But these shitty conditions most of the skiing world is experiencing as of late are holding our northern brethren back! A second Saturday of those aforementioned shitty conditions forced the organizers’ hands and they called off the 30th anniversary race of Arctic Man. Poop buckets! Luckily, as mentioned, it was only the race that they called off.
Why were we so excited about the race? Well, Alaskans are basically as absurdly cool as northern Canadians (who are absurdly cool if you didn’t already know that) but draped in red, white, and blue. And Arctic Man is effectively their dog and pony show where they get to show off all the oddball traits that make them the rugged yet inspired lot that they are. Some attendees even likened it to Burning Man.
Artist Sandy Jamieson also drew that connection to the Black Rock Desert festivities, though not in as positive of a light for the week-long festivities down in Northern Nevada: “Picture burning man, and the people who go to burning man. And now picture Burning Man in the snowfield, instead of the desert, and in the mountains. And then picture the kind of people who beat up on the people who go to Burning Man… and you have something of an idea of Arctic crowd.”
Still confused? Well, the central part of the festival of sorts is the Arctic Man, which is basically one of the coolest ski races out there.
Started by one Howie Thies, it is a five-and-a-half mile race where a skier races down mountain, is picked up by a teammate on a snowmachine who tows him up another mountain that the skier then races down to the finish line. Seems rather rudimentary, sure, but Arctic Man is less about the contest* and more about the people/community that flocks to the event. And the people/community are absurdly cool.
*That being said, the record is less than four minutes, which if you think about it is REALLY, REALLY IMPRESSIVE.
Alaska, I love you — and I’m damn glad that you’re a part of our star-spangled family. Particularly this guy.
One hell of a guy if you ask me.
