| | Coming Soon..| Government Peak Hill Climb June 3rd at GPRA. |
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| Volunteer Appreciation Are you among our amazing MSSC volunteers this season who helped support ski races, events, grooming the trails, adult ski lessons, trail maintenance, or in some other capacity? We are so grateful that you did, and we want to show our appreciation to you in early May! Keep an eye out for an email invitation to an event just for you. We want to thank you in person and hear your feedback. This event is sponsored by the fantastic folks at Backcountry Bike and Ski and our friend Erik Christensen of State Farm Insurance. Volunteers are the glide wax to our skis! We would be stuck without you!
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| | | Summer Stadium Work A much-needed stadium upgrade is coming to GPRA this summer. The stadium is the not very big and not very flat area next to the Chalet. This summer the Mat-Su Borough (MSB) is building a new parking lot at GPRA across the road from the Chalet, and a huge amount of overburden needs to be hauled away for that project. We are working with the MSB and the contractor that is building the new lot to have this overburden delivered by the contractor to the stadium at no cost to the Club. It is a great opportunity to save the Club truckloads of money on our project and should benefit the contractor too. Our goal is to provide a larger, flatter area for beginners to learn and practice, expand the space available for Junior Nordics, and make the stadium acceptable for mass start races. A bonus is our groomers will have an easier time too!
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| We plan to eliminate the two patches of trees, push the stadium footprint a little bit to the west, and fill in/raise and flatten the whole stadium area with the overburden from the new lot. It is a pretty serious project that requires engineering to ensure drainage and stability issues are correctly addressed. RESPEC Engineering has been kindly donating the engineering work. |
|  | Work is scheduled for June and July. The Club will rent heavy equipment and install drainage rock and culverts, spread the overburden, see to raising the existing light poles as necessary, and spread grass seed. Note that the MSB and the contractor will, independent of the Club, be using their own heavy equipment to modify the sledding hill in this same time window.
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| We are so grateful to announce the support of the Fishhook Community Council for our stadium-flattening project in the amount of $10,000. We expect the total cost to be about $25,000. Thank you to the Council and to everyone that turned out for the meeting to support us in this project. |
|  | | We also hope to install a small (20-foot long) groomer shed with a timing platform on top of it in the stadium this summer. Many volunteers will be needed for this summer. Stay tuned for more information. |
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| | Growing the Grooming Fleet We love fresh tracks just as much as you, our Members, and donors! That is why we have a brand new PistenBully 100 on order, due in November of this year. We are so excited to announce the support of the Mat-Su Trails and Parks Foundation (MSTPF) through their generous ($100,000) grant to help pay for this new $350,000 machine. This will be the second real snowcat to join our grooming fleet. Many of you supported us when we purchased our first (used) PB100 in 2019.
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We feel confident that an additional snowcat of this quality will support and improve our grooming efforts. We expect to expand the GPRA trail system in the near future, and having two snowcats will allow us to tend to an expanded GPRA and also have a proper snowcat for grooming Independence or Archangel at the same time, as well as providing a backup.
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| We are very grateful for the support of the MSTPF and we look forward to sharing other fundraising opportunities with you very soon. |
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| | | | Seeking Sponsors| New race banners will be printed for the upcoming 2023-24 season and we are looking for your business to join us as a sponsor! Picture your business logo raised high above the 2024 Arctic Winter Games and other community and race events in the GPRA stadium all next winter! This season we hosted 14 ski race events alone as well as other fun events for the ski community as seen here at the Ski For Women. Join us as a "Trail Champion" or "Club Champion" sponsor today! Click here for details. |
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| | MSSC Junior Nordics kids to Junior National Champion| You probably remember Katey Houser. She was recently featured in the Alaska Nordic Skier April edition. She was part of the first Mat-Su Junior Nordics group that practiced at the Shaw Elementary playground back in 2010. Katey went on to ski for Palmer High, graduated in 2022, and just wrapped up her first year skiing for Montana State University. At Junior Nationals in Fairbanks in March, Katey took first place in the Skate Sprints and third in the 15km Skate for U20. Her former Palmer High teammate Aila Berrigan, who skis for UAF, was ninth in the 15km Skate. It was really cool to see two Palmer kids with Top 10 finishes nationwide! Here are a few pics that highlight some of Katey's memories and friends on the road to success. |
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|  | | Katey in navy coat and gray pants at Junior Nordics in 2012 |
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 | | Katey in 2013 at a Junior Nordics race event. |
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|  | | Aila Berrigan with her 9th place medal and Katey with her 3rd place medal at Junior Nationals in the U20 15km Skate. |
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 | | Katey returned to GPRA for the RMISA races in February, representing Montana State University. |
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| | | | | Grooming News We partnered with Nordic Pulse for live-tracked grooming this season. Let us know if you liked it!
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GPRA: Grooming continues, shifted to early morning hours as nightly temps warm. Skiing earlier in the day will provide the best trail conditions as temps warm. Get it while it lasts, ain't gonna be long!
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Archangel Road: Weekly grooming continues as morning crust sets in. Warm temps in the afternoon do not always support skiers bikers or walkers.
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Moose Range: Grooming will continue as long as conditions allow a solid early morning surface. Caution about afternoon temps - warming and unstable surface. Snow bridges are getting dicey.
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Independence Mine: The Centaur rides again and is pushing in trails! Our PistenBully snowcat will be relocated to the Mine as soon as GPRA becomes un-groomable. Expect epic spring conditions!
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Our first (successful) groom this season was at Independence on October 21. When will it end?
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| Grooming reports are updated through Nordic Pulse and found on our website, |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | MSSC Membership Membership fees support our programs, events, grooming, trail building, equipment purchases and maintenance. It's not too late.. renew or join today!
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| Ski trails don't fall from heaven! Membership for the 2022-23 season is open through the end of August. Consider supporting your ski club by purchasing a membership. |
| | | | Support throughout the Year!| You can help support the Mat-Su Ski Club through the Fred Meyer Community Awards program and through Amazon Smile. Every little bit counts. |
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| Connect with us on Facebook and Instagram! |   |
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