A ski for all: Annual event welcomes everyone to the trails

PALMER — Men, women and children from all around Southcentral Alaska came costumed to Government Peak Recreation Area on Sunday for the Mat-Su Ski for Women.

“It’s just a fun event. It’s not competitive so everybody can kind of go at their own pace and everyone’s just here to have a good time,” Adrienne Pauling said.

Those who chose to wear costumes stepped up their game. Pikachu and a cow were seen near the end of the race. Three generations of the Strabel family all skied together, and Stacy Strabel and her daughters each wore a super hero costume.

“Because we like skiing and it’s a really nice day and there’s great weather and great snow,” Strabel said. “It’s something we do every year.”

Strabel turned an old red ski suit into a near perfect replica of Elastigirl’s suit from “The Incredibles.” Her daughters wore Supergirl and Wonder Woman costumes, skiing alongside their mother, father and grandfather.

The Pokryfki family each dressed in black robes as their favorite judge, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

“Because she’s a champion for women and this is a champion day for women,” Sammye Prokyfki said.

Sammye skied along her daughter and granddaughters in costumes inspired by another strong woman.

“We’re a part of a group of strong women raised by strong women and we’re raising strong women and getting out here and representing strong women,” Christin Pokryfki said. “This is our way of representing strong women.”

The five Pokryfki’s and a friend all skied in their robes together. Not every costume was as premeditated.

“Well, my 9-year-old really, really wanted to dress up and I did not. She didn’t want to go it alone so I opened up the drawer about four minutes before we left and found something to wear,” Nicole Moffat said.

Carmen Summerfield wore her trojan outfit made out of tickets to the wearable art show. The Golden Ski Pole was awarded to a pair of snow fairies, Jill and Shelly Warner.

“We have attitude, we’re fairies,” Jill Warner said.

Fresh off a stellar performance at the Region III ski meet at GPRA this weekend, members of the Palmer High ski team came out to ski for fun this time.

“A lot of these people who put on this race are part of junior nordic and junior nordic is the reason why we’re having such great results like yesterday,” Katey Houser said.

Houser skied alongside Aila Berrigan in pursuit of their coach, none of whom seemed to be tired from the previous two days of skiing.

“Turned out I woke up early so I thought what the heck,” Palmer High ski coach Sue Skvorc said.

Skvorc had said that she was too tired for another ski race on Saturday, but showed up Sunday ready to ski.

“These are my old college colors. My costume is a 1980 Nanook this is my Nanook hat, it’s 40 years old. It’s older than you,” Skvorc said. “It’s a day for fun and anybody of any ability to get out here and ski. For some of them that’s the highlight is the cool ideas they come up with the mother and daughter pairs. There’s a lot of those...I’m not a costume person so I just dug this out of the closet but I like to look at all the other ones.”

The Ski for Women is held to raise money for Alaska Family Services. A representative from AFS spoke to those who stayed for a potluck about the services provided at AFS. Rotary and No More Mat-Su also made presentations. No More Mat-Su will host Rock The Resilience on Feb. 25 at the Glenn Massay Theater. Songs from local teen and adult musicians will be centered around the theme of ‘What is love?’ Service providers such as The Children’s Place and AFS will be at Rock the Resilience with visual art displays from Valley Pathways. Gagnon quoted a statistic from The Children’s place that one in 4 girls and one in six boys by the age of 18 will have been the target of some form of abuse.

“It’s not ok and it’s incumbent upon all of us to stand up with these very brave students and say no more Mat Su,” Gagnon said.

While an excuse to enjoy good snow in the sunshine with friends in costumes is the draw for some, all who ski in the Ski For Women are supporting services for women around the Valley.

“We like to support the services that are provided to women in the Mat Su Valley and we always donate more than the recommended amount because we know that there are hundreds of women out there that need services and if we can support them by doing something fun it’s worth joining,” Cindy Farrens said. “I believe anybody who is on the ski trail today is struggling with something and when we come together and we ski and we talk and we laugh and we dress up funny and we go and have a good meal, I think it helps heal all of us.”

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.