2013 Sierra Ski-O Tour and WRE
Date: Jan. 26 - Feb. 3, 2013
Location: Tahoe Area and Bear Valley
Event Director: - 650.793.8764
Course Setters: Anna Voegele, Brenda Giese, Damian Swift, Denise Kowal, Greg Walker, Jonathan Owens, Julie Raymond, Neil Hunt
Type: Ski-O; 7 events in 9 days, including a World Ranking Event
Related Event Information
Table of contents |
We're doing it again! Another 9-day tour of outstanding ski-orienteering events in the Sierras. This year, we start the tour at Bear Valley with a World Ranking Event (WRE) and a general event for non-WRE people. We continue with a second day at Bear Valley, then move to the Tahoe/Truckee area for five more events at Northstar-at-Tahoe XC, Auburn Ski Club, Tahoe Donner XC, Tahoe XC, and Royal Gorge XC.
We have a large crew of directors and course setters this year, now that we have lots of experience to take advantage of. As always, we'll have E-punch, beautiful maps, challenging courses (and venues), and lots of fun. We'll be considerably more relaxed this year than we were last year, but we'll have the same outstanding competition and training opportunities. If the conditions are anything like what we have right now (Nov. 30), we'll have lots of excellent snow.
Come join in on the competition and fun. Hopefully, we'll have preregistration going soon (we just now got the final trail-fee prices), and might be able to do online registration. There will be some nice deals for those who sign up early, and some nice, inexpensive lodging for many of our volunteers. For now, mark your calendars for the 26th of January through the 3rd of February for competition, and come early to acclimate to California ski conditions at 6000 to 7000 feet above sea level.
Check back here for additions over the upcoming weeks.
Schedule
The 2013 Sierra Ski-Orienteering Tour schedule is as follows:
Date | Day | Venue | Format |
---|---|---|---|
26 January | Saturday | Bear Valley Cross Country | Point-to-point and WRE |
27 January | Sunday | Bear Valley Cross Country | Point-to-point |
28 January | Monday | — | Travel/rest day |
29 January | Tuesday | Northstar-at-Tahoe Cross Country | Point-to-point |
30 January | Wednesday | Auburn Ski Club Training Center | Point-to-point |
31 January | Thursday | — | Rest day |
1 February | Friday | Tahoe Donner Cross Country (near Truckee) | Score-O (probable) |
2 February | Saturday | Tahoe Cross Country (near Tahoe City) | Point-to-point |
3 February | Sunday | Royal Gorge Cross Country | Point-to-point |
Registration
Pre-registration for this event is now closed, but day-of-event registration will be available.
Prices
- WRE (WRE and all F–21+ and M–21+ on Day 1 at Bear Valley) – $29
- $4 discount for members or a national orienteering federation
- Non-WRE events
-
$2 ($1 for Juniors) discount per event for registrations received before 11:59 PM PST on January 18th - Members of any orienteering club
- $7 for Juniors (under 21)
- $12 for all other courses
- Non-members
- $9 for Juniors (under 21)
- $12 for White (beginner) course
- $17 for all other courses
-
Trail pass prices range from $15 to $24 for adults, with lower prices for children, and sometimes for seniors, too. The details for each venue are listed on the individual event pages linked in the table above.
Embargoed Areas
See the event web pages for embargoes in effect for those resorts.
World Ranking Event
Day 1 has a World Ranking Event (WRE) for the M–21+ and F–21+ classes. The WRE competitors must pre-register for assigned start times. The pre-registration period is over and the assigned start times are shown below. If you miss your start time, you will be disqualified for the WRE competition. There are no make-up start times for the WRE event.
Males:
Competitor | Country | Order | Start Time |
---|---|---|---|
Greg Walker | USA | 1 | 10:00 |
Jonathan Owens | USA | 2 | 10:08 |
Paul Carson | USA | 3 | 10:16 |
Donatas Ereminas | Lithuania | 4 | 10:24 |
Mikkel Conradi | USA | 5 | 10:32 |
Females:
Competitor | Country | Order | Start Time |
---|---|---|---|
Anna Voegele | USA | 1 | 10:04 |
Carol Ross | Canada | 2 | 10:12 |
Sharon Crawford | USA | 3 | 10:20 |
Sierra Ski-O Championships
Everyone who completes a course for their gender/age class is automatically included in the Sierra Ski-O Championships. Your total championship score is the sum of all your scores for the week. Points are given as follows:
- For international competition (WREs, World Cup, or World Championship), IOF rules apply. For U.S. championships, OUSA rules apply. For North American Championships, OUSA and COF rules apply. Otherwise, use the following rules for the Sierra Ski-O Championships.
- For a point-to-point event, we divide your time by the winner's time and multiply by 100.
- For a Score-O event, we divide the number of controls found by you (less one control) by the number of controls found by the winner and then give you a percentage of your last control based on the winner's time divided by your time.
- If you volunteer as a course setter or event director, we use your top competitive score for that day (volunteer a second day and we use your second best competitive score for the second day). At the event director's or event coordinator's discretion, other all-day volunteers providing vital functions can qualify for this credit (it is not given if you are just taking a rest day).
- If you miss a day of competition, we take your average competitive score and multiply that by 0.9 for that day. This enables people who have to work during the mid week to remain in the competition, but gives a slight advantage to competitors who ski every day.
- You get only one score per day and it is given for the first course that you ski (not counting a course that you ski to shadow a small child on only the White course).
- You can do different classes each day, but that might not work in your overall favor. If you compete in multiple classes and have volunteer or absence credits, the event coordinator will assign your credits to your gender/age class or other class that you specify.
