Lapland Lake
December 21, 2008

My mother often cautions, "Be careful what you wish for."

I don't think it is unreasonable to wish for snow for an opener of a Nordic ski season. The first ski orienteering qualifier this year was at Lapland Lake Ski Center on December 21. When I started setting out controls on Thursday, December 18 conditions were beautiful. There had to be a minimum of 18 inches of cold soft snow in the woods. The trails, as usual, were immaculately groomed by smaller equipment (no heavy equipment yet) so that there was a good six inches of packed powder over an icy base. I had three courses planned:

  • Orange Course - 3.6 k and 8 controls for recreational, snowshoers, groups, and for scholastic Empire State Games qualifier;
  • Green Course - 6.2 k and 12 controls for grandmaster, master Empire State Games qualifier; and
  • Red Course - 7.6 k and 12 controls for open Empire State Games qualifier.

On Thursday I hung 11 of the 19 planned controls. Then it started to snow. By Sunday morning there was an additional foot of snow in the woods and it continued to snow, heavy at times during the morning. This made it difficult to drive to Lapland Lake from Clifton Park even though my daughter, Jill, drove her all wheel drive vehicle. The snow was accumulating enough to scare away all but the most devoted ski orienteering competitors. The falling snow was a cold snow which made conditions slow for hanging the rest of the controls.

Conditions obviously favored classic technique skiing. We had 10 competitors complete their respective courses and another two credited with a start, who made sufficient headway but were concerned over being able to finish in under 2 hours.

Many thanks to Gabor Bobok who ran the chip timing and Ann Christoffel for keeping registration and starts flowing.

Next year I will have all the controls hung ahead of time. I don't think that participants in the mornings cross country ski race had any advantage. Also, registration will open immediately after the last finish of the cross country ski race, about noon and the courses will be designed so that a set of controls can be collected starting right at registration close...say at 1:30 PM so that process can be completed before dark.

- Eric Hamilton

 
Pl     Stno     Name/Club              Time  

 
Orange  (4)                       3.6 km  0 Cm   8 C           

 
                                                1(124)  2(37)   3(121)  4(39)   5(123)  6(33)   7(32)   8(128)  F
 
1       5       Stephanie Crocker       49:57   04:35   12:38   23:28   25:57   31:59   38:50   43:17   46:21   49:57   
                                                04:35   08:03   10:50   02:29   06:02   06:51   04:27   03:04   03:36   
 
2       8       Kati Christoffel        1:14:40 03:07   10:23   22:15   32:03   50:47   1:00:36 1:06:01 1:09:58 1:14:40 
                                                03:07   07:16   11:52   09:48   18:44   09:49   05:25   03:57   04:42   
 
3       6       Larry Crocker           1:25:20 04:26   12:49   26:38   30:15   46:19   1:01:27 1:10:32 1:20:07 1:25:20 
                                                04:26   08:23   13:49   03:37   16:04   15:08   09:05   09:35   05:13   
 
4       7       Stephen Granger-Bevan   1:45:49 06:59   26:27   42:56   48:02   1:05:18 1:18:17 1:28:41 1:37:55 1:45:49 
                                                06:59   19:28   16:29   05:06   17:16   12:59   10:24   09:14   07:54   
 

 
Green  (3)                       6.2 km  0 Cm   12 C           

 
                                                1(126)  2(33)   3(32)   4(129)  5(125)  6(121)  7(39)   8(40)   9(110)  10(38)  11(123) 12(128) F
 
1       1       Doug Swank              1:24:55 06:00   18:04   22:44   26:35   35:42   45:26   50:08   1:02:25 1:06:38 1:11:30 1:15:18 1:21:59 1:24:55 
                                                06:00   12:04   04:40   03:51   09:07   09:44   04:42   12:17   04:13   04:52   03:48   06:41   02:56   
 
2       2       Jim Pamper              1:28:38 06:21   22:39   26:39   29:11   37:24   49:31   51:35   1:03:33 1:08:16 1:13:50 1:18:56 1:25:17 1:28:38 
                                                06:21   16:18   04:00   02:32   08:13   12:07   02:04   11:58   04:43   05:34   05:06   06:21   03:21   
 
        12      Thayer Raines           DNF     12:36   33:02   39:26   42:45   52:45   1:08:01 1:11:15 1:22:23 1:27:36 1:33:55 1:39:47 -----   1:51:29 
                                                12:36   20:26   06:24   03:19   10:00   15:16   03:14   11:08   05:13   06:19   05:52           11:42   
 
                Candice Raines          DNF
 

 
Red  (4)                       7.6 km  0 Cm   12 C           

 
                                                1(35)   2(175)  3(129)  4(33)   5(125)  6(121)  7(107)  8(106)  9(122)  10(38)  11(123) 12(128) F
 
1       4       Alison Crocker          1:08:34 05:24   10:10   14:43   17:40   22:51   30:37   34:01   46:57   54:22   56:12   1:00:30 1:05:27 1:08:34 
                                                05:24   04:46   04:33   02:57   05:11   07:46   03:24   12:56   07:25   01:50   04:18   04:57   03:07   
 
2       10      Pavel Korniliev         1:17:34 06:31   10:54   16:53   20:39   25:54   33:55   36:46   57:47   1:03:58 1:06:28 1:09:40 1:14:24 1:17:34 
                                                06:31   04:23   05:59   03:46   05:15   08:01   02:51   21:01   06:11   02:30   03:12   04:44   03:10   
 
3       9       Sergey Dobretsov        1:29:50 15:27   21:02   25:52   29:42   35:14   44:38   48:07   1:04:45 1:13:04 1:16:22 1:20:40 1:26:09 1:29:50 
                                                15:27   05:35   04:50   03:50   05:32   09:24   03:29   16:38   08:19   03:18   04:18   05:29   03:41     
 
        3       Kato Fellegi            DNF     15:12   26:40   39:17   48:01   1:00:55 -----   -----   -----   -----   -----   -----   -----   34:31   
                                                15:12   11:28   12:37   08:44   12:54