"P" is for Portage

Every year, UAA and UAF have a ski-racing showdown.  And every year, the grudge match happens before Thanksgiving. It's called the Alaska Cup. It's Alaska's college ski racing championship, and it takes place long before any other ski races of any consequence. Before most skiers have even done an early-season time trial. Before most skiers have even strapped on their skis for the first on-snow training session of the season. Why so early?  Because it's a good excuse for both teams to get in an early-season race.  And because the rest of the season is too busy to cram in another race.

Fairbanks generally has a significant advantage when it comes to the Alaska Cup. The UAF ski team always gets on snow far earlier than everyone else. Often, their first local skiing workouts happen in September. By the time Alaska Cup weekend rolls around, UAA has typically scratched around on local snow a few times and has made a few weekend trips to Hatcher Pass, while UAF has had daily skiing for six weeks, more or less. And the results bear out the climate differences.  Over the past 11 years, UAF has won the Alaska Cup seven times.  UAA won it twice, and there was a tie in there somewhere.

This year, we went to UAF to race on their home course, and we haven't had much snow around here lately. So I have to admit I wasn't too optimistic about our chances this year. Nevertheless, we managed to bring home the Alaska Cup. It was our third win in eleven years. I wasn't there myself, though I did hear some rumors about how the races played out.  I heard that Mackenzie skied a tactically conservative and smart race, saving enough to blast through the last 200 meters to win the women's race.  I heard that after UAF's Hallvard Evjestad got away from the pack right from the starting gun, Clement managed to chase him down midway through the race.  Though he got a little pooped out on climb the back to the stadium, he hung on for second place in the college race (third overall). I heard that although Manon had a banged-up shoulder that she'd suffered in a commuter-bike accident a couple days earlier, she wanted to race real bad, and put on a bib for the relay, which enabled her teammate Pati to race with her as UAA's #2 relay team. Etienne texted me during the weekend and told me that spirits are high and the team is feeling good and looking forward to the racing season.

I stole this picture from the UAA Ski Team facebook page, in case you're wondering.

Here are the relevant news links:
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You'd better check out all the links, or you'll fall behind.  It's early in the season.  Don't fall behind.
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I stole this picture from Viktor's blog, in case you're wondering.

See anything unusual in this photo?
No?
Me neither.  Everything seems pretty normal here.  Here's our friend Viktor on Swedish TV at the 2.2km mark in the opening race of the year, racing with most of the best Swedes in a 15k race in Bruksvallarna. He's winning the race. No surprises there. (Brannmark is Swedish for "scorched earth", which I've always found very appropriate.) That Lindstrom guy who's 3.5 seconds behind Viktor?  He went on to win the race. But here's the new and exciting thing we've all been looking forward to:  Viktor managed to keep skiing fast all the way to the finish.  He finished 17th against a really tough field.  So Viktor continues to make progress toward his ultimate goal of being a regular on the World Cup circuit for the Swedish team. Congratulations on a promising start to the season, Viktor! Your old teammates and coaches are cheering for you here in Alaska!
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Meanwhile, since there's not much snow around here, D and I went skating around the Lynx Lake Canoe Trail.  Nothing too exciting, but I'm going to post some photos anyway.