- You cannot have more volunteer or absence credits than competitive credits (maximum of 3 credits allowed for 7 competitive events).
- In order to place and get a medal for a class, you must complete at least one course for that class.
- To complete a course, you must have your ski or snowshoe equipment with you at all times. You may take skis off for steep hills or bare ground (or other reasons), but you must always have your equipment with you at all times. You may have replacement equipment or clothing and refreshments at the Start, Finish, or other location designated by the course setter. You may also repair equipment while you are on the course so long as you do not confer with anyone about your course. (You may return to your repair station to fix something yourself, but you cannot talk with others about your course. We recommend that you tell others that you cannot talk with them at that time.)
- If there is a tie in the championship, we compare the last common day for the competitors to break the tie. If they do not have a common competition day, we compare each person's last score or last two scores. The winner of a two-person tie gets a trivial score (typically 0.1 points to differentiate their scores without changing any other placings).
- If you quit your course to perform an emergency function (to help an injured skier), then you can be given a sporting withdrawal by the event director or event coordinator. For minor emergencies, you will be given an absence credit. For major emergencies, you can be given a volunteer credit (this is rarely considered).
- For championship points, volunteer credits are counted before absence credits. If you compete in three events, have two volunteer credits, and are absent two days, then you get three competitive scores, two volunteer credits, and one absence credit.
- If you do not finish for a technical reason (didn't get to all controls, minor overtime, mispunch, equipment failure), you will get points equal to 5 points less than the lowest competitive score (30 points maximum) for the day on your course. Overtime occurs for anyone not finishing their course by 2:30 PM. The event director may waive this designation for people finishing within a few minutes of 2:30, but this should not be assumed to be the case by competitors.
- If you break the embargo, the event director or event coordinator can change your status to "Did Not Finish" (DNF — typically for unintended and minor offense) or disqualification (DSQ — typically for an intended or major offense) as they see appropriate. An absence credit cannot be used for an embargo offense.
- If you are disqualified for cheating, for being disruptive to the event or ski facility, for unsportsmanship, or for knowingly being way overtime when you could have returned to the Finish before the closing time (2:30 PM), you can receive 0 points for the day at the discretion of the event director or event coordinator. This rule is for encouraging everyone to be cooperative with the organizers and other competitors. If the offense is disruptive in a major way, the event coordinator can opt to remove the competitor from the championship.
If you have the best finish time on a point-to-point course, you get 100 points. If someone else finishes a couple of seconds slower than you, he or she might get 99.5 points, but if that person takes twice as long as you then he or she gets only 50 points.
Minimal points are awarded to competitors who do not complete their courses for reasons of not finding controls, mispunching, minor or unavoidable overtime, or equipment failure. This rewards competitors for at least attempting to do a course with good sportsmanship, but places them in last place for not completing the course. The only way that you get 0 points is if you purposely have a negative impact on the sport.
Training Areas
You can train at any cross country resort that we have already finished a competition at. If a competition has yet to happen, then you are restricted to using the area specified by the embargo rules for that facility (see that event page). Other places that you can ski at that offer groomed trails include Spooner Lake and the Van Norden Lakes area of Royal Gorge.
Transportation
Typically, the most convenient and fastest way to the ski resort is by car. Because winter conditions can make driving dangerous, you must carry chains or have all-wheel drive. If you have all-wheel drive, be warned that chains are sometimes required in addition to all-wheel drive in severe storms. Do not consider driving a car if you do not have all-wheel drive or chains — this is for your safety and for the safety of everyone else on the road.
Other forms of transportation to the Tahoe area include trains and buses. The Amtrak Zepher train leaves Emeryville in the Bay Area once a day and stops possibly in Truckee and definitely in Reno. There are a couple of Amtrak buses that leave from Sacramento to Truckee each day.
If you are flying to this area, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose Airports handle North American and some international traffic. Sacramento and Reno airports handle more local traffic but are closer to the events.
Lodging
For Bear Valley, consider calling one of the following:
- For hotel rooms, the Bear Valley Lodge
- For cabins or condos at Bear Valley, see Bear Valley Real Estate
- For cabins or condos in Arnold, find any local real estate company
- For hotels in Arnold, search for "Arnold hotels"
- Other towns along Highway 4 also have motels and hotels
For Lake Tahoe/Truckee, consider the following:
- BAOC cabin—we have over 8 openings going for $30 a night or less if we get enough people
- For cabins, contact a Truckee real estate company for rentals
- Other places to consider include the following:
- Norden or Soda Springs for relatively inexpensive cabins
- Tahoe City for motels and cabins
- Kings Beach for motels and cabins
- Reno for very inexpensive hotels (but a long drive)
Google Map
Map Legend
San Francisco Airport (SFO)
Oakland Airport (OAK)
Sacramento Airport (SMF)
Reno Airport (RNO)
Sat.–Sun., Jan. 26–27, Bear Valley Cross Country
Tues., Jan. 29, Northstar-At-Tahoe Cross Country
Wed., Jan. 30, Auburn Ski Club
Fri., Feb. 1, Tahoe Donner Cross Country
Sat., Feb. 2, Tahoe Cross Country
Sun., Feb. 3, Royal Gorge Cross Country
________________
1 Orienteering USA has a discount program with Choice Hotels (http://choicehotels.com) (CP 00228560). Anyone can use this discount at any time, for any travel whatsoever — for orienteering and non-orienteering personal use, and on business. Choice Hotels include these chains: Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn. (In addition to the discount you receive, there's a benefit to Orienteering USA.) The previous Motel 6 discount program is not in effect for 2013.