December 4, 2022

The second day of GrizO's winter orienteering weekend turned out to be a cold one, with the thermometer showing -1F at the start of the event! The early snowfalls this year meant that the good folks at the Missoula Nordic Ski Club have already started grooming the ski trails at Lubrecht, and so we made the decision to turn this into a ski orienteering event. Three courses were offered, ranging from 3 to 8 kilometers in straight-line distance. We had the use of Lubrecht's heated rec hall building, and participants were able to relax by the fire with snacks and hot chocolate after finishing their races. 

 

Despite the cold temperatures, 25 brave souls headed out onto the courses, and some blistering times were recorded! To no one's surprise, Swiss phenom and World Junior Ski Orienteering Championship medalist Jan Lauenstein set the fastest time on the long course, racing around it in under 42 minutes! The top woman was Hannah Specht, who finished third overall. First-time orienteer Elliot Thornblade completed the short course and then went back out into the cold to race around the long course in the 6th fastest time!

 

As always, we had great help from our phenomenal volunteers to make this event happen. Eric Jones helped with course setting and control hanging. Jan Lauenstein, Chris Caldwell, Elliot Thornblade, and Jared Hearing picked up controls.

 

This is our last event of 2022. Thank you for a wonderful year of orienteering! We have two ski orienteering events scheduled for January and February. The full winter and spring calendar will be released later this month, so stay tuned! 

 

Full results are below. Splits are at https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_54704

You can see other competitors' routes and post your own at https://www.livelox.com/Viewer?eventName=GrizO-SkiO-Lubrecht-12-04-2022&className=Long&classId=550235

Some photos from the event by Boris Granovskiy are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/8R88qDsiGE2dpiDR8. Feel free to share and add your own!