An end-of-winter wilderness ski race through the heart of the Brooks Range can deliver all sorts of challenges, even as daylight grows by nearly eight minutes a day to more than 15 hours.
• Temperatures that sink to 40 below.
• Blizzard-like conditions as blowing snow limits visibility and cover tracks.
• Bone-chilling overflow atop a river along the route.
But this year's Alaska Mountain Wilderness Ski Classic, which wrapped up early Saturday morning, offered an unprecedented challenge — heat.
"There were no real issues other than heat," said longtime race organizer Dave Cramer. "It was very mild by Brooks Range standards. We expect to see temperatures well below zero. It was maybe 30 degrees warmer than that.
"But it was a pretty good snow year up that way — so there was a lot of trail breaking to do."
The Alaska Mountain Wilderness Ski Classic is a cross-country wilderness ski race that typically runs 150-200 miles, with competitors selecting the best route from start to finish.
This year's race, the 29th, took skiers through the Brooks Range, starting at Galbraith Lake, heading to Anaktuvuk Pass and then Wiseman (check out the route map here). The three-skier team of Brad Martin, Josh Mumm and Tobias Schwoerer reached Wiseman at 3:25 p.m. Friday, fastest of a record 31 teams that started on Sunday at Mile 261 of the Dalton Highway.
Schwoerer, of Anchorage, is a former All-American runner and Nordic skier at UAA who twice won the Crow Pass Crossing backcountry marathon from Girdwood to Eagle River. In 2004, he won the storied Mount Marathon race in Seward in what was then the second-fastest time in race history and still checks in as sixth-fastest, then won Crow Pass for the second straight year.
Mumm, of Homer, is the defending Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic champion from last summer.
Martin is a field biologist and Kodiak commercial fisherman.
Second place went to the team of Ben Histand and Diana Johnson, just 40 minutes back.
Solo skier Malcolm Herstand was third, finishing at 4:43 p.m. Friday.
"Everyone was surprised by how mild it was, how sunny it was," Cramer said. "There wasn't much overflow on the Koyukuk (River) and other areas where there usually is, either. Everybody finished in pretty good shape."
The field of 31 teams was a race record; only one scratched.
Unlike other parts of snow-starved Alaska during a winter of warmth, the Brooks Range had several feet of snow.
"The deep snow came on really early in the race, which allowed people in the back to catch up to you," said Schwoerer, who estimated about 5 feet of snow for much of the route. "And that Brooks Range snow is so crumbly deep down because of the temperature ranges. I bet there was 100 inches in Atigun Pass."
The Alaska Mountain Wilderness Ski Classic rotates among courses in the Chugach and Wrangell-St. Elias mountain ranges as well as the Brooks Range, changing every three years. Competitors must be self-sufficient; there are no food drops, rest stations or markers indicating the route. Skiers pick what they consider the best way to get from the start to the finish.
Its summer sister, the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic, has been doing the same thing during the warm months since 1982. It's considered one of the world's original adventure races — and one of the toughest.
Check out a YouTube video of the April race here (www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHZE4wcVyDM).
Contact Mike Campbell at mcampbell(at)alaskadispatch.com