Winter Riding Johnson Pass

Most mountain bikers in AK know that Johnson Pass is a great ride in the summer/fall. But it can be just as incredible in the winter months too.

Apparently snowmachines are allowed to ride every other year on Johnson Pass and alternating years on Resurection. Since this year is a snowmachine year on Johnson Pass, the track was packed down solid enough for a fat-wheeled winter bike. Thanks to Holly Brooks for letting me borrow her Fatback while she was away racing, and to Rob Whitney (her husband) for making this little venture happen.

If you try this just be prepared for a little hiking and a few fun little river crossings along the way...

I'd recommend the "winter" route closer to the middle of the valley for times when the snowpack is unstable and avalanches can occur.

Be prepared for winter biking bliss!

I look forward to exploring many new areas via winter riding in years to come, including my favorite summer rides such as Lost Lake and Resurrection. Let us know if you have some favorite winter rides that are in good shape!

Switching Gears

Well, these times they are a changin'...

My life is in a period of transition as I am prepare to begin graduate school this spring. To give you an idea, I recently sold my car and had my last day of coaching for APU....unless I can manage to do some fill-in sessions in the future.

Here's Angela and Joanna cutting up their gourmet cake they brought to share after practice on my last day of the APU noon group, which also fell on St. Patty's Day. There's nothing more that I will miss about this transition than the incredible people I've been able to spend my time with in the skiing community. This includes the masters & juniors I've been able to work with through coaching, my coaches (current and former), competitors, supporters, and teammates.

I don't have any recent pictures with my teammates since they've been scattered around the globe at World Championships, OPA Cups, AK Supertours, etc... but I did find the above picture in the "Ski Trax" magazine yesterday. The photo is by Flying Point Road and is of Morgan Smyth, Holly Brooks, Myself, and Sadie Bjornsen. Excelling together at the classic sprint at US Nationals in January was certainly icing in the cake for a great year of training and racing with them.

In the coming month and a half or so I am thrilled to get to see some activities I've been organizing work themselves into fruition. Up on the plate next:

1. Volunteering and exploring Guatemala with Justin! We will help out at Maya Pedal, where we will make Bicimaquinas (Pedal Powered Machines) from donated bike parts/pieces, that can be used by the locals to pump water, mill grain, etc... We are thrilled to get to take part in this NGO and also experience a part of the world and culture that is new to us.

2. Going north to rural Alaska to help introduce the joy of xc skiing to elementary and high school students living along the Koyokuk River (which is off the road system). The idea to do this was a seed planted in my mind many years ago when Jennifer Johnston began organizing these types of trips. It has been something I've wanted to do for many years, however I was never able to participate due to my late season racing commitments. After some dreaming, calling around, and networking, it looks like it's going to happen! If you have used ski equipment you would like to donate to leave at these villages, please let me know.

3. Soon after I will be bonding with textbooks in the library, Im sure!

Before then, I hope to upload some pictures of recent adventures soon to help spread the word on what is possible to do in AK in the spring with so much daylight. Spring in AK is paradise, so soak it up if you're there!

Ahh...Spring Skiing

I don't think I will ever be able to get enough of spring skiing in Alaska. Powder, groomed trail, crust, snowmachine trails, or sastrugi... it seems like there's a fun and freeing way to experience it all. With increasing daylight, the exploration routes through the mountains, trees, and river systems seem endless. And I feel like I have barely begun to tap into what is possible.

Here are some pics from some morning/day trips in the past month or so...

Eklutna Lake/Serenity Falls:

Dad with the Twin Peaks in the background.

Dad checking out the old avalanche debris just past the lake. I thought we would turn around after about an hour of skiing, but we kept wanting to see what was around the next bend or mountain... and eventually found ourselves at the Serenity Falls hut (~22miles round trip).

Beautiful, high peaks back in this valley.

Eagle River area:

Turnagain Pass:

Paige Brady, a lifelong adventure buddy and telemark skiing inspiration (check her out in the Powderwhore ski movies). The powder, wonderful not long ago, became wind affected which made made gradual slopes more enticing such as touring at places like...

Rabbit Lakes:

A beautiful place in the winter too, even with the wind whipping through (Paige Brady pic). A huge thanks to Skhoop for their generous sponsorship of the most stylish winter wear.

Arctic to Indian:

Arctic Valley area and Birch, the Bird-dawg.

There are plenty of strong ice and snow bridges along the way right now.

And even some open water to fill up bottles if needed.

35k of bliss through the Ship Creek Valley.

Jeff, Carolyn, and Eric. We were all on fish scaled touring skis, which was the way to go for the current conditions. Having metal edges for the relatively steeper luge-like descents in the woods was super nice. Thanks to the Brady's for letting me borrow their ski set up, rather than risk breaking one of my beloved nordic pairs.

