Alaska Public Media © 2025. All rights reserved.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Outdoor Explorer: Hear what the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage has planned for the upcoming season

Our guest on this episode of Outdoor Explorer is Kikkan Randall, executive director of the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage. She last spoke with host Lisa Keller two years ago when Randall had first taken the helm of NSAA.

Randall had recently returned from living in British Columbia and she was active on Olympic committees, the non-profit Fast and Female, and ACTIV Against Cancer, a Norwegian organization dedicated to ensuring that physical activity becomes part of standard cancer treatment. Since then, she has steered NSAA through the pandemic and is dreaming big about the future of the organization that shaped not only her competitive career, but also Anchorage as a Nordic ski town.

In January, NSAA is celebrating 60 years. The conversation is wide-ranging, from the programs and events NSAA has planned for the upcoming ski season, to the impacts of climate change on snow, to volunteer and employment opportunities, and present and future projects.

HOST: Lisa Keller

GUEST: Kikkan Randall, Executive Director of the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage

LINKS:
Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage website NSAA 60th Anniversary events
NSAA Facebook NSAA Instagram

Lisa Keller was born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. She was 8 years old when Title IX passed and was fortunate to have parents who encouraged activity and to live in a progressive and encouraging community for girls and women in sports. She played baseball and soccer, downhill skied at Arctic Valley, learned to swim at The Spa, hiked the Chugach, and ran the Anchorage tracks and trails. She headed to University of Oregon, Eugene, and played soccer until she discovered the new sport of triathlon. After earning a degree in Political Science, she quickly fell back on her life as an athlete and began a career in fitness and coaching. She is a past winner of the Gold Nugget Triathlon and the Eagle River Triathlon, as well as many smaller triathlons and running races. She is a two-time Alaska Triathlete of the Year and has achieved All-American status in USA Triathlon age group rankings. She is one of the founding board members of the Alaska Run for Women. In 2002 she was diagnosed with breast cancer and since then has won the survivor division of the run many times. She owns Multisport Training of Alaska, providing coaching for Alaska triathletes, and is the General Manager of Running Free Alaska, an organization that brings run workouts and races to the women prisoners at Hiland prison.