Mat-Su Ski Club News
Independence Mine is the best place to ski in the world right now!
If you haven’t heard the news, Independence Mine is the “No.1 best place to ski in the world” according to the ADN. Click here to read the article that shares some rave reviews about the ski trails at the Mine. Yesterday was a picture perfect day up there and the grooming exceptional! Every single person on the trails smiling from ear to ear! It is always exciting to share early grooming news with friends near and far to hear their reaction. Having these beautiful ski trails in our back yard is truly a gift to be thankful for. Our groomers are some amazing volunteers!
Volunteer Trails Day Cancelled
| Hi friends, |
| The Volunteer Trails Day for this Saturday,October 9th has been cancelled. The trails are in great shape thanks to all the amazing volunteers this summer that helped clean up and clear debris to make way for snow cover. If you happen to take a walk on the trails to enjoy the fall colors, keep an eye out for rocks or debris and toss it aside. After all, a smooth ski trail is a happy ski trail! |
| A friendly reminder to dog owners – please be considerate to fellow trail friends and other dogs by keeping your pet leashed. |
September 15th – Junior Nordics Registration is open to everybody
Register for Junior Nordics! On September 15th Junior Nordics registration opens to all!
Junior Nordics registration starts September 8th at 9AM!
Junior Nordics registration opens for returning families on September 8th, at 9AM, this year. On September 15th registration will open for all. The program fills up fast, so don’t hesitate!
The Piston Bulley has new belts!
Thanks to a talented group of volunteers, the Piston Bulley now has new rubber belts and is ready to make its mark on the trails. A sunny day was much appreciated and certainly aided in a dry place to work as well as bringing out smiling faces. The Sunday volunteers are no longer needed as this job was completed much faster than anticipated. To those who volunteered and were not needed, thank you for offering your time. Think Snow!!
The Pisten Bulley needs our help!
New Dates to fix the Piston Bulley!
| On Saturday and Sunday, August 28th and 29th at Mark Strabel’s house on Waldo Reed off of Edgerton Parks, adjacent to GPRA, from 9AM to 5ish. We would like a team of about 3-4 people from 9am – 1pm and 1pm to 5pm each day – CLICK HERE to sign up to help. We hope to get it all done on Saturday and ask for Sunday volunteers as a backup in case the project runs longer than expected. We are going to replace six worn-out track belts on our PistenBulley. This entails unbolting 3 track belts on each side and installing new track belts. We will also reverse the drive sprockets. Tools needed if you have them: Impact drivers with deep well metric sockets 14, 15, 16 and 17 mm as well as hand held propane troches for softening up locktite on the bolts. The Club will provide pizza and sodas and some tools. Pizza will be served around 12:30 each day for anyone that joins us. |
Volunteer Opportunities in August
Thursday evening August Trail Work Parties at GPRA!*
We will gather on some Thursday evenings in August at the ski club shed at GPRA to do trail work, from 6:30 to 8:30. CLICK HERE to sign up. Directions to the work sites will be posted on the shed for late arrivals. Mostly rock tossing, shoveling, raking, brush lopping, tree planting. Bring work gloves, and maybe a shovel or loppers or bow rake.
Contact info@matsuski.org if you have questions.
Welcome to our new Administrator
Welcome to Marla Jakab, the newly-hired Administrator for the Mat-Su Ski Club. She is an ex Junior Nordics mom and an avid skier. It is hard to imagine the Club functioning without a capable administrator, so we are very glad to have her on board.
Our thanks to Allison Fry, our previous administrator, for her excellent work. We are lucky that she is helping Marla get up to speed; and will be staying in the club community as a key organizer of the Junior Nordics program.
Tree-felling at GPRA
Please respect the trail closures and the crew clearing hazard trees. If a sign says trail closed, please use another trail. Theirs lots of them! It looks like the trail closures are for 8am to 6pm Monday thru Friday.
Grooming season recap
MAT-SU SKI CLUB’S GROOMING CAMPAIGN of 2020/2021.
The just-eneded Nordic ski trail grooming season was seven and a half months long: 216 days of groomed-trail skiing. Starting two weeks later than last year but ending 5 days later, this season was 10 days shorter than last season,.
Volunteers spent 1394 hours grooming and training, and maintaining machines, during the 2020-21 grooming season. This was our second season with the PistenBully in our grooming fleet, as well as the second season in which we groomed throughout the winter at Independence Mine. We put a total of 5814 miles on our grooming fleet this season.
This was a solid winter with no trail-closing winter warmup at GPRA. A large wet storm cycle at the beginning of April produced historic-scale road-closing avalanches at Hatcher Pass. The Hatcher Pass road was closed for ten days in early April. The avalanches paused Independence Mine grooming and brought Archangel Road grooming to an early end – we did not resume grooming at Archangel after the road opened, as it was deeply buried in debris. Grooming hours increased at the Moose Range and decreased at Independence (by 50%), relative to last year.
Independence Mine: Oct 19 to May 22. 40 grooming days (50% decrease from last season)
Archangel Road: Oct 28 to March 19. 37 grooming days (26% decrease from last season)
GPRA: Oct 27 to April 21. 84 grooming days (35% increase from last season)
Moose Range: Nov 22 to Apr 9. 79 grooming days (15% increase from last season)