A spread eagle on the spot. A good day in the mountains gives me an energy and enthusiasm that I can't explain.

Another thing that gives me this vivacity is coaching. Getting outside with other skiers, seeing improvement, sharing what I've learned, and learning more in the process has been rewarding and fun job.

I may be shifting the structure of each day from ski-training/racing/coaching... but I feel like skiing, training, and coaching, each in some form or another, are all things I wont ever really be able to live without.

A Month of Many Highlights....

Wow, it seems as though quite a lot has happened since my last update at US National Championships!

The biggest news is that I will get to become a student at University of Utah's doctorate of Physical Therapy program, which is my top choice for grad school! I will begin the 3 year program in May and I am psyched!

I realize an update is long-overdue, but Im going to touch on some of the highlights from the past 5 weeks:

Spending time with my teammates and getting to see them dominate the racing scene! Above a number of us are with Betty, our B&B host in Maine.

Here's Fitz, Holly, and Morgan after their Supertour podium sweep the former Olympic ski jumping complex in Lake Placid, NY.

Discovering teammate Kikkan Randall climbed to the top of the overall World Cup Sprint standings! (Associated Press photo).

Getting to see the enthusiasm from the skiing community at the Fast and Female event in Maine. I joined many of the nations top female racers after US National Championships to volunteer-coach the up an coming skiers of the east coast.

In addition to skiing, doing Zumba, yoga, eating, and speaking with the girls in the full-day event I enjoyed the unexpected moments, such as:

Me: "Hi, I'm Katie. What's your name?

Nina: "Nina"

Me: "Did you know that there was an American Olympic xc skier named Nina too?"

Nina: "Yeah... I'm named after her. She won US National Championships here the day before I was born."

It is pretty awesome to see such an enthusiastic skiing culture all over the country. I also enjoyed hearing comments like, "That 4 hour drive this morning was so worth it for getting to be here!"

Here I am signing autographs. There were plenty of shirts and posters to go around, so we had happily sore hands from signing those by the time the day was over. Thanks to all the sponsors and organizers (especially NENSA's Abby Weissman) for making the event happen!

After my interviews in Utah getting to go on the "Interconnect" Ski Utah Tour with Deb Lovci (one of my generous hosts) and Chrispi as our guides. Pictured above is Morgan, myself, and Mindy... Check this out if you're in Utah-- it's an incredible tour that connects 6 resorts in one day, starting in Deer Valley and finishing in Snowbird down near Salt Lake.

Visiting my boyfriend Justin and backcountry skiing among the highest mountains in Southern California...
while hooting, hollering, and laughing all along the way with Morgan and Stefanie.

Racing in the co-ed Team Sprints in down town Sun Valley, Idaho.

I paired up with Mikey Sinnott (#1), who may be Sun Valley's Olympic Development Team (a different club team), but we have grown up racing and traveling abroad to represent the USA on J1 Scandinavian Cup trips, World Junior Championships or European Cups for more than a decade! (Geez, Im only 25 but am starting to sound old...)

It was very fun to race a city sprint again, with live music, fire pits, and lots of people cheering!! Thanks to Joshua Wells for taking all these city sprint photos!

After the preliminary races, we had the "finals", where each of us raced a fast 1k loop 3x. The guys started us off and Mikey tagged off to me into a perfect position.

The ladies got to take the final glory lap, where the win was $1,000! Here I am getting to bring in the win for our duo!

A few days later I got the chance to participate in the 32k Boulder Mountain Tour, the big marathon ski race for this region (Photo Credit Ian Harvey). Congratulations to Sylvan Ellofsen and Evelyn Dong for their stellar performances!

After being on the road for all but a week since mid-November, I am thoroughly enjoying being HOME! I'm coaching as much as I can, preparing to move to Utah, and trying out the alternate varieties of Atomic skis....

It has been fun and refreshing to shift gears and shift my energy, time, and focus on to challenging new tasks and projects. I hope to update with a couple of these projects as they work themselves into fruition (hopefully) in the coming months!

THANK YOU to sponsors, family, fans, and friends who have given me constant support to make the pursuit of my skiing goals a reality. Also, thank you to those of you who have helped prepare for a future as a health care provider.

Until next time,

Katie

Ski Buddy Sign Up

Hello APU Devo, Junior skiers, and Parents,

The racing season is in full swing and we have APU skiers racing well all over the map! We may be in many different places racing at various levels, however we are ALL part of the same team-- doing incredible things in the pursuit of the fabulous sport of skiing.

I thought that a great way to stay connected and support each other would be to implement a ski-buddy system between the Elite Team and the up-and-coming racers in our junior program. The focus of this is to offer inter-team inspiration and encouragement.

