Where the Funk is that Hut!

Its Thursday afternoon and I'm planning my weekend out with some looong fatbiking on local trails to get ready for next race called Little Su 50. While I'm going through all the possible routes I got a note from my girlfriend that we are going on the overnight trek to Talkeetna Mountains with our friends.

Damn it! biking is ruined. Hurray!! Adventure weekend! We packed our overnight camping gear along with snowshoes and we embarked on the overnight fun early Saturday morning.

To be exactly specific the plan was to hike 8 miles on the Gold Mint trail in Talkeetna Mountain to the Mint Hut up in the mountains, settle in the hut have some nicely cooked dinner, some happy beverages, watch the full moon and hopefully northern lights. Well that is not really how it went down.

In the backpacking world less weight in a gear is a king, well when you hike/snowshoe in Alaska winter in the middle of nowhere into a hut without a wood burner you better bring some extra gear to be on the safe side, especially when you have never been there and you do not know where exactly the hut is.

So we started with backpacks along with the sled being pulled behind. I would say overall we had probably 200 pounds of gear :-), which promised a good, warm and cozy night up in the mountains. The valley which we went through is just piece of true Alaska nature very rugged and just spectacular views. The weather was on our side as well, partially blue sky, some snow showers here and there and temperature around 15 Fahrenheit. The trail was not too steep but the gear got fucking heavy and the snow got deep. We ditched the sled and put all the gear on our backs and kept chugging along.

We had probably 0.5 miles left to the hut and environment dramatically changed from this gradually uphill hike through the valley to pretty much full blown climbing terrain in this almost canyon like valley with a high risk of avalanche and shit ton of snow. The bottom line is we could not make it up there to the hut. We were already pretty exhausted so couple options pop up. The obvious one, to go back 7.5 miles out of the valley, dig ourselves nice snow shelter and stay overnight in the current spot (not too smart due to possibility of avalanche) or walk back 2-4 miles and camp out in the wide open valley.

We arrived back at the parking lot around 8pm after 10 hours (we left at 10 am) and 15 miles of exhausting hike in the snow totally beaten up, but full of good memories. We did not know how good decision we made to hike out of the mountains until 1:30 am on Sunday when 7.1 earthquake struck Anchorage. If we stayed in the mountains we could possibly end up under the avalanche in the middle of the sleep.

It was a day which we might remember for long time and the full moon was just ready to be howl on!

Frosty Bottom 2016

 The Frosty Bottom happened!

Yes! 2016 Frosty Bottom was raced this past Saturday January 16th. It was almost canceled but at the last moment we got about 1-2 inches of snow which was exactly enough what we needed. If it would snow little more it would be a slow race due to unpacked snow and if it would snow little less it would be probably canceled due to icy conditions. So we got lucky!

The race was very fast and very entertaining well at least for me. I really had a blast. My hot bun strategy worked out pretty well and i ended up top 20 and under 3 hours which I'm happy with.

Results: The Frosty Bottom Results

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Here is the update for Frosty!
Due to a suckage of weather here in Anchorage, The Frosty Bottom race is postpone until January 16th, 2016.

It has been above freezing since 28th of December, and I mean 15 degrees Fahrenheit above freezing. And it seems like it will continue that way for about another 4 days. There is no snow just mud and ice. We will be happy to get any snow before the 16th so I can see that the race might be postponed even further out. Ohhh and we also got some rain and high winds:(
Man, I want some winter this year!

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Alright, here is the skinny on The Frosty Bottom of 2016! The event is planned for 2nd of January and includes somewhere between 44-50 miles on your fatbike, cold, snow, falls, cramps, and hopefully finish!

What is my strategy you ask? Well, given that it is day after New Year my strategy is to keep all my body fluids inside for a duration of the race. That includes no puking! 

Also i will use my "hot bun" approach. For those who do not know what the fuck is "the hot bun" racing strategy, not to be worry as i just come up with this name.

 "The hot bun strategy" is to find a peloton or group of riders (oven) who are little faster than you. I will hide within the group for good 80% of the race and keep my buns warm. Once you feel hot, somewhere around 5 miles to finish, you shoot out of the oven and hope that your hot buns will carry you victoriously to the finish.

I will be riding my 9-zero-7 aluminum whiteout with carbon fork, handlebars, seat post and sram GX1 11 speed ( more specs later). 

Here is the links for all info about the race: http://www.chainreactioncycles.us/events.html#frosty-bottom

Search for Snow

It is a very shitty winter so far here in Anchorage and I cannot believe that I got back on the trainer. Yup! Back on the trainer! Major suckage!

 

There are several parts of a year when riding outside might be worse than biking on a trainer. It is usually the spring break up when everything is melting and short period after bike cross season is over in fall and winter did not freeze the ground yet. These two parts of the year are expected hence you are somehow fine to go on the trainer.

Well it seems like that Mother Nature decided to give us another chance to get on trainers, but this time during the winter!! There is so much ice out there that even if you have studs you are not gonna get a good ride in without breaking something.

So after couple trainer rides I needed to get out on the snow. Lucky for me a lot of my bike friends were itching for snow as well. After couple heated conversations about the proper location to find the best snow we were heading to Big Lake area to pre ride the Little Su 50K course.

The weather was perfect that day, partially sunny, 17-33 degrees and almost no wind. The first part of the ride just about couple miles was very icy, but once you get little further into the bush than conditions were amazing. The ride was fast without any bike pushing. Views were grand! It was a needed change from the trainer.

 

Crying for snow

I have to let this one out. It might sound like little whinning and bitching but it needs to be shouted out.

 Snow!!! Where is the fucking snow!! If you would live in Alaska for three years when every winter was worse than the previous one than you would understand my frustrations.

The first year when I moved up here the winter was so so. However, I did not own a fabike so I was not ready to unleash the fun called fatbiking yet. 

Second winter, my fatbike was ready. However, we did not have much snow. Iditarod was moved to Fairbanks, Tustumena 200 was canceled, Frosty Bottom was mainly on hard snow and ice mixture (very fast). Alyaska ski resort did not have much of a snow pack due to rain. Simply putted it was a shitty winter.

Well and here we are in January this year with no snow and temperatures above freezing. Everyone is blaming El fucking Nino, but we should be pointing fingers at ourselves. 

I was so excited when we got about 5 inches of snow in November and now again big disappointment with "Alaskan" winter. 

As i'm looking at the 10 days forecast it seems that we are not going to be below freezing until January 16th. That is the Frosty Bottom planned for so either it will be postponed again or we will need to get out cross bikes. 

My major plan for next couple weeks is to find snow so i might be venturing North to Willow or south to Kenai to look for snow in higher elevations. I would like to preride the Little Su 50k course or try to ride Johnson pass or Resurrection Trail. 

I still want to believe that we will get shit load of snow down here in Anchorage but it's all the time better to have the backup plan.

End of the rant:)

We need this!