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2011 Sierra Ski-Orienteering Championships

Day 7 – Auburn Ski Club Training Center

Date: (Sun.) Feb. 6, 2011
Location: Soda Springs, CA
Event Director: - 650.793.8764
Course Setter: Ken Walker, Sr.
Type: Ski-O; Day 7 of the 2011 Sierra Ski-Orienteering Championships

Related Event Information

2011 Ski-O Championship Last Year's Event

Please note that fees and time limits apply, unless otherwise mentioned below. Events are typically not canceled due to bad weather.


Note: If you are bringing participants under 18 years of age to this event, you must have a parent or legal guardian sign this release form (PDF/64KB) for the minor to compete.


Our final ski-O event is saved for this very special venue with its very complex and consolidated trail system that is ideally suited to a relay format. Competitors can either team up for a relay or do their course on their own. Either way, your time on your course counts for your championship points. If you team up with somebody else, your combined times also count for the relay results. More details to follow soon.

Ken Walker Sr. is working on these courses and Greg Walker has already updated the map with GPS tracking of trails and other details. More information to follow.

If you've never skied at this venue before, you are in for a treat. All the trails are consolidated into one square mile and there are trail junctions every few hundred feet. With a mass start, and lots of people skiing multiple courses at once, you'll have lots of distractions yet you don't dare lose track of where you are on the map. Miss one junction and you quickly get disoriented or lost. If you slow down too much, you automatically lose out to your competition. Fortunately, the area is small, so you can easily relocate or even return to the Start if you get lost. This is a great venue for experienced competitors and novices alike. The management and staff at this ski center are terrific. If you have kids who want to learn to ski or compete on skis, this is probably the best place to take them.

For this event, you can ski on your own or as a member of a two-person relay team. Either way, your times are used to calculate your championship score for the day.

Relay teams have two members who each ski two courses. That is, member 1 skis the first course, member 2 skis the second course, member 1 skis the third course, and then member 2 skis the fourth course. A team's score is its accumulated time for four courses. For the Sierra Avalanche Champs, member 1 is placed by his or her acumulated times on the two courses, and member 2 is placed by his or her accumulated times on the two courses. As a relay team, you also get to see how you and your partner compare to other relay teams.

Those who ski on their own get their times included in the championships.

White and Orange skiers will do the short courses; Green, Red, and Blue course skiers will do the long courses. 

   Course     Length    Climb  Controls

   Short 1    1.8 km    45 m       6
   Short 2    1.6 km    40 m       7
   Long 1     2.3 km    60 m       7
   Long 2     2.6 km    80 m      10

A complete description of the relay event is available here.

Note that this event is the closest one to the Sacramento and Bay Area airports, so when you finish your course at this event, you have the easiest and quickest escape possibilities to return home. Also, you will be returning home while the Super Bowl starts, so traffic conditions couldn't be better for someone who is in a rush to return home.

Driving Directions

  1. From I-80 (about 91 miles east of Sacramento or 10 miles west of Truckee), take the Boreal Ridge/Castle Peak off-ramp (Exit 176).
  2. Turn right and go to the west end of the Boreal Ridge parking lot.
  3. Park by the two buildings that make up the Auburn Ski Club center (cross country center).

Check-in and registration are in one of the two buildings at the end of the parking lot.

There's a map here that shows the location of the event.