Enquire whether first couple will leave Alaska prior to contest? (3,5)

'enquire' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'whether first couple will leave alaska prior to contest?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'first' could be 'a' (first letter of the alphabet) and 'a' is present in the answer.
'contest?' could be 'bout' (a bout is a boxing match) and 'bout' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'ska' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?