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Melissa Criqui and Marsha Jacobs show off their "O in the Oaks" T-shirts for the Morgan Territory A-meet, October 2001 (Photo: Judy Koehler)

Royal Gorge Ski-O

Soda Springs
Feb. 4, 2001

by Christine Shirley, meet director

Unseasonably warm weather greeted skiers at this year's Royal Gorge Ski-O, the first event in the 2001 California Ski-O Champs (best two out of three events counts toward an overall standing).

With five courses to choose from, a whopping 34 percent of the 51 participants decided to ski the Blue course. We had to scramble for Blue maps - the last two out on that course went with hand-drawn maps. Was it the good weather? Or was a distance of 20 kilometers with 410 meters of climb just too easy?

Ski orienteering involves choosing the right course both in terms of navigational skill and skiing ability. With that in mind, I find it interesting that all courses had winning times of over an hour. Early starters did better than late ones because the heat caused the snow to become wet and slow. I estimate a 20-minute penalty for starting past 10:30 am. Also, women gave many of the men a run for their money. Below are the complete results.

I regret the low turn-out for White and Yellow courses. We need to make a special effort to publicize, and to recruit and support skiers from "off the street."

Thanks for the help!

As a first-time meet director, I was blessed not only by the weather but with wonderful volunteers. Matthias Kohler handled course-setting duties as well as placing and picking up most of the controls. It was a joy working with him. Tom Jahn, who flew in from New Hampshire for the event, deserves special thanks for stomping out trails, vetting, and setting out controls on Friday and Saturday. He did starts and finishes all day on Sunday, and even picked up a few controls. His warmth, energy, advice, and encouragement throughout the weekend saved Matthias and I from nervous collapse and sheer exhaustion. (Tom mapped Royal Gorge and has directed the event many times.) A hearty thanks to Adolf Jochnick, who traveled to Royal Gorge from Connecticut. He set controls on the beginner/intermediate courses, stomped out short-cuts, and picked up controls from the "back 40" on the Blue course.

Anna Brinzel, Tom Jahn, Adolf Joknick, Matthias Kohler, Yelena Krasnova and friends, and Eric Ramberg did a superb job of control pick-up. Thanks to you I had everything counted and folded before 5 pm. Thank you Abby Wolfe and Tony Anthony for handling registration. Katie Anthony kept us all supplied with hot chocolate and coffee, and acted as our messenger between registration and starts. Stacy Goss hauled supplies and set out signage. Thanks to all named and to those I¹ve shamefully neglected to mention.

Royal Gorge gets a round of applause, too. They supplied a great venue, of course, but also helpful staff. Special thanks to Hugh, who helped me navigate the red tape, supplied staff at registration, set out tables and banners, supplied drinks, and collected a fantastic grab bag of prizes (hats, t-shirts, resort tickets, socks, energy drinks) for distribution to male and female first-place finishers on all courses. Sierra Nordic also donated a couple of prizes (wax).


Results

White   3.75 km, 65 m climb

 1  Galina Shakhnovsky                 1:16:20
 2  Mike Donaldson                     2:14:50


Yellow   5.1 km, 110 m climb

 1  Arnie Falck, George Draper,
       Brendan Dreaper                 1:23:14
 2  Daniel Zaks                        2:00:54
 3  Julia Zaks                         2:05:54
 4  George Freehan                     2:08:22
 5  Eglute Martisiute, Ruslan Ulanov,
       Yuri Cizas                      2:35:25


Orange   7.9 km, 145 m climb

 1  Andreyus Vadimas                   1:07:01
 2  Carlo Alesauorini                  1:11:50
 3  Janis Sarnquist                    1:15:55
 4  Oleg Shakhnovsky                   1:19:00
 5  Christina Day                      1:21:42
 6  David Falck                        1:27:25
 7  Dave Hoffman, Elizabeth Johnson    2:00:41
 8  Jeff Lanam                         2:10:55
 9  Abby Wolfe                         2:28:25
    Stacy Goss                           DNF
    Ryan and Kyle Grongi                 DNF


Green   12.3 km, 195 m climb

 1  Adolf Jocknick                     1:35:10
 2  Thorsten Graeve                    1:36:10
 3  Yelana Krasnova (and Alex?)        1:41:36
 4  Mike Weber                         1:58:30
 5  Bob Cooley                         2:26:00
 6  Patty Clemo                        2:28:54
 7  John Marshall                      3:18:25


Blue   20 km, 410 m climb

 1  Neil Hunt                          1:47:36
 2  Kent Ohlund                        1:51:23
 3  Blake Tresan                       1:58:27
 4  Julie Raymond                      2:09:26
 5  Rafael Ruiz                        2:12:08
 6  Anna Brunnell                      2:12:50
 7  Chris Sherwood                     2:18:33
 8  Tony Pinkham                       2:20:32
 9  Derek Maclean                      2:24:01
10  Jodie Taylor                       2:22:07
11  Cedrik Zemitis                     2:28:56
12  Dan Stoll-Hadayia                  2:32:07
13  Colombe Tresan                     2:59:16
14  Collette Zemitis                   2:59:16
15  Eric Ramberg                       3:25:39
    Shawna Ramsey                        DNF
    Katrine Szardinings                  DNF