nordic skiing

The first five-kilometer ski loop was cut by Service High School families and coaches in 1971.

Alaska has a plethora of cross country ski trails and the clubs that groom them. This week’s Outdoor Explorer talks with the people that make Nordic skiing happen in Alaska.

KSKA: Thursday, Dec. 8, at 2:00 p.m. Arctic Valley is easily forgotten, because doesn’t advertise and is far off the beaten track, but it has the highest elevation, the fluffiest powder and some of the steepest slopes around. On the next show, we’ll learn about Arctic Valley, the changes happening there, and why you might want to go and try it out this winter.LISTEN NOW

KSKA: Thursday, Sept. 15, at 2:00 p.m. Budget cuts have forced the University of Alaska to look at eliminating sports, potentially making Alaska the only state without collegiate athletics, including its' ski team. On the next show we’ll hear interviews with the alpine and nordic coaches at UAA. We'll also speak with the director of the skiing program at APU. We’ll learn a lot more about a subject we haven’t covered before on the show.LISTEN NOW

https://player.vimeo.com/video/104357106?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=918a8a Adventure within Range from ATMI on Vimeo.Alaska Teen Media producers Barae and Aviva Hirsch explored Hope with U.S. Olympic Skier Holly Brooks. Brooks explains why she loves to train in the Chugach National Forest.

Parents of three Anchorage Olympians join us in the studio. Some of them are headed to Sochi, where the winter games start Friday, so we pre-recorded the show. We’ve heard from athletes, but as a parent it is easier to identify more with the parents: with their pride, and trepidation, and with knowledge of the sacrifices made for a young person to succeed at the highest level. We'll learn how parents produce an Olympian, and how it feels, good and bad, once you have one in the family.KSKA: Thursday 2/6 at 2:00 and 9:00 pmListen Now

https://player.vimeo.com/video/61134198 Tour of Anchorage 2013 from ATMI on Vimeo.You don't have to be an Olympian to participate in a Nordic ski race. Anchorage has races for the rest of us, where fast skiers can duel at the front while older and less competitive skiers push their personal limits. The Tour of Anchorage is the biggest race of the year, with up to 2,000 contestants covering up to 50 kilometers, but local volunteers organize many other cross-country ski races during the winter that are open to anyone willing to try.KSKA: Thursday 1/9 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pmListen Now

Kikkan Randall continued her remarkable World Cup ski season by taking a silver medal in the team sprint in the Italian Alps.

Anchorage skier Kikkan Randall took home a World Cup silver medal today in the skate sprint in Toblach, Italy. She finished just behind Norway’s Marit Bjoergen.

It was a great weekend for Alaska's World Cup athletes. Snowboarder Callan Chythlook-Sifsof took a bronze medal in a team with Lindsey Jacobellis in the snowboard cross in Colorado.