered a great crust ski opportunity. 

One of these years, I will start early enough to gain the main snow/ice-field and look down onto the Blackstone Glacier and Blackstone Bay.

 

8 am start from the Portage Hwy.  Still plenty of snow.

"No snow machine" signs don't seem to deter the snow machiners.

 

Looking down the Placer Valley with Blueberry Hill and Kinnikinnick Mnt in the center background.

 

 

Spencer Glacier.  The mountains in the background are unnamed.  They reach about 5200 ft elevation.  The snowfield in the mid-distance is at 1500-2500 ft. My turnaround point was just short of the far "ice-fall" at 1500 ft.

Lots of ice-blue lakes on the glacier

Crust-skiable glacier - not your everyday occurrence!  Coming back down, the crust surface was just starting to melt, allowing me to carve S-turns down the glacier ridges.

At the turn-around point.

Spencer Glacier terminus.

 

East to South panorama of the Spencer Glacier and surrounding (unnamed) mountains.

Anchorage State Coastal Wildlife Refuge: Potter to Kincaid

Potter to Kincaid roundtrip along the Anchorage Coastal State Wildlife Refuge

39 kilometers (24  miles), 2 1/2 hours

Crust ski with Trond Flagstad, Brad Cruz, Matias Saari, Lasse Moelgaard - Nielsen & Davis Dunlap

 

We started out at 7:15 am from the Potter Marsh parking lot and was done before 10 am.  The crust was best right up against the bluff as well as close to the high tide mark.  In between it was punchy and inconsistent.

 

Note:  If you decide to ski below the Rabbit Creek shooting range, make sure you are long gone before the range opens.  Official hours are from 10 am to 5:45 pm, Wednesday through Sunday.

 

River crossings were easiest towards the high tide mark rather than closer to the bluff.

 

Wildlife: Canada geese, Snow geese, Coyotees, Moose, Mallards, Bald Eagles

 

 

 

Sunrise over the Chugach mountains

 Brad cruising westbound with Oceanview in the background

 



Crossing of Campbell Creek requires unclipping and balancing across on frozen mud and ice

Always a good sign of spring: the arrival of the geese

The crossing of Rabbit Creek

Crust cruising with Chugach mnts (left) and Kenai mnts (right) in the background

 Towards Pt. ampbell only a narrow tongue of snow remains between the bluff and the frozen mud and ice

Watch Lasse's youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVZEQ12SNEQ

 



Trond Flagstad cruising between the icebergs

Matias and Trond F below the bluff by Kincaid

Heading back towards Potter Marsh railroad depot

Done for today:  Crossing the Seward Hgwy at Potter Marsh

Nancy Lakes Snowmachine Trail Ski

Nancy Lakes Snowmachine Trail Ski with Brad Cruz, April 14th
52 kilometers (33 miles)

With crust ski conditions still not in season, Brad Cruz and I decided to head up to Nancy Lakes to ski some of the snow machine trails.  We started from mile 2.5 at the Nancy Lakes highway and skied in to South Rolly Lake campground along the road.  From we skied south across Red Shirt Lake and Cow Lake.  We then took a small detour to check out the conditions along the Iron Dog trail.  This trail was in great shape and would be excellent for a longer ski.  We headed back to the Cow Lake trail (single track) which we double poled over to the East Butterfly lake.  From there we headed north along the Nancy Lakes canoe trail across Buckley Lake #1, Candle Stick lake, Echo Ponds, Lynx Lake, Charr Lake, Owl Lake, James Lake, Chicken Lake, Big and Little Noluck Lakes, and finally Tanaina Lake.

Conditions were great on the way out; hardpacked and wide snow machine trails.  The conditions were not so good on the way back.  Only narrow and old snow machine trails made for a lot of double poling.

 Nancy Lakes hgwy trailhead.  It promises to be a glorious day

 

 On the Big Lake Snowmachine Trail system.  The trails are well marked

Trond on the Iron Dog trail with Mt Susitna in the background

 

 Iron Dog trail panorama

 

 

Done!  Tanaina lake in the background.

Bienvenido a Asiago

Master's World Cup in Asiago, Italy

February 12-24th, 2013

February 14th:

This year's main skiing goal is the Masters' World Cup in Asiago, Italy.  The next few days will tell if I can improve upon the last couple of years' results.  At Sovereign Lake (Canada) in 2011 I got a couple of 5th places and in Oberwiesenthal (Germany) in 2012 I got a 7th and an 8th place.  We also got a silver on the relay in 2011 and a bronze in 2012.

We've had a couple of days of acclimatization so far.  The conditions are great.  -8C at night, +2C at mid-day.  Every day so far has been Extra Blue skiing.  Hope this keeps up.

I will be skiing the 30 km classic on Feb 17th, the 10 km classic on the 18th, (hopefully) the 4x5 km relay on the 20th, and the 45 km classic on Feb 22nd.

Trond, Brad Cruz and Barbara Norton at the Asiago ski stadium.

February 16th:

First day of competitions: 30 km skate. 

