| |  | | A skier stops to admire perfection in grooming, scenery and sunshine at GPRA! |
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| | PickClickGive| We hope you will remember the Mat-Su Ski Club when you file for your 2021 Alaska PFD. |
|  | | 13th Annual Icicle Double Due to unsafe trail conditions left from rain and warm temps, we postponed the December 2021 Icicle Double and looked forward to a better weather window in January 2022. It was with great sadness that our postponed race date had to be cancelled as mother nature again brought warm and icy trail conditions to GPRA. It can be hard to understand why a race decision is made but rest assured your safety is our top priority.
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To say thank you and show appreciation to the folks that signed up for the 2021 Icicle Double, we are passing out the swag you would have received for participating in the ski race!
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| Backcountry Bike and Ski has offered to help us get the buffs out to all the folks that signed up. Anyone that signed up for the 30K events will also receive the etched pint glass. We appreciate each of you for signing up and for your patience as many race changes and cancellations were made. |
We hope you will return and bring your friends for the 2022 Icicle Double!
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| Registrants please watch your email for how and when to collect your ID 2021 swag. |
|  | | A beautiful neck gaiter and/or frosty pint glass await those that signed up for for |
|  | | Northern Lights Race #2 Coming Up |  | The Northern Lights Series had the first of three races on January 30th. This fun and all-inclusive race series is for people of all ages and ski abilities. In the first race we had people as young as 4 and as old as 75 rounding out our 23 racers. Our youngest finisher of the 5k freestyle was 5 years old.
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We had a beautiful day with sunshine and blue skies and the temps were very mild. It was a great day to get out on skis and have fun.
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| Race #2 in the series is coming up on Feb. 20th. |
| Come on out and join us for some fun skiing! |
| Volunteers are a critical part of every event. Consider signing up! |
| |  | | Some of the cutest participants of the Northern Lights Series Race #1! |
|  | | SKI FOR WOMEN| The Mat-Su Ski for Women is coming up on Sunday, February 13th. Bring a friend for this family friendly fun event that supports Alaska Family Services. It is a 4K FUN ski. It's not timed and it's not a competition. Well, there is a costume competition, so break out that costume box and show us what you have! The best costume(s) will receive a great prize! Registration opens at 10 am and the ski starts at 11 am. We have a quick waiver/registration form to sign a fun new headband to purchase, and you can purchase tickets for our split the pot raffle. 50% of the pot goes to one lucky ticket holder and 50% goes to Alaska Family Services. We will have light refreshments available after you complete your ski. |
|  | | Stop by the registration table to check out these beautiful Sauce headbands for purchase. |
|  | | Thank you Mat-Su Health Foundation for helping to make the Ski For Women possible with your generous donation. |
|  | | Some of the colorful costumes you may see when you join us at the Ski for Women! |
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| | Moose Range Trails and Maps The Moose Range contains miles and miles of trails. And not a single trail sign anywhere! There are well established trails, and ephemeral trails. At least a dozen people groom the trails, some using Mat-Su Ski Club equipment, some using their own equipment. Some groomers generally work the east side, some the west. There is no grooming schedule - grooming is done when it is needed, and a groomer has time for it.
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The Moose Range is multiuse - people ski, walk, bike, snowmobile, and ride their side by sides on the trails. Monster trucks are popular in the summertime. Trail conditions can vary wildly from day to day, or from area to area in the Range. Some trails are mostly used by the non-motorized crowd.
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| You can avoid getting lost if you use the map program Avenza (its free) on your phone and load up the map of the Moose Range available on the Mat-Su Ski Club website. |
|  | Moose Range trails on a good day.
