Welcome to Bear Valley Cross Country, the site of our ski season finale and two-day ski-O event. Saturday features score-O courses and Sunday features point-to-point courses. The courses for both days qualify for the Sierra Ski-O Championships, which rank you by your best two event day placings. By coming to this event alone, you can qualify for this championships.

 

The weather looks to be near perfect for a ski-O--cloudy with 10 percent chance of light snow fall. That means nice cool conditions that could keep the snow firm and fast throughout each event day. If you want to play it safe, arrive and ski early to be sure you get the fastest conditions. The low chance of snow fall also means excellent driving conditions. This is not an event to be missed if you enjoy cross country skiing or snowshoeing.

 

The courses for each day are as follows:

  Day 1 (Saturday) Score-O         Day 2 (Sunday) Point-to-point

 

Electronic punching (E-punch) will be used both days. For the score-O event, this enables us to add up the points for each of the weighted controls. For the point-to-point event, this provides detailed splits information so you can compare each of your legs with other orienteers to see who had the best routes. If you do not have an E-punch finger stick, you can rent one for $2 a day. Be sure to tie this on to your arm or body so it doesn't fall off while skiing (replacing these can cost $30). At nearly every other event someone doesn't secure his or her finger stick and we hear their sorry story--only 50 percent of these are found by their owners or other competitors. Play it safe and secure them.

 

Registration occurs each day between 9:30 AM and 12:30 PM at the trail head. Your discounted trail pass is part of your registration, so be sure to go straight to our registration table for that trail pass. If you need to rent skis, you can do that at the Bear Valley Cross Country store across the street from the trail head.

 

Fees for this event are as follows for each event day (this very generous deal from Bear Valley Cross Country is basically their half day trail pass fee plus our orienteering fee--this is a great deal!):

 

Beginner clinics are free and recommended for first-time orienteers. These clinics last about 20 minutes and explain the basics of the sport, the rules you need to follow, and offer some useful tips. Yes, E-punching is explained. Need a clinic? Ask for one.

 

Starts occur next to registration between 10 AM and 1 PM. When you are told to start, you punch the start control and your clock is started.

 

Finishes occur until 2:30 PM each day. You must finish by that time. Even if you do not finish your course, pass through the finish area so we know you are off the course (otherwise we might have to form a search party). By 2:30, we begin picking up the controls, so if you are out after that time, you probably won't find all your controls.

 

Special rules include the following (these are resort rules--breaking them mean automatic disqualification):

* You must stay on the mapped trails at all times. These trails include the wide groomed

  trails (shown as green lines on your map) and official bushwacked trails made with

  snowshoes and skis (shown as green dots on your map and these trails have red pin

  flags where they intersect other trails so you know you've found one of these official trails).

 

* You must observe the one-way trail designations. There are four one-way trails that you

  must obey while skiing at this resort. Each of these trails is marked on your map with

  green arrows showing the direction you must travel on them. We have gotten the

  resort to relax the one-way requirement for a couple of trails (these trails do not show

  arrows on your map) so you can go in any direction on them.

 

Other notes include the following:

* Water is not provided. Bring your own.

* Sunscreen (cancer cream) is highly recommended. You are at 7000' and very

   vulnerable to the sun, even on cloudy days.

* Compasses can be used but are not required. All skiing is done on trails that are

  typically easy to follow...unless you ski faster than can you think. :o)

* Food and drinks are available for sale at the Warming Hut Cafe out on the ski trails

  about 0.5 km from the starts.

 

Awards for the Sierra Ski-O Championships will be awarded around 2:00 at the start area.

 

Volunteer opportunities abound at this event. If you'd like to help, let us know. That enables us to relieve other volunteers so they can ski early. Lots of people offer to help with control pickup (it's a great way to increase your skiing and orienteering skills)--if interested, let us know early before all the slots are taken.

 

Directions: From Highway 99, go east on Highway 4 (near Stockton) about 70 miles through Angels Camp and Arnold to Bear Valley Cross Country. You'll see orange and white orienteering signs directing you to parking, then registration and ski rentals.

 

Special thanks go to Trinka Gillis and Jim Waite for designing their first ski-O courses. They've been great to work with and very devoted to providing the best possible courses for this event. Trinka has also been very helpful with E-Punch at each of our ski-O events. Many thanks also go to Bear Valley Cross Country, run by Paul and Dianne Peterson, for their continued support for BAOC ski-orienteering for the last 9 years. They and their staff are enormously helpful. In addition to making their facilities and staff available to help us, they are providing a tent for our use with E-punch operations. They also provide a hostel for housing 12 of our participants and helpers. In past years, their staff even drove us on snow mobiles to pick up controls in snow storms. Fortunately, that won't have to happen this weekend.