"Where were the Talkeetna women?" asks KTNA in the wake of the weekend's annual Wilderness Woman Contest. A Virginian won the overall competition, which includes water hauling, feeding a lounging "bachelor," wood-chopping and other subsistence skills. An Anchorage woman who claimed to have never driven a snowmachine was fastest in the wood-hauling heats.

KTNA says the event has been evolving over the years from just-for-fun into something a little more serious.

In an event that was once characterized by local gals in oversized coveralls and bunny boots sloshing buckets in a controlled speed walk, this year the event was better characterized by what women from out-of-town weren’t wearing in competition. ... Sports bras, skeleton costumes, beaver hats, tutus and running shoes have become the new norm but seconds were what counted most as a large pool of women narrowed the large field down to just five. 

Lamenting the locals' fate, KTNA reports: "There is talk of running some kind of boot camp next year to put the Talkeetna back in the Talkeetna Wilderness Woman Contest. Local ladies, take heed."