A fun long weekend was had by all at the New York State Empire Games and the US Ski-O Nationals hosted by the Empire Orienteering Club (Feb 3-5).  Our club had 17 members attend and we had the largest club presence!

 

There were three events: the sprint on Friday was at the Cascade Club where everyone braved the cold (-40 windchill)  . The snow was like sandpaper.!

 

 The middle event on Saturday was held at Dewey Mt. in Saranac Lake where the windchill died off and was just a mere -21. Conditions were a bit faster and a lot of fun with map switches for most of the courses.  

 

The Long event was held on Sunday at Paul Smith's College at the VIC centre.  Great day as the temp was -4 c and the skiing was great with lots of route choices.

 

The club did very well this weekend with being on the podium for most of the categories with a total of 27 medals (17 gold, 2 silver & 3 bronze)!  These were in various adult age groups as well as youngsters Clara Nales, Sherlock and Woodrow Connell.  

 

Full results can be seen at https://empirestatewintergames.com/results/ - (scroll down to Orienteering Ski-O)

 

A big huge thanks to David & Janet for pulling off this great weekend! I can only imagine the ton of work involved and then relying on mother nature with the weather.

 

Contributed by Mary-Ellen Connolly