The diminishing snowpack on the central Kenai Peninsula has forced the cancellation of the Ski for Women, which had been scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 9, at Tsalteshi Trails just outside of Soldotna.
Jenny Neyman, the administrative coordinator at the Tsalteshi Trails Association, said the event, which has been getting about 80 finishers in recent years, is a victim of the thin amount of snow on the trails.
“It’s really welcoming to people who don’t ski all that often, or older folks and younger folks and families, or people with elaborate costumes,” she said. “We would rather wait a year than have people out there really having to watch their footing, looking for ice and rocks.”
In other low-snow winters, the Ski for Women has become a stud run or snowshoe. The last time the event was forced to a stud run was in 2016, but that wasn’t a possibility this time.
When three days of solid rain stopped on Jan. 26, the trail system received about 3 inches of snow on top of ice.
“The tiny shot of snow that we got was a blessing, but a curse for that particular event,” Neyman said. “It was enough to get us skiing at Tsalteshi again, which is great, but to move to a stud run would further damage the snow that we do have.”
Neyman said Tsalteshi would still like to host the Kenai Peninsula Borough high school ski meet on Feb. 15 and the Tour of Tsalteshi on Feb. 16.
The administrative coordinator said the trails also would like to host a middle school race on Friday, Feb. 7, and Tsalteshi Youth Ski on Saturday, Feb. 8.
Neyman said the winter started out great at Tsalteshi, with lots of snow in November setting up a good base. Since then, a series of wet weekends have eroded that base to a layer of ice covered by a thin layer of snow.
“The fact that we’re still skiing at Tsalteshi is completely due to our incredible groomers,” Neyman said. “They’ve pulled every rabbit out of every hat to mitigate all the ice that developed out there.”
According to Neyman, Youth Ski has missed five lessons so far, and has two make-ups planned. Also, four adult ski lessons have been canceled. Neyman also heard from a SoHi ski coach this week that the team has only had to go to dry-land training for three days this season.
The big question now is the Tour of Tsalteshi.
“We will have a version of the Tour of Tsalteshi,” Neyman said. “It just remains to be seen what that’s going to look like.
“We are committed to having the best event we possibly can. We just aren’t going to know until we get a little closer what, for sure, that’s going to look like.”
The administrative coordinator said the first preference is to get more snow and do the 10-, 20- and 40-kilometer ski races and 20-kilometer fat bike race. The forecast is not optimistic in that regard.
The next option is to modify the course to miss the icy and rocky spots on the trails.
“And in an absolute worst-case scenario, if conditions just deteriorate between now and the 16th, we’re still going to have our party at Kenai River Brewing,” she said. “So if nothing else, come commiserate with us at the brewery, and we’ll toast to happier winter days on the trails.”
The party will start at 3 p.m. Feb. 16. Neyman said the event has even added a “Nothing But Party” category to the event registration page. That’s a $10 donation to help the race defray the cost of cancellation, or lower than normal registration if the event is held.
Neyman did say that if the bike and ski race are canceled, those who have registered will have their registration fee transferred to the 2026 event.
“At this point before the race, we’ve already spent the money that is required to put this on,” Neyman said.
The administrative coordinator added this hasn’t been a great winter for the finances of the trails association, because many ski events have seen cancellations or lower participation. Groomer hours are down only a bit from last year’s long and snowy winter because of all the time spent grinding up ice.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to maintain skiing conditions for the community,” she said. “It’s just that weather has not been our friend this year.”