This is how it will work:

*We will pair up our Elite skiers with 1-3 junior/devo skiers. All year-round and winter session members are invited to participate. The main form of communication in this "buddy system" will likely be through email, since many of the Elite/Uni skiers are often out of town racing. However, when both “buddies” are at the same ski function, they can have a chance to say "hello", cheer and support their buddy.

*You can anticipate on ~1 mode of communication per month from Jan-March 2011.

*If you are interested in participating *please email me at katieronsse(at)gmail.com ASAP. You can say for example, "Bobby Smyth is in."

Parents-- if you would like to be cc’d in your child’s buddy correspondence, please let me know.

As soon as we get a roster of everyone interested in participating, we will pair you up. You can expect to receive an email from your buddy, letting you know with whom you are paired.

*If you have any questions, concerns, or comments throughout the project, please don’t hesitate to email me at katieronsse(at) gmail.com. If you not hear from your buddy by Jan 30^th, please let me know.

This is going to be fun! Keep racing fast and hope to see you on the trails!

~Katie Ronsse

US National Championships: Classic Distance

The classic distance races kicked off here in Rumford, Maine. I can't help but brag about my teammates, since they took 1st and 2nd in both the mens and women's races and had many outstanding performances off the podium too.

Women's podium: Morgan Smyth (APU), Sadie Bjornson (APU), Morgan Arritola (US Ski Team/SVSEF).

It was Sadie's first National Championship (Kris Dobie photo). A little known fact is that Sadsarue was also a World Record holder back in the day...in the 100m skate! Sadie is a young lady loaded with talent and will likely be a big part of the future of US Skiing.

It was also great to see Morgan Smyth (above in a Kris Dobie photo) back on her A-game! Morgan is a former National Champion and former US Ski Team member but in the past has spent more than a fair share of time plagued by sickness and injury. She joined the APU team in the spring and has contributed to making our inter-team dynamic playful and fun and she has been racing wicked fast.

Here's our coach Erik Flora giving a splits and encouraging James Southam (APU) as he skis to a 2nd place overall finish. Lars Flora (APU) won and David Norris of Fairbanks, AK was 3rd! A great day for AK.

10k Classic. photo credit: Ian Harvey of Toko

As far as my personal race today, I executed my race as planned and raced my heart out-- even though my finishing result was a less than desirable. As my wise Dad once told me,

"Everyone who has ever trained hard, expected great results, and got something less knows humility was purchased for the price of a race bib."

Any day with a race bib on is a good day. A good day to test my limits and challenge myself, and a good day to celebrate the success and fitness of my teammates and competitors, if not my own.

Great job to all the racers today. Thanks to everyone out on course cheering for me, taking pictures, giving splits, and to the volunteers and coaches who made it happen.

Here I am, flattered to have Lynne Zimmerman's support. Lynn has been making the trip out to Rumford each race day to cheer me on, volunteer as needed, and take pictures! I met Lynn's daughter, Heather Zimmerman, when we both studied abroad in New Zealand and she instantly became one of my lifelong best friends and an irreplaceable adventure buddy. Since Heather retired from the CXC Elite Ski Racing Team, she has been able to fulfill her desire to devote her energy to service work in an underdeveloped nation. After working non-stop at a "real" job for a year, she saved up enough money to spend a year on a 1-year volunteer service project where she is teaching English to the Tibetans in the foothills of the Himalayas. I agree with her mom when she said, "I couldn't be prouder of her".

Thanks for reading and expect more updates soon. I can't wait to sprint again on Saturday!

Katie

The Bug

Our team chemistry this year has exceptionally fun and positive which has made training, traveling, and racing very enjoyable. As a whole, the team's results have also been outstanding. One of my teammates wrote about this very thing and explained it quite elegantly. I wanted to share it with you.

"The APU girls team definitely has something special right now. I've been trying to boil it down, put my finger on it, & identify it but I can't..... People have asked me what it is, wanting to create the same thing amongst their team(s) but I don't know that it's reproducible. Some how we have the right people, with the right chemistry, at the right time. We have great coaches, hard working, professional wax techs, and good attitudes. We live for hard workouts, we switch leads in intervals, we give each other feedback on ways that we can improve. Most people view cross country skiing as an individual sport but it can be so much more than that.

I think that good results and good attitudes are infectious and we have the bug. Once someone breaks through, everyone else starts doing well. There is a domino effect and it's awesome." - Holly Brooks

In fact, her entire blog post is very well done. You can check it out here.

Brent Knight, another teammate of mine and fellow Atomic athletes, just posted a great video introducing many of the APU athletes. Thanks for putting this together Brent. Check it out!