Fairbanks, Alaska
2018
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
What is healthy indoor air quality?
Editor’s note Winter is Interior Alaska’s defining season. You can love it or hate it, but the reality is that it sticks around for more than half the year here. We Alaskans take pride in our ability to weather the winters, and enjoy them to the fullest. A common lament is that winter is too short. Staying active, making the most of the limited daylight on the ski trails or staying up late to watch for the northern lights, are all time-tested ways to beat the cold. Look inside for tips on finding the perfect skis, keeping the air healthy inside your house, and safe generator use, just in case the need arises. — Julie Stricker
On the cover A frost-covered tree stands in the twilight at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge in this News-Miner file photo.
By CCHRC
Healthy indoor air can best be described as air that is fresh, at a comfortable temperature and humidity, and free of chemicals, mold, and other contaminants. There are many ways a resident can improve their indoor air quality and doing so not only makes a living space more comfortable, but saves energy, money, and improves the health of occupants. The first step in ensuring healthy indoor air quality is recognizing what can compromise it. Excess contaminants and moisture have the largest impact on quality, but even air that is too dry, cold, or hot can lead to discomfort and health problems. There are two strategies for actively creating healthy indoor air: Proactively preventing the introduction of contaminants,
moisture, and undesirable conditioning to indoor air, and reactively removing contaminants if they have been introduced. Proactive approaches include filtering and heating incoming outdoor air, storing pollutants outside, and maintaining a wellsealed building envelope. Reactive approaches include flushing indoor air as well as identifying and removing contaminant sources. In most cases, healthy indoor air quality begins with, and relies on, the exchange of indoor and outdoor air. Outdoor air is generally the cleanest air source, however certain conditions can worsen outdoor air quality. In those conditions, making sure poor outdoor air is warmed and filtered before it enters a home is an important proactive step. Once air is indoors, the build-
up of contaminants and moisture is the greatest threat to air quality. Knowing which substances and activities can contaminate indoor air and avoiding them when possible is a great proactive strategy. However, contaminants come in many forms and originate from a range of sources, so it can be nearly impossible to prevent all contaminants from infiltrating your indoor air. Because of this, making sure indoor air is constantly refreshed so that moisture and harmful substances do not build up over time is the best and most reliable reactive strategy. The Cold Climate Housing Research Center is an industry-based, nonprofit corporation created to facilitate the development, use, and testing of energyefficient, durable, healthy, and costeffective building technologies for people living in circumpolar regions around the
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Tips to survive your first ski swap in Fairbanks Fairbanks’ two main ski swaps take place in the next few weeks, and if they’re anything like the used ski sales of past years, much of the action will be over in minutes. The doors open, and people immediately start grabbing things from the rows of used gear. Parents pull multiple sets of skis for each child they’re shopping for. People throw off their shoes and start trying on boots. Even decades-old wooden skis get picked up. Few people ski on them, but they’re popular cabin decorations. I like to think the ski
FALL SKI SWAP DATESÂ West Valley Cross Country Ski Team Oct. 20Â Fairbanks Alpine Ski Club Nov. 3 and snowboard community is more polite than the retail world in general, but with hundreds of shoppers looking for bargains, a Fairbanks gear swap is a bit like Black Friday. This is especially true for the big two fall ski swaps, the West Valley Cross Country Ski Team ski swap, scheduled for October 20, and the Fairbanks Ski Patrol
and Fairbanks Alpine Ski Club swap, scheduled for November 3. Both events usually have a large selection of both alpine and cross country skis.
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a comfortable fit. The boots that fasten with three or four buckles tend to be more comfortable than the older-style rear-entry boots. It’s OK at a ski swap to grab a SWAP  5
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Alpine ski tips
I’ve had good luck learning to ski on gear bought mostly from Fairbanks ski swaps, but mostly with classic skiing
Club and has been skiing since she was 2 years old. 1) Come early to get a place in line. The best items are often sold early in the ski swap. 2) Shop for boots first because you’ll want to try them on to ensure
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gear, which is a world away from downhill gear. I got some tips for alpine ski shopping this week after talking to Tara Bellion. Bellion is an instructor and the vice president of the Fairbanks Alpine Ski
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SFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER.