The men's M5 field with US skier Kent Murdoch in the lead

M6 leaders: Guido Masiero (ITA), Jon Engen (USA) and Domenico Invernizzi (ITA).  Jon Engen ended up taking the silver medal.

Brad Cruz (APU, Anchorage, Alaska & USA) in his World Cup debut.  47th place. Excellentia!

February 17th: 30 km classic.

Two years ago in Canada I was 13th in this event, last year in Germany I was 13th. This had not been my strongest event. But I had hopes for improvement today.

I had a good start, first out of the stadium, but it was downhill from there, literally and figuratively. My legs were dead after 1 km and I had to work hard the whole way. Result: 9th place (could have been worse, could have been better). Tomorrow is another chance (10 km classic).

February 18th:  10 km races (skate and classic). 

The 10 km classic was my second competition here in Asiago.  We had another day of great conditions, -8C in the morning and firm, fast tracks.  Waxing was no problem.  I started out hard and stayed with the lead group for about 1 km.  But they slowly got away from me and I had to work alone.  My legs felt better today than yesterday, and I am pleased with my performance.  And I was only 1:10 out at the finish.  12th placce wasn't exactly what I had wanted, but I am closer in time than I have been in the last couple of years, so I should be happy with the result. 

Tomorrow is a rest day, and then we have the relays on Wednesday, February 20th.  Chao for now.

Inga Scheve on her way to a bonze medal in the 10 km skate.

Brad Cruz (M6) after his first ever sub-30 minute 10 km.  Way to go Brad.

Third place finisher Inga Scheve (F2) and 4th place finisher Kent Murdoch (M5) after the 10 km skate race.

February 19th: Rest Day

A blue bell day; -12C in the morning and lots of sun.  It was hard to sit still with conditions like this.  So I did an easy 22 km workout on some trails overlooking the Vicenza area.  There are 100's of kilometers of trails like the one shown below ... plenty of opportunity to do some touring.

View overlooking Asiago and Vicenza

February 20th: 4 x 5 km relay

You'd think I had been doing this long enough not to get very nervous.  Think again.  I was set up to ski the first leg for the US M5 team.  The other team members were Odd Bersvendsen, Jon Engen and Kent Murdoch.  All the best classic skiers from the 30 km and 10 km classic events were lined up on the first leg.  I was shaking in my ski suit.  I got a good start, but quickly noticed that my kick wasn't too good.  Right after the start, Alexander Klinov stepped on my back-skies and I almost did a banana peel backwards fall.  By the time I recovered, Italy, Switzerland and Austria had gotten a 20 meter gap.  The gap grew to about 50 meters at 1 km.  But I felt good today, and I slowly managed to close the gap. At 3 km I was ajour with the three in the lead.  On the last few hills, the front quartett broke apart and at the exchange there was about 5 seconds between each team with me in the fourth place about 15 seconds out of the lead.

Odd Bersvendsen on the second leg and Jon Engen on the third leg closed the gap and at the beginning of the fourth leg, Italy, the US and Russia were in the lead together.  But Russia and Italy had the two best skaters on the last leg and that proved to be too muh for Kent.  We came in third about 30 seconds behind the winner Italy.  But we all had very good races today and we were very happy with the solid third place.

From left, Russia in 2nd plaec (ALexander Klinov, Sergey Ivanov, Alexandr Davydov, Iosef Kunitskiy), winner Italy (Valentino De Martin Blanc, Olivo Antoniacomi, Gianni Pensara, Gianfranco Pulvara), and team US (Trond Jensen, Odd Bersvendsen, Jon Engen, Kent Murdoch) in third place.

February 21st: 45 km skate

Today, I watched the skate race and did a short ski and some wax testing.  A troublesome cough got worse towards the evening.  I hope nothing is brewing because I really want to do well in the 45 km classic tomorrow.

February 22nd: 45 km classic.

Game over for me.  I have developed a bad chest cold and I am not even starting the race today.  Bummer!  Better luck next time.

Results:

http://www.mwc2013.com/en/dirdocument.aspx?idDirDocumenti=7

Nancy Lakes Skate

November 11th, 2012
Nancy Lakes Ice Skate and Skate Ski
16 miles, 3 hrs

Cold temperatures and little snow set up very good ice skating opportunities around Anchorage in early November.  We grabbed the chance on Sunday to test the conditions on Nancy Lakes.  And we were not disappointed.  Perfect ice under 3 inches of fluff. 

Flash starting out on Tanaina Lake. Nice form!

Trond Flagstad on Tanaina Lake.

Sunshine and perfect conditions.

We made a 16 mile loop where we crossed some 20 lakes.  The lakes are quite close together and trails connect the lakes making the "portages" very easy.

Even skate skiing was pretty decent, although the snow had not bonded to the ice so the conditions put a premium on riding on a flat ski ... good for early season technique work.

Flash making a turnaround on one of the small sloughs.

Trond F and Flash coming back across Echo pond.

Equipment malfunction: Trond F had to one-skate the last 3 miles when a binding came off of one of his skates.  It didn't seem to slow him down much though.  I still had a hard time keeping up on my skate skis.