Travel Travails

We like to ski to work whenever we can.

 Some people think it's a bummer to get marooned in western Alaska in a mid-winter ice storm.  Toom and I traveled west earlier this week to take a look at a few houses scattered across the landscape. It took us a couple attempts to get to where we wanted to go. Our first flight was cancelled. But it wasn't cancelled while we were in the airport, waiting to go. It was cancelled when we were about a thousand feet above the airstrip at our destination. We were a little late to our destination because, as we approached, we got word that a squall had come through and covered the airstrip in a layer of ice. So we flew laps above the airport while the crew de-iced the landing strip. After a half-hour or so, we got word that everyone was ready and waiting for us on the ground. But just around the time I would have expected to look out the window and see the ground a thousand feet below, the pilot hit the gas, pulled the nose up, and back we went to Anchorage. We were told that visibility had reduced to zero on the ground at just the very last moment.

You can stash your luggage in the forest and it's usually there when you get back to it.

So that day was pretty much spent, and we went back to the Anchorage Int'l airport the following morning for another try. No problems getting to our destination this time. But the word on the mean streets of Dillingham was we'd better get across the bay and out of there before nightfall because more weather was coming at us from across the Bering Sea. So we rounded up a pilot, a Piper Navajo, and a volleyball player from Manakotak trying to get to Anchorage in time for her charter flight to Arctic Winter Games in Alberta, and we flew across the bay, to a big, beautiful paved military runway from from whence we were pretty sure we'd make it back to Anchorage in time for Saturday's interval workout with the Seawolves.

Skiers and volleyball players.

But we were thwarted once again! Another blast of icy rain blew through right around the time we were planning to board a flight out of here. It caused all the cars and houses and trees to become encased in a layer of ice, it dropped traffic speeds from 55mph to 20mph, it caused a guy name Joe to slide his pickup truck into the ditch right outside the airport, and it made it so that the two dead caribou that were being dragged back into town behind a guy on a snowmachine hardly got scuffed up at all, due to the icy sheen covering everything. And it caused our airplane to bail on us, leaving us here for another night.

Bristol Bay

So we're not at practice with the Seawolves this Saturday morning, and it's kind of a bummer. Because I bet todays workout is a good one! 

If you're in a western village overnight, there might be a basketball tournament you can go to.

But the weather and prospects for today's flight are looking much better! If we can just make it back to Anchorage by 6am on Tuesday, then we'll be able to board the plane with the team for our next Skiwolf road trip, to Colorado.

This was was last week on Kodiak Island; not this week in Bristol Bay. Note the sushi platter on the dashboard.

One Team

Our home training hill at Arctic Valley in Anchorage.

Through most of the winter, the Seawolf downhillers and the Seawolf uphillers are on different travel schedules. But we're the same team, and we're competing in the same RMISA ski meets. Often, as in the case of the MSU Invitational, we will complete the nordic portion of the event one week, but the ski meet won't be over until a couple weeks later when the alpiners show up and do their thing to finish off the event. You may wonder why it's scheduled this way. For-profit alpine resorts are not motivated to host ski races on the busy weekends because that's when the lifts and slopes fill up with paying customers. It's not in the resorts' best interest to close a section of the mountain on a busy Saturday morning to run a giant slalom race. Consequently, alpine races tend to be scheduled on weekdays, at times of least conflict with the weekend rush. Sometimes those windows of opportunity for alpine races can be separated by a week or two from the nordic portion of our RMISA ski meets.

Training at Arctic Valley

Our alpine skiers just finished up a set of races in Utah. Now they move on to Montana to finish off the MSU Invitational, in which we're currently in second place after the nordic portion of the event.

Carmen won silver at the World University Games a week or so ago in Lake Placid!

A Bowl of Cereal

Wendy and Bill Seline managed to evade their son's defenses and introduced themselves to the volunteer assistant coaching staff the other day. So that was nice. Apparently, they'd visited Anchorage earlier this fall, but Matt kept that a secret, too.

As if they've never seen skis before and don't know what they're for...

Pascale

Tuva

Matt

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After the racing is over and everyone's gone home for the day, that's when the coaches can go out and get a little exercise, too. Unfortunately, Toomas has been watching me eat breakfast at the team house lately, and it's had a bad influence on him. Toomas is generally a two-eggs-and-three-slices-of-toast-for-breakfast man. I'm a cereal-eater myself. A bowl of cereal in the early morning will reliably power me through until around mid-evening. Not so for Toomas. He found out he needs his toast and eggs.

Here's Toomas, five kilometers into a 20-kilometer outing. He had bonked about four and a half kilometers ago.

Toomas is never one to complain...

...but he was pretty pooped out.

Nevertheless, Toom is not gonna give up.

The final afternoon of a long road trip.

So I knew I could finally beat Toomas in our little sprint. I've been trying all week. Every time we come into the stadium, I lie and cheat and plan a surprise-attack to beat Toom across the finish line. So far, nothing has worked. This time, though, I was feeling fresh and Toom was worn out and seeing stars.  It wasn't really fair, I didn't think. So waited until the last moment, when I thought he wasn't paying attention or had forgotten about sprinting to the line. But he heard me coming, and without really any effort at all, he easily skied away from me in the final 20 meters. It was pretty humiliating.

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We finished up our business in Bozeman over the weekend. It's exciting to see the sun and feel its warmth. But for me, every descent of the 737 into the Anchorage Bowl after a trip down south is a reminder of why I love living in the north.

Biggest Problem of my Life

 We Seawolves have been enjoying our time in Bozeman. We've been breathing the fresh mountain air and wearing our sunglasses and sunscreen. The other day, the girls let me come along on a tour around their new favorite Montana ski trail.

Tuva

Per Magne's barnebarn.

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Today we had our first "real" RMISA race of the season. One way or another, our team is currently ranked second in the MSU Invitational.

The coaches tend to start early in the morning on this team.

Before the crowds arrive.

Discussions and debates about the kick wax are a regular morning activity.

The men's race

Peter and Maggie

The word on the streets of Montana is that Matt's parents are here in town to watch the races this weekend but Matt won't introduce us to them. I don't know why. Is he embarrassed of us?

Ari won this battle in the end. I was impressed.

Astrid and Tuva

The racing continues tomorrow.

Crossing the Country

Houghton was a whirlwind. We spent a week there. I don't remember much about it. We didn't see much of the place besides the race loop and the inside of our team house. It was nonstop go-time. But we left Michigan a few days ago.

Everyone told us that if we were going to Houghton, we absolutely needed to stop at Roy's and order a pastie. So we dropped in on our way to the Minneapolis airport at the end of the week. It was the one place we went in town, other than the race loop. The verdict: pasties are pretty good.

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But now we're in Big Sky Country, and everyone's happy to be back in the West and see the sun again. We race Friday and Saturday this week. 

Team meetings are a regular feature on this team.

Ski stadium reconnaissance. 

Trond and I are getting so we require more and more stretching before practice to keep us in shape to ski with the team.

Toomas has been on fire this week.

At our team house.

Thanks for the photo, Ari.

The Green Machine