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By Sam Friedman
2018 Winter Survival Guide
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
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SWAP Continued from 3 few pairs to try on, but try to put back the ones you don’t want quickly; others are waiting. 3) When buying a first pair of alpine skis, consider “all-mountain skis,� skis that perform well enough under most snow conditions. All-mountain skis are narrower at the center and are wider and rounded at the ends. Look for skis that are as tall as your nose and with bindings that fit your boots. Ski Patrol and Alpine Ski Club volunteers will be on hand to help with sizing. 4) If buying bindings, remember that older bindings may be past their indemnification date. This means that some certified ski technicians will not mount or adjust these bindings. Before using used skis, set the DIN settings to
your weight. The DIN is the pressure under which a ski binding will release in a crash. 5) To size poles, flip them upside down with the top of the poles on the ground and fists gripping the baskets. The elbows should be at right angles. Pole height can be pretty forgiving, so it’s OK, to buy growing children slightly longer poles to grow into.
Other ski swap tips
• When selling items at a ski swap, try to price items based on what you’d be willing to pay for the item today, not the higher price you paid for them years ago. • Ski swaps aren’t just about skis, check out other items like ski roof racks and ice skates. Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @FDNMoutdoors. A version of this story was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Nov. 10 2017
Shoppers flow through rows of skis during the West Valley High School Ski Team’s annual ski swap in this 2013 file photo. Hundreds flocked to the event, many showing up hours early to get a good spot in line, to look for deals and bargains on used ski gear and outdoor accessories. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Thursday, October 4, 2018
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Picking cross-country skis that fit your needs SFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER.COM
Cross-country skiing is the perfect blend of working and riding. Rolling up and flying down hills on skis is a beautiful fluid motion that’s faster and easier on my body than running.
Most importantly, it takes me to places that are off-limits in the summer in muskegy Fairbanks. I’m such a big fan of cross-country skiing that I find myself asking “do you ski?� when I hear that people don’t like Interior Alaska winters or are thinking about moving away.
I expect many people don’t experience one of the best parts about living in Fairbanks because skis are expensive and confusing. That was my experience. I moved to Fairbanks in 2011, fresh from warmer climates and ignorant about binding types and ski waxes.
DURATRAC
This column is for people who want to learn to ski and avoid some of the confusion. Although I’m now an enthusiastic skiing evangelist, I’m still new to the sport and am far from an expert. So I went this week to SKIS  8
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I spent my first winter on the couch. My second winter it took me two ski swaps, several retail store visits and the advice of numerous friends and knowledgeable-looking bystanders to get equipment. Learning to ski competently took a few YouTube videos and lots of falling.
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Thursday, October 4, 2018
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SKIS Continued from 6 visit Frank Olive with the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Outdoor Adventures program. Olive is an accomplished backcountry skier with 25 years of cross-country skiing experience, but he sees skiing through the eyes of his students in his lunchtime ski class.
Two distinct sports
To the untrained eye, all cross-country skiing looks the same. But it’s actually two distinct sports. There’s “classic,” technique which carries skiers over a parallel track with a motion that looks somewhat like walking. Then there’s “skate skiing,” a v-shaped stride that’s a mix of run-
2018 Winter Survival Guide ning and ice skating. Conventional wisdom is that classic is easier to learn. It’s the safe choice for new skiers because even skiers who don’t master the careful balancing and kicking to do it well can still have fun shuffling along. For most people, Olive recommends a classic-style “touring” ski. A basic set of skis can be found used for $20 to $50, and for an introductory skier, it doesn’t matter much if the skis are a little long or short, he said. Within the world of classic skiing, there are also skinny high-performance skis for racing on groomed trails and fatter nordic backcountry skis for skiers who go off-trail more often. In some cases it can be appropriate to start with skate skiing. “You have to be a little careful getting people
into this sport that they don’t think that the only thing you can do is shuffle along and walk,” he said. “Especially runners and downhill skiers who have the balance and athleticism, maybe they (should consider starting) out with skate skiing so that it engages them right of the bat.” Although skate skiing is fast and exciting, it’s also not as all-purpose as classic skiing. It requires a wide trail like the groomed trails at Birch Hill Recreation Area or the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Cold weather also makes skating less fun. Most skiers put away their skate skis at anything colder than 10 below zero because friction makes it difficult to get the glide needed for skating. There’s a category between skate and classic skis called combi equip-
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
UAF Outdoor Adventures assistant coordinator Frank Olive goes over the basics of cross country ski equipment, including the different binding styles and making sure your boots and bindings match, in this 2014 file photo. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER
ment, which in theory can be used for either style. Olive is pretty negative
about combi gear because in his experience it works poorly for both ski styles.
