Sierra Ski-O Tour

Most of the US Ski-O Team made it to the World Cup races at the Sierra Ski-O Tour last week. This is the first time we've ever had a World Cup in ski orienteering on North American soil, and it was a really great event. I don't think the organizers slept all week, and they really should have gotten a sponsorship from McDonald's given how many double cheeseburgers were consumed in Greg's house, but from the spectating and competing perspective, things went off great!

Ed and Greg, some of the sleepless organizers. (Eddie Bergeron photo)

Ali stunned the world again, this time with her 4th place in the long distance and 5th place in the middle, ending up ranked 6th in World Cup points. I raced consistently; with an 11th place and two 13th places, ending up 13th in the WCup points, and three races >1000 WRE points. Adrian had a breakout race, with 899 WRE points, huge jump forward! Nikolay had some good consistent races, as well. We also had Chelsea Frehulfer do some of the World Cups with us, after a long hiatus from international-level ski-o racing, and Carl Fey stopped by on his way to Rochester from China, to team up with Chelsea in the mixed-gender team sprint.

Ali on the podium! So cool.

Alex, Nikolay, Ali, and Adrian after the team sprint. It was a close battle between USA team #1 and team #2, which made it fun for the skiers and spectators alike.

Mass start of the sprint relay.

Alex.

Adrian.

Nikolay.

Chelsea.

Ali.

7000ft is high. (Eddie Bergeron photo)

Tove Alexandersson. She's only 19, and had won every international ski-o race she'd ever entered until her teammate Josephine Engstrom beat her on Saturday.

Kseniya. (Eddie Bergeron photo)

We had a bunch of superfans there as well, most notably Eddie, who took tons and tons of photos and sent out updates and generally kept the world aware of what we were doing. Thanks Eddie! There were 60 people doing the open races and US champs and North American champs, and it was so much fun to see all my ski-o friends all in one place! I'm definitely a happy person after this week of snow, sun, and good times.