[Empire Orienteering Club]

Lapland Lake
December 12, 2002

Ski Orienteering Season Opener

Almost five years ago someone had a great idea. Why not have a ski orienteering meet before the December Holidays to take some of the pressure off during January and February's tight calendar. For four seasons now a group of us from Empire Orienteering Club have tried scheduling an early event at Lapland Lake Resort.

We finally did it! With a combination of a later date (the Sunday before Christmas) and early snows this season the Hirvonens were able to have their entire trail network open on December 22. Early morning temperatures were in the twenties and we had a dusting of light snow over an icy base. Conditions were ideal for skating on most of the trails. The cut-offs were not well skied in giving early course vetters Steven Sweet II (home from the Air Force Academy on the Red course) and Steve Sweet Sr (on the Green course) an additional challenge.

Temperatures rose well above freezing by 1 pm and slowed conditions somewhat, but it proved a fine opportunity to get in an early ski O qualifier.

A total of 39 groups and individuals started. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the Winter wonderland type conditions or participants who enjoyed the event.

Both EMPO and the Lapland Lake organization got good feedback from the event. There was some confusion early in the registration trying to determine who had season passes and who had paid trail fees (included in the event registration fee). Once that was straightened out all went smoothly.

Many thanks to the Sweets, Bill Jameson (who was pressed into being an early start official), and to Mike George who collected most of the controls and to the crew at Lapland Lake for providing the excellent venue!

One suggestion was made and has merit. If we scheduled it earlier in the day we would have encountered less interference with Lapland's normal customer flow (heaviest from noon to mid afternoon). We would have enjoyed faster ski conditions and would have had more time to collect controls before dark. We would also have more time for a contingency if we had to go looking for a participant before dark. Finally, even with the best of intentions pre-holiday activities were such that I was not able to have sufficient copies of the courses prior to the event. No one objected to copying (before the clock started), but the customary one minute map preview before the start of a championship event was not practical.

With such good participation and enthusiasm, I hope we are able to do an early season event again in the future.

-- Eric Hamilton

White Course
2k, 5 controls
Andy Strat   HFA
Castaldo Family  HFA
Orange Course
4.1k, 8 controls
Marty Hawkes-Teeter M Scholastic 27:04
Mike George M Scholastic 29:49
Jessica Cichy Rec 49:30
Rachel Wright F Scholastic 50:25
Egor Astakhou Rec 59:40
Anna Kusler F Scholastic 63:55
Ashley WillseyF Scholastic 67:10
James Bielli M Scholastic 76:00
Konstantin KuznetsovRec HFA
Green
6.7k, 10 controls
Valeriy Rachitskiy Rec61:02
Phil Hawkes-Teeter M Masters61:29
Bill Jameson M Masters64:17
Olga Rachitskiy Rec65:20
Steve Sweet, Sr. M Masters70:27
Dana Elzenbeck Rec71:41
Anton Rachitskiy Rec73:54
Eugene Rachitskiy Rec75:18
Mitchel Hansen M Masters76:10
Phil Grant Rec92:46
Tom Wright M Masters102:40
Ellie George F Masters103:05
Len Cormier M Masters114:20
Sue Hawkes-Teeter F Masters131:06
Red
7.9k, 12 controls
Scott Pleban M Open36:10
Sergey Dobretsov M Open55:14
Pavel Korniliev M Open59:19
Peter Dady M Open61:14
Aims Coney M Open62:12
Matt George M Open64:00
Eric Smith M Open66:26
Steve Sweet, II Rec67:10
Stanislav Rachitskiy Rec71:26
Tom Bielli M Open75:45
Pam Flynn F Open82:45
Tom Strat Rec104:24
Melissa George F Open107:10

last updated: --Thu May 27 2004 07:58:28 PM EDT--