However it may work for especially skilled people CONTINUED ON 9
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Boots first
Imperfect skis are somewhat forgiving, boots aren’t. Olive recommends finding a good pair of boots first. Next it’s a matter of finding a binding that matches the boot. Most contemporary skis use one of two binding styles to attach the boot to the ski: New Nordic Norm (NNN) and Solomon Nordic System (SNS). They’re made by rival companies, so they’re not compatible, but it’s possible to buy a ski with one kind of binding and replace it with a binding that matches your boots. Thrifty shoppers looking at old skis may see some more exotic binding types. The most common of these older styles is the classic “three pin” or “nordic norm” bindings, which newer bindings began to replace in the 1980s. The old three-pin bindings are still used, but Olive doesn’t recommend them because it’s harder to find compatible boots. Skis are sized by both the height and the weight of the skier. Skate skis are shorter than classic skis, but poles for skate skis are longer than for classic skis. In general, it’s
more important to have a precise fit for skate skiing, Olive said. Staff at retail stores and volunteers at ski swap events can help size skis. Classic skiers have another important choice, Waxable or waxless. Classic skiers move by gripping the snow with the middle of the ski, then kicking forward to glide ahead on the other ski. Waxless skis have a “fish scale” pattern built into the bottom of the ski. Waxable skiers don’t have this pattern, instead skiers apply coats of wax to the underside of the ski each time they go out, a chore that takes about five minutes. In the Lower 48, waxless skis are the easy choice for casual skiers while more competitive skiers use waxable. But in Fairbanks, Olive recommends waxable skis for most people because frequent cold weather dramatically slows down fish scale skis. It all comes down to “if you’re willing to commit to five minutes of your time to have a better ski experience, then the waxables work better for Fairbanks. If you’re not the type of person who’s going to do it, who just wants to put the skis on and go ... then the waxless skis are OK.
Getting out
The ski season has already begun in Fairbanks. The West Valley High School ski swap, a sale for used ski equipment at the high school, is coming up Oct. 25. It’s a good opportunity to pick up ski gear on sale, although the selection and the crowd can be overwhelming. Two weeks later is the Ski Patrol ski swap at Pioneer Park. I’ve been happy with ski equipment I’ve picked up at the ski swaps, although I’ve also gotten things on eBay and retail in Fairbanks. Fairbanks has abundant trails on which to learn to ski. The two main trail systems are at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Birch Hill Recreation Area. Olive likes to take his students to Smith Lake on the UAF trails system for early lessons. Beyond that, there are trails at Creamer’s Field, Pearl Creek Elementary, Goldstream Sports, Salcha and Two Rivers, among many others. Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @ FDNMoutdoors This article was originally published in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner on Oct. 10, 2014
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Thursday, October 4, 2018
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
A generator can keep furnaces and other essential appliances working lowed the Thanksgiving 2010 ice storm, the leftover gusty winds from Typhoon Tom in 1996 and widespread outages following an early snowstorm in 1992, said Rick Thoman with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy.