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| Moose Range Daytime Ski Tour| Join us for the first (and hopefully annual) Moose Range Ski Tour & Social |
| on Saturday, February 19th, 2022. |
| We will have experienced members guiding groups on the moose range to help you become more familiar with that beautiful (albeit a bit confusing) trail system. All guides will end up at a special spot on the trail system for an outdoor social. We will have snacks and other refreshments and you'll be able to chat with other skiers and then ski back to the trailhead. This event is open and free for anyone to attend. Our goal is to help familiarize you with this trail system and have some fun while we're at it. Classic skiing is best on these trails, so bring them out! If you would like to borrow skis for this tour, please send us an email, we have a limited supply of adult rental skis! |
| There will be 3 tours leaving the Wendt Road trailhead at 11, 11:15, and 11:30. |
| Please plan on skiing for 45-60 minutes. |
| For directions to the Wendt Road trailhead click here. |
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| | | | | | | Independence Mine and GPRA Grooming| We haven't abandoned the Independence Mine trails! As you might know, the little Centaur is our Independence grooming machine in mid-winter when the PB is at GPRA. But the heavy snows and drifts at Hatcher are tough on that machine - the Centaur is broken (since January 21st) and we are still waiting on parts for it. Watch the trail reports on our home page for updates. |
|  | | | With all the recent snow, the tracked ATV groomers have been hard at work packing and grooming at GPRA. The trails have been amazing! We are hopeful that the the PistenBully will make a return just in time for the Ski For Women this Sunday (covid has been messing with our PB operator availability). |
| | Free Chariots| The Mat-Su Ski Club has four Chariots (2 singles and 2 doubles) available to loan to parents with kids too young to ski. There is no fee, the loan is free. |
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| | | | Membership| Support your ski club by renewing your membership! |
| Membership fees support our programs, events, grooming, trail building, and equipment purchases. Ski trails don't fall from heaven! |
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| | | Ski 101| The classroom and on-snow sessions of SKI 101 were well attended, |
we want to give people another chance to attend the on-snow session to learn cross country skiing basics.
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If you are an absolute beginner in need of learning how to put on ski gear and need some basic instruction on how to get started skiing, then this class is for you. Join us at GPRA on Saturday the 26th of February at 1:30pm. The class is free and we hope to see you there!
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| We have a few sets of ski gear to rent for a minimal fee. Reach out to info@matsuski.org for more information. |
| Backcountry Bike & Ski also has skis available for rent. |
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| | Adult Ski Lessons are Still Available We still have openings for beginning classic skiers in our adult ski lessons at noon on Tuesdays; and beginner skate lessons on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays - all through the first week of March. For skate skiers that are comfortable on skis but want to improve their skills, sign up for our intermediate skate skiing class at noon on Fridays or at 10 am on Sundays. Cost is only $15 per lesson and class sizes are small so you get lots of individual attention. Let our experienced instructors help you have more fun on skis!
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| If you don't have skis but would like to take classes please contact us at info@matsuski.org. We do have a (limited) selection of skis, boots, and poles available for use by students. |
| | Remember Your 2022 Parking Passes| The Mat-Su Borough is now enforcing the parking rules at GPRA and other Borough park sites. If you do not display a current Borough parking sticker or a day pass - you will get a $40 ticket. If you receive one of these tickets the fine can be used towards the purchase of a trail permit through December 31, 2021. To receive the annual 2022 trail pass, bring the ticket to the Community Development Office located at 350 East Dahlia Ave. The violator has 5 days from the date of the ticket to visit the Community Development Office, pay the $40 and receive their annual pass. The Borough is checking the parking lot several times every day. The parking fees go into a Borough fund for recreational facilities. Click here to buy a day use or yearly parking pass online. Save $10 when you buy two. 2022 parking passes are available now. |
| | Junior Nordics News and Info| Junior Nordics is about building "FUNdemental Skills", our focus is not on racing or competition. We hope to instill a lifelong LOVE of skiing and the outdoors. Some of these kids will pursue racing and become incredible athletes. We are so PROUD to have so many AMAZING athletes that started in our program come back and join us as coaches. We all feel tremendous pride when they accomplish their goals! A huge shout out to all the kids out there competing and taking those skills further. Our own Junior Nordics graduates and coaches Katey Houser and Rosie Whittington-Evans just brought home the gold so to speak by being the first ever female athletes from the Valley to WIN Besh Cup! It is a highly competitive race series and these girls placed 1st and 2nd. We will be cheering them on at Junior Nationals next! If you have never raced consider "The Northern Lights" racing series, they are fun community races, it's not about winning it's about finishing! Watching a little nordic skier complete a 5k with the whole stadium cheering him on GO BENSON!!! is an incredible experience. |
| We hope to see you at the races! |
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|  | | This hill can't stop him! |
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 | | Dad offers great support. |
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| | T-Shirts are in! Supply chain issues caused a change in how we planned to distribute t-shirts, but the good news is that they're printed and ready for purchase! Shirts will be sold for $15 each, and sales will take place during Junior Nordics sessions February 14th and 15th, as well as the 16th and 17th if we have any left. Junior Nordics families and others who had pre-ordered shirts will be given first dibs at getting the shirts they'd like.
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Mark your calendars: the Junior Nordics end of season party is Friday, March 4th for all Junior Nordic skiers. More details to come!
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|  | | Groups of kids are excited to get moving with their Coaches on the well lit GPRA trails! |
|  | | 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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