It's been a whirlwind weekend, and we just saw Scott Pleban off on his train to the airport. He came over for the
ski-orienteering World Championships held a few hours from our home. For a guy who lives in Virginia -- hours from the nearest snow ski location -- he really tore things up. He won the silver medal in his Masters 40 class, beating the Europeans at their own game. Here's
a link to the complete results. There aren't many "USA" entries in the country columns; lots of of Estonias and Finlands and Germanys and, of course, Switzerlands. We even scared up
a picture of Scott on the podium, he's the far left hand side of the picture. They've also got
the maps online if you want to see what those looked like.
Ski-O is a faster version of the foot-orienteering more common to us adventurers in the US; since you're on skis and moving quickly, the decisions have to be made lightening fast and it takes a lot of concentration to stay in touch with your map. When you're on foot, you can always bushwhack a straight shot to a control but when you're on skis it's all about picking the optimal path and having the skiing ability/fitness to travel that route. It's a shame it's not more popular in the US, but I think the grooming of a ski-O trail system is fairly involved and with declining snow volumes (at least in much of the US) this will probably remain a fringe sport. I know my wife and I are eager to try it ourselves since she's a pretty good skier and I'm not -- by adding a map in there it's actually a great compromise activity for the both of us!
If you're curious,
here is a list of some Ski-O events for this winter, 2008. I see lots of Colorado and New York in there, for example.