By Sam Friedman SFRIEDMAN@NEWSMINER. COM
The value of having an emergency generator during a Fairbanks winter was quite clear in November 2013. That month, a wind storm did extensive damage to Fairbanks powerlines and left about 3,000 people without power for about three days. Some had no power for as long as a week. For those without woodstoves or backup generators to power their furnaces, it was a cold few days. That 2013 storm was named a national disaster, but it’s hardly unprecedented for Fairbanks to get power
Choosing a generator
Mike Nabinger, a technician at The Woodway, works on a generator after a windstorm knocked power out to much of Fairbanks for several days in 2013. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER
outages in the winter. All it takes is another storm with snow-weighted
trees and strong winds to cause another mass outage during the sea-
son when many people depend on electricity for heat. Power outages fol-
Art Nash advises people about off-thegrid energy, including emergency generator setups, through his job as energy specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. In general, the types of appliances people want to fire up during an
outage determine if they can make do with a small suitcase-type generator and simple 110volt plug or if they need a larger generator and the work of a professional electrician. “People’s priority is usually heat, then maybe keeping a refrigerator going and some lights,â€? he said. People who have small Toyo or Monitor-type stoves or other appliances with circuitry on them should look for generators that have inverters that produce a pure sine-shaped wave, which are denoted with the lower case “iâ€? after their listed wattage, Nash said. GENERATOR Âť 11
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2018 Winter Survival Guide
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GENERATOR Continued from 10 The clean sine wave is better for the circuitry, but also adds to the cost. A cheaper generator with an inverter that produces a “dirty� wave is fine for simple electronics, such as a cheap heater or a hair dryer, Nash said. Eight hundred watts is about the minimum to start up a small oil stove, although once the stove is running it doesn’t require the full 800 watts and people may be able to power additional appliances. A larger generator, in the range of 2-5 kilowatts (2,000-5,000 wi) gives users the options to power more appliances and potentially an entire household. But setting up a generator to power a large furnace or an entire house can be more complex than plugging in an
Mike Nabinger, a technician with The Woodway, uses a tiny hand drill to clean out a generator’s carburetor in this 2013 file photo. ERIC ENGMAN/NEWS-MINER outlet. For advice, Nash recommends a booklet produced by the Golden Valley Electric Association at bit.ly/2xPtwiY.
Common problems
At Rod’s Saw Shop on Minnie Street, staff repair many small motors and repeatedly
see some of the same problems with generators. Two of the most common problems are dirty carburetors from stale gasoline left in generators and pressure damage from ice-clogged breathing tubes, said owner Rod Stephens. The former problem is easily avoided by removing gaso-
line from the generator before putting it storage. “If you’re not going to run you generator every month you should definitely purge your generator so you don’t have an issue starting it when you have to have it,� Stephens said. The problem with iceclogged breathing tubes is a common issue with generators in which the breathing tube is pointed up. Condensation in the tube freezes, causing pressure to build up in the engine and for oil to leak out. An oil puddle next to the generator may be a symptom of this problem. “Your generator is relieving its engine pressure so it’s breathing warm air out of the generator. It hits the cold air and it freezes the breather tube and then your engine can’t release its pressure any more. It’ll start leaking oil on you. It can blow a crank shaft seal and then you’ll have
issues,� Stephens said. People can solve this problem by buying a generator with a breathing tube that doesn’t point up, or by re-routing the tube. But the best approach is to put the generator in some kind of case to keep it warm outside, Stephens said. Unfortunately, Stephen said he doesn’t know of any product on the market for this, so it’s something people have to make for themselves. Generators should never be run inside a building because they exhaust poisonous carbon monoxide gas, he said. Care should be taken in running an extension cord from a generator into a home so that the cord isn’t pinched (creating a hotspot and a fire hazard) and so that loose cords don’t create a tripping hazard. Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter: @ FDNMoutdoors
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thefolkschoolfairbanks.org
2018 Winter Survival Guide
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Be a visitor in your own town! Some of Alaska’s best winter adventures are right outside your door. Explore your own back yard. See the captivating light of the aurora borealis, view giant outdoor ice sculptures and experience the exhilarating sport of dog mushing. Not to mention there’s always a multitude of other winter activities, cultural celebrations, art exhibitions and sporting events happening during the exciting winter season. Interior Alaska has the adventure you’re looking for at your fingertips. The information experts at Explore Fairbanks are available to help guide you to new adventures and experiences. Visit the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center to talk with the specialists or pick up your free copy of the Fairbanks Winter Guide and Visitors Guide today. Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center 101 Dunkel Street • Downtown Fairbanks • 8 am – 5 pm Winter • 8 am – 9 pm Summer
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