Outdoors/Adventure

Nordic skiers still await snowmaking system at Kincaid Park

A nonprofit group is still tinkering with a long-awaited snowmaking system for the cross-country ski trails at Kincaid Park in West Anchorage, in hopes it will be fully functional later this winter.

Snowmaking was expected to begin two winters ago, but initial testing revealed problems that included a leak in a main water line and clogging from sand and silt that infiltrated the system.

Further testing over the past few months uncovered new problems with valves that are designed to shut off the flow of water to specific zones of the system, according to Dick Mize, a board member of Kincaid Project Group, the nonprofit that raised money for the snowmaking equipment and is overseeing its installation.

A contractor has been working on fixing a leaking valve, Mize said.

"That's probably -- at least as far as we know -- the last link that we need to complete," Mize said in a phone interview last week.

The Kincaid Project Group ultimately expects to transfer the snowmaking system to the city and the Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage for ongoing operation and maintenance, once it's complete.

But the ski association has said it won't take responsibility for operating the system until it meets their quality controls.

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Craig Norman, a member of the ski association's operations staff, declined to discuss the snowmaking system on Friday beyond saying it was still being tested.

"Right now, it's no comment," he said. The association's program director, Tamra Kornfield, added on Monday that the system had been making snow as part of testing over the last three days, and that the tests have been going "better and better."

The ski association last week published a blog post about the snowmaking system on its website under the heading: "A lesson in patience."

It described the system's history dating back to a water study in 2005, and explained -- as Kincaid Project Group board members explained last year -- that its capacity has been cut in half due to new filters installed to keep sand and silt out of the system.

It was originally intended to cover a 3-kilometer loop with artificial snow all at once, but reduced water pressure from the filters means the system will have to make snow in sections.

When it's ready, covering the full loop with snow will take up to three weeks, the blog post said.

Money for the project came from the Kincaid Project Group, which raised more than $10 million from public and private sources for upgrades for skiing, biathlon and soccer at the park.

The group had spent $2.8 million on the snowmaking system as of late last year, board members said at the time.

Mize, a former Olympic biathlete, said he was was still excited about the system's potential. Referring to the three-week setup period, he said: "That's not really a long time to set down the base that we can use for the whole winter."

"Three weeks out of the whole season is really pretty good, and it's a possibility when we get to operating it that we can make it faster than that," he said.

Kornfield said the ski association's groomers are looking forward to using the snowmaking system to provide skiers with a "steadier" winter -- as opposed to a "sooner" winter.

Andrew Kastning, the coach of the University of Alaska Anchorage's cross-country ski team, said he was still looking forward to seeing the system functioning but added there is "building frustration" over delays to the project's completion.

He said he'd advertised the snowmaking system to some of his recruits, or potential recruits, which has put him in an "awkward position" recently.

"It's been such a long project," he said, though he said he appreciated the work that had been done to install the system. "In the end, if they can get it working, it's a huge asset, and we'll be excited to have that."

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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