Sierra 2000 O-Fest

Sawmill Flat A-Meet

Wednesday, August 2

Contact: Rosemary Johnson, event director

The Northstar-at-Tahoe resort will be the site of the first A-meet of the Sierra 2000 O-Fest. The site is (mis)named for what passes for a level area amid more rugged terrain. The slopes are covered with lodgepole and Jeffrey pines and boast views of the North Shore of Lake Tahoe and the inland Martis Valley.

There are very few meadows - most of the open areas are the winter ski runs. The area has been logged and is currently regrowing. It isn't always easy to tell forest from rough open. A lot of scattered rock features will be used for control sites. The open pine forest is very runnable and has no poison oak. Temperatures are usually moderate in the summer, around 70-75 F, although they can range anywhere from 60-90 because of the variability of the alpine climate.

There is free parking at the site. Registration will be in the Base Village between the parking lots and the lift. A chairlift ($6) will take those orienteers from the Village to the Start who wish to avoid a 1200-meter walk with 205-meter elevation gain at 6800 feet above sea level. (The (fool?)hardy will consider this an appropriate warm up.) All finishes will return to the Village.

A-Meet Courses

All standard courses for USOF classes are offered for the A-meet: White, Yellow, Orange, Brown, Green, Red, and Blue. Participants must pre-register. Start times will be posted on the Website a few days in advance and will be included in the registration packet.

Here are the course statistics:

	         Length   Climb
	Blue    11.8 km   485 m
	Red      8.0 km   305 m
	Green    6.1 km   225 m
	Brown    4.8 km   105 m
	Orange   6.5 km   215 m
	Yellow   4.1 km    50 m
	White    2.7 km    25 m

Medals will be awarded to the top three competitors in each class (including Open) of each course at the award ceremony on Sunday.

Course-Setter's Notes

All courses have a net altitude loss of 190 m. The start is near the top of the lift at 7000 feet. The start can be reached by taking the lift or walking 1.3 km (climb is 200 meters).

The area is mostly open pine forest with many rough open clearings. The smaller clearings can be hard to read, since there are many small ones, not quite wide enough to be shown on the map. There are many isolated rock features, which are the most popular control feature. It is necessary to use compass and pace to find most of these. Be sure to take the controls in order since every control is manned by the computer.

On the map a brown X can be either a rootstock or a stump at least 2 meters high. A brown T is long fallen tree drawn to scale and orientation. The green X is a lone tree. The green O is a copse. The green dot is a bush. The map is printed at 1:10000 with 5m contours. It is printed with a inkjet, so keep it in the map case (to avoid smearing if it gets wet).

Recreational Courses

For first-time and inexperienced orienteers, White, Yellow, Orange, and Start-O recreational courses will be offered. No pre-registration is necessary; you can just show up and register from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the day of the meet.

White and Yellow courses are $6 for first person; $2 each additional adult; $1 each additional child (age 8 and over). The intermediate Orange course is $8 for members; $12 non-members; $2 each additional person. Start-O (for young children) is free. Compasses are available for rental at $1 each. Free beginner's clinics will be offered 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Starts will be available from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Recreation courses will use manual needle punches; no need to worry about e-punching.

Electronic Punching

All A-meet competitive courses will feature electronic punching. A-meet competitors will need to rent or purchase a Sport-Ident "finger stick" e-cards if they do not already own one. Multi-day rentals are $1.50/day if pre-registered; one-day rental (or rental on the day of the event) is $2. Purchase cost is $26.50 (for all entries received after July 10 entry deadline). All A-meet competitors will need to check in with the E-team at the EP Table in the Registration area to register their e-card in the master unit and to use the clear unit to erase old data before going to the Start.

At the Start, there will be a 4-minute call-up line and a 2-minute ready line. Your start time in the SportIdent system will be the time assigned to you. Therefore, do not miss your start time. Changes will not be made in start times at the A-meets unless a competitor could not make it to the start at the assigned time due to the fault of the organizer, or unless the participant was a volunteer worker, and could not arrive on time because of event duties.

When the start horn sounds, follow the streamered path to the remote start triangle, then begin navigating to the first control. When you get to the control, insert your e-card (finger stick) into the unit, and wait for it to beep and flash. Then, remove your e-card and proceed to the next control. There will be e-punch units at each control and back-up manual punches in the highly unlikely event that a control unit might fail.

There will be a e-punch unit at the Finish. Don't forget to punch this as it records your official finish time. After finishing, visit the EP Table again to upload the data from your e-card into the master unit. A-meet results will be posted periodically. These will include split times for each competitor with the fastest legs italicized.

Directions

Northstar-at-Tahoe resort is located on Northstar Boulevard, off State Route 267, 7 miles South of the town of Truckee and Interstate 80 and 6 miles North of Lake Tahoe. It is approximately 40 miles from Reno, 100 miles from Sacramento, and 200 miles from San Francisco.