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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
NOVEMBER 30, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 45, Issue 52
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Walker sees tough days ahead
Hurt musher won’t race in Iditarod
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Iditarod musher injured by a sport utility vehicle that crashed into her team on a training run quickly turned her thoughts to the dogs that had scattered. From a ditch where she lay with three broken vertebrae, Karin Hendrickson reached for her cellphone. “I just started trying to get ahold of local mushers to say, ‘My dogs are loose and they’re hurt and someone needs to come and get them because I can’t,’ “ she said Thursday from her hospital bed at Providence Alaska Medical Center. Hendrickson, 44, is a fourtime finisher in the 1,000-mile Iditarod. Besides the broken back, she suffered badly bruised legs. Her dogs fared better. Local mushers and volunteers found all 14 of her dogs without serious injuries. Hendrickson on Tuesday night arrived home from her job with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and hooked up her team to a four-wheeler for a training run. The temperature was in the mid-20s. “It was overcast, but it was essentially good visibility,” she said. “It was dark. About a halfinch of snow (on the ground) and about a half-inch of ice under that, but the highways were pretty much dry.” The team took off on a trail that runs parallel to the Parks Highway. After about 14 miles, at about 7:30 p.m., they were along a section of trail that’s just 4 to 6 feet from the highway. “So we’re running along, and I realized this truck was coming toward us and it didn’t look like it would make the corner,” she said. “They weren’t really skidding. They just weren’t quite turning.” Mabel Quilliam, 68 of Talkeetna, lost control of her SUV at Mile 91 and hit Hendrickson’s all-terrain vehicle, Alaska State Troopers said. “I could see it coming, and there wasn’t a dang thing I could do about it,” she said. After the collision, Hendrickson flew about 20 feet in the air and landed on her feet and then her back. “I was conscious of the fact that there was a four-wheeler tumbling out there too, but I couldn’t tell where it was, and
By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
Photo by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Harper Samskar sat on Santa Claus’s lap for the first time at Christmas Comes to Kenai, in at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Kenai. Harper Samskar went with her parents, Ashly Samskar and Char Samskar, and told Santa Claus she wanted candy for christmas, as she held a large candy cane in her hand.
Kenai welcomes Christmas By IAN FOLEY Peninsula Clarion
Christmas came to Kenai before the snow did this year. As Santa rolled into the parking lot of the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center on Friday, the roads were free of ice and snow and the kids were excited to see him, as usual. Jackson Marion is sure he is on Santa’s “nice list”. “Well … I hope I’m not on
the naughty list,” he said. Jackson, 8, along with his brother Macalen, 6, were among scores of giddy children lined up outside center, hoping to meet Santa during the annual Christmas Comes to Kenai celebration. The celebration, held throughout town to celebrate the commencement of the holiday season, also included a craft fair, parade and fireworks display. Upon arriving, Santa was
jolly as usual, as one by one he heard the children’s Christmas wishes; his elves served hot chocolate to fend off the low temperatures. Nearby, two reindeer attempted to nibble on presents. Across town, people of all ages gathered at Kenai Central High School to check out the Kenai Fine Arts Guild craft fair. With an eclectic range of goods for sale, everyone, including vendors, seemed to be
enjoying the start of the holiday season. “I enjoy crowds and the fun, because everyone is happy,” said Sue Phillips, who was selling handmade earrings at the Teasing Raven Designs booth. Phillips, who has participated in the craft fair for six years and donates her proceeds to charity, was thankful to avoid department stores and the Black Friday chaos that See X-MAS, page A-2
CrossFit business booming in Alaska By SEAN DOOGAN Alaska Dispatch News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — “Do you CrossFit?” It’s a question being heard more often in Anchorage, and across Alaska, as the growing trend in fitness flexes its muscles in the Last Frontier. While CrossFit is just a small part of a $22 billion U.S. fitness industry, it has an oversized impact. And in a society obsessed with extremeifying almost everything, it is hard to argue that CrossFit isn’t among the most intense workouts you can find. Eschewing high-tech and expensive gym equipment in favor of quickpaced interval workouts using barbells, tires, ropes and pull-up bars, CrossFit boasts a huge and growing following around the world and around the state. “We have probably doubled
the amount of CrossFit gyms in Alaska in last calendar year,” said CrossFit Northern Exposure owner Tony Reishus. CrossFit is a way of life for many practitioners. But it is also a valuable brand. The company was started in a garage in Santa Cruz, California, in 2000 by former gymnast Greg Glassman. It is now worth more than $40 million and has a Reebok sponsorship and a deal with ESPN to carry its annual CrossFit Games. Today, the company supports almost 10,000 franchises across the globe. CrossFit gyms, called “boxes,” can be found in Iceland and Sweden, Tasmania, Chile, and Reunion Island off the coast of Madagascar. In Alaska, CrossFit is being practiced in communities across the state, from Anchorage and Wasilla to Fairbanks, Bethel,
