Sock monkeys, puffins, jellyfish ski for a cause

The event is more costume party than race, and that's the way participants like it.

About 1,400 skiers signed up to glide along the 2.4-mile, mainly gentle course. Organizers call it North America's largest women-only cross-country ski event. There are no entry fees. Participants can donate what they want, and the money benefits private organizations that work to stop domestic violence.

"XC Skiing, Costumes, Camaraderie and a Cause," is how the promoters sum it up.

The yearly ski kicks off a string of increasingly popular annual women-only events in the Anchorage area including a bike race, run and triathlon.

At Kincaid on Sunday, newbie skiers were welcome and hard-core athletes, too. There were preschoolers and grandmas, new mothers and mothers to be. One had a caution sign on her back noting that she was 36 weeks pregnant. Everyone gave her a wide berth.

The fastest skate-ski racers did the course in just over 11 minutes. Nearly three dozen women, including event founders Sally Burkholder and Ann Mize, did the course twice -- first on skate skis, then on classic skis, for a duathlon. The slowest timed skiers took well over an hour. But just as many didn't care to be timed at all and participated in the colorful party wave, which began early because of the brisk wind. The temperature was in the teens but felt colder.

Gnomes skied by, and the seven dwarves. Witches and Vikings and medieval characters. Birds of all sorts and a forest of birch babes. A hot dog with mustard. Traffic cones. A lumberjack, chain saw, tree and ax.

And jellyfish. A dozen of them. With costumes made out of bubble wrap, coat hangars and ribbon, the School of Skiing Jelly Fish became an ethereal vision on the trails.

"You don't see a single person that isn't smiling," said Robin Kornfield, chair of the event committee. She said about 120 people volunteered.

Lizzie Newell, among the women whose participation began in 1997 at the inaugural event, wondered if her group helped create the costume craze that now defines the Ski for Women. It was a modest effort that first time, just hats decorated with sunflowers, but almost no one else dressed up.

This year, she came as carbon, part of The Elements team. Her sister, Marti Pausback, was all foiled up, for tin. Pausback's daughter, Alice Michaelson, age 13, came as helium, festooned with balloons. Pausback was pregnant with Alice that first race.

"She's gone from in utero to in tutu" to a symbol of helium, Pausback said.

Chris Zafren and Leslie Kroloff came as Frumpy and Grumpy, wearing sunbonnets, sunglasses and long dresses.

"We're old bags," Zafren joked.

"She's Frumpy," but more of a Grumpy, she said, nodding at her ski partner.

"We're both Frumpy and Grumpy," Kroloff chimed in.

The women, avid skiers at age 57, were planning to ski all the way to Service High School after their wave at Kincaid.

Another group of devoted athletes rides bikes together on the trails in summer and skies in winter. But much of this winter was so cold, skiing wasn't much fun. They began dreaming of summer.

They named their team Ready to Ride, donned bike helmets topped with Barbies on tiny pink bikes, and put signs on their backs about the springtime Bike for Women.

"I don't know how they dragged me into this!" said the youngest member, Jessica Adler, 13. She was kidding.

Less secure on her skis but a standout in her attire was Gail Heineman, who came as a giant fluorescent orange carrot.

"In our Alaska gardens, you have to expect big things," she said. Heineman was part of the Alaska Women's Environmental Network team that also included pea pods, a mushroom, poppies, kale and potatoes.

Heineman said she could barely stand up on skis -- and that's without the challenge of skiing as a giant carrot. She packed lots of foam around her carrot top, for protection.

One team that usually wows the crowd with elaborate costumes played it down this year -- for good reason.

Their nucleus, Heather Wilson, had a baby two weeks ago so couldn't build a prototype or coordinate the effort.

"We've been St. Augustine Volcano. We've been sunflowers. We've been cellos. We've been a dragon. And last year we were the butterflies," Wilson said.

This year, the Ultimate Women team -- named after the Frisbee sport they all play together -- wore pink shirts and mock maternity bellies with the theme "On Maternity Leave."

With a core group of three other teammates, Wilson still took to the trail, with her older child, 2-year-old Coal, on her back.

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Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/ldemer or call 257-4390.