Passing on my love of XC Skiing, far from home
A group of volunteer ski instructors taught cross country skiing in the remote village of Nuiqsut (population 512, pronounced “new-ickset”) from April 7-11.
While winter might be over in most of the country, it’s still very much winter in northern Alaska. Since I’m an avid cross country skier and love to see others enjoy it as I do, I recently took off on what a friend of mine described as a “busman’s holiday.”
When my duties as Executive Director of Jackson Ski Touring Foundation slowed down for the season, I went from idyllic Mt Washington Valley in New Hampshire to “the top of Alaska”—and I mean truly the top. Utqiagvik, Alaska, (formerly Barrow) is located well north of the Arctic Circle on the Arctic Ocean.
We provided a week of instruction to local children with Skiku, an Alaskan non-profit organization.
Skiku sends teams of 3 to 5 volunteer instructors to 50+ villages every ski season. Their mission is to provide xc skiing opportunities to Native Alaskan communities outside of the state’s population centers where there are already robust xc centers, teams, and clubs.
This was my second Skiku trip; in 2019 I traveled to Buckland, with a population of 300 +/- located on a summer-navigable river just south of the Arctic Circle. Nuiqsut’s more northern location on a river-like channel off the Beaufort Sea (which I had previously not known existed) provided a snowier and considerably colder setting. Mornings were in the -5 F range, rising to a balmy 10 degrees on a good day.
Needless to say, the snow conditions were amazing.
It was a dry, wind-drifted snow that skied well even without machine grooming. I could have skied for miles if not for the fear of polar bear encounters.
This was not a luxury trip. The other four instructors and I slept on cots in the school library and we had to be up and completely cleared out of the room by 8 a.m. We cooked all of our own food in a cooking classroom. From 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., most of our time was spent instructing the children in what would be their gym classes with short breaks between the classes. From 2:30 to 5 each day there were free skiing sessions for all of the children with some local adults joining in.
Each age group had a different approach to skiing.
Just like the kids in Jackson, N.H., where I work, they loved to find and ski on hills. We made sure we found new and exciting hills for them every day. Together with the hills we played games to help improve their skills. By the end of the week they were skiing the steepest hills, seeking more speed, and adding flourishes to their turns; they didn’t want to quit at the end of the day.
We ended each day completely worn out but couldn’t stop talking about how much fun we had skiing with the kids. The school’s teachers, most of whom were temporary transplants from states like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, would tell us daily how much the children looked forward to skiing. And several of the teachers even came out for a lesson, too.
Allowing for possible (which manifested as actual) delays, the full trip took from April 4 through 15.
Since Alaska Airline flights from Anchorage operate only once a day on weekends, our layover days ended up being in Utqiagvik, where we got in some good skiing along the frozen Arctic Ocean; we also got a good look at this small city and actually took part in a very cold “Spring Festival,” which included a golf tournament on a frozen lagoon.
Anyone who loves skiing, has some ski instruction/coaching background, and wants to experience a completely different part of the United States, might consider applying. From my vantage point, it was totally worth it. To find out more information about Skiku, go to www.skiku.org.
 |
|