Dutch Harbor, Kenai, Seward, Kodiak, Juneau and Ketchikan. In total, there are now 21 Alaska CrossFit affiliates. Reishus’ CrossFit box opened up a few weeks ago. Located in an industrial area west of C Street, near 64th Avenue, CrossFit Northern Exposure embodies the look, if not necessarily the attitude, of most CrossFit locations. Inside, a large open area is covered with floor padding and wooden sheets used to support heavy barbells during exercizes. A few pull-up bars and gymnastic ring sets dot one side of the space. Rowing machines are neatly stacked along the opposite wall. Rock music is blaring. Video screens show the day’s workout regimen, and a clock ticks down the training intervals. The sounds of exertion are barely noticeable above the din of whirling jump ropes. Words of encour-
agement fly among the group of people powering through the intense workout, echoing off the box’s high ceilings and relatively Spartan walls. The startup costs for a CrossFit box can be relatively low. A $1,000 certification class fee and $3,000 annual franchise fee are all that’s needed to get a piece of the CrossFit empire. The workouts require little expensive equipment, other than a few rowing machines, weightlifting equipment and ropes. Because of cheaper leasing rates, in Anchorage, CrossFit boxes are popping up in strip malls and industrial warehouses. Inside a strip mall on the Old Seward Highway, just a few miles away from CrossFit Northern Exposure, another group of CrossFitters alternates between power lifting and rowing at CrossFit Alaska. See CRASH , page A-2
See MUSH, page A-2
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Troopers release more details on Thanksgiving Day plane crash By RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
A Soldotna man and a juvenile from Kenai were identified by Alaska State Troopers as the two people injured in a Thanksgiving Day plane wreck on the West Side of cook Inlet. Brad Adams, 55, of Soldotna was piloting a PA-18 Super Cub owned by Nikiski-based Alaska West Air when the plane crashed on Kustatan Beach Thursday before noon, according to a Trooper report.
“The plane crash was seen from the air, pretty much across the inlet from Nikiski,” said Tim DeSpain, during a Thursday interview. “They could see two people.” Alaska West Air had another plane in the area which found the wreckage of the plane. The pilot of that second plane called the coordinates for the downed plane to the Kenai Flight Service, according to the Trooper report. Alaska West air sent its own helicopter from Nikiski to rescue the two — before Troopers had to respond. The pilot of the helicopter took Adams and the young male to Central Peninsula Hospital where they were met by Central See CRASH , page A-2
JUNEAU, Alaska — Bill Walker is coming into the governor’s office faced with high expectations for a renewed spirt of bipartisanship in Alaska politics and the grim reality of plunging oil prices and gaping budget holes. Walker knows the months ahead will not be easy, but he said it doesn’t change his feelings about the job, which he won earlier this month on his second try against Republican Gov. Sean Parnell. He is excited for the opportunity. “What people were telling us throughout the campaign was they wanted change and they were tired of the fights,” Walker said. “I think what we offered was an opportunity of working together.” On Monday, Walker will be sworn in as the 11th governor of Alaska and its first not affiliated with a political party. Two governors, Bill Egan and Wally Hickel, each served separate, non-consecutive terms. Hickel, Walker’s mentor, served his first term as a Republican and his second as a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. Walker, who finished behind Parnell in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary, ran this time as an independent, saying it was time to put politics aside for the betterment of the state. The campaign picked up momentum when, faced with the potential of splitting the opposition vote with the Democratic candidate Byron Mallott, Walker and Mallott — who often found themselves at debates or forums without Parnell, agreeing on many issues — banded together to create a “unity” ticket. As part of the package, Mallott abandoned his gubernatorial ambitions to become Walker’s running mate, and Walker changed his voter registration from Republican to undeclared. No deals were cut with Democrats, and there can only be one governor, Walker said. However, he has made clear his intent to reach out to Mallott as part of his decision-making process. Kay Brown, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said she hopes to see a coalition-type government where different points of view are represented. “The government should strive to be inclusive and to listen carefully to all points of view and make decisions that reflect what’s best for people as a whole, society as a whole,” she said. The last time Walker served in political office, as the youngest mayor of Valdez during the hectic early days of the transAlaska pipeline, Jimmy Carter was in the White House. Now 63, Walker, who was born and raised in Alaska, built a law career focused on oil and gas and municipal government issues. He is perhaps best known for his efforts to advance an all-Alaska gas line, which runs See WALKER, page A-2