From the Iditarod Trail Invitational to the Lavaman Triathlon to the White Mountains 100, Alaskas excelled in multi-discipline events this past month. Here’s a round-up: The Iditarod Trail Invitational wrapped up on Monday when Takao Katada walked across Nome’s Burled...
Kinsey Loan struggled to stay warm as she pushed her fat bike with two flat tires on the Yentna River with the temperature around 25 below zero. Her rookie run in the Iditarod Trail Invitational, a 300-plus mile human-powered event from Knik to McGrath, had barely...
With excruciatingly soft trails slowing fat bikers at Saturday’s Susitna 100, Nicolas Baudin wasn’t sure he was ever going to catch and pass skier Chet Fehrmann as he floated atop the bounty of snow. “There is nothing more frustrating for a biker to be following a...
Paul Melchert poled out of the start area onto the steep Quellspitze mountain and within seconds launched off a boulder, sticking the landing. The 16-year-old from Anchorage was just getting started in his debut at the Freeride World Junior Championships in Kappl,...
Anchorage's Ana Jager is doing a fine job of following in the bike tracks of her “hometown hero” Lael Wilcox. Earlier this month, Jager capped her first full season of bikepacking by winning the 800-mile Arizona Trail Race after more than 12 days on the trail....
After 2½ days sheltering behind Point Hope Mark and Dave spied a weather window. The goal was to sail northwest, clear Point Hope and gain sea room for a 200 mile run south across the Chuckchi Sea to the Bering Straight. A solid plan. But as we cleared the point it...
Rounding Point Barrow we headed south into the Chuckchi Sea. We were now in the lee of the land. The swells dropped. The winds fell below 20 knots. The tone of the boat and the mood of her crew eased. Sleeping resumed. In the morning, we passed the past villages of...
We left Tuktoyaktuk on Saturday, Sept. 10, and didn’t drop the anchor for the next five days. Polar Sun pushed west into the Beaufort Sea, an expanse of ocean off the northern coast of western Canada and Alaska. The Beaufort Sea is named for Sir Francis Beaufort, a...
I got a call from my old friend Mark Synnott in late August. Mark was in the middle of sailing the Arctic Northwest Passage from Maine through to Nome. Could I join him in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories in a week? He needed crew for the last leg of his voyage –...
Lars Arneson returned to where he grew up and set a new record Sunday at the Kenai River Marathon. Arneson, now of Anchorage, completed the 26.2-mile road course that starts and ends in Kenai in 2 hours, 35 minutes and 35 seconds. Arneson eclipsed the previous record...
For some bikers at the White Mountains 100 north of Fairbanks, “trench warfare” made for tough conditions and a slower than usual trail. “The trenches really tore me up,” said Chad Carroll, a race rookie and former Fairbanksan now residing in Bend, Ore. “I went over...