TeamUSA Ski-O Competes in Austria

This press release was originally prepared by US Ski-O Team Coach Carl Fey with edits by Orienteering USA. Photos courtesy Carl Fey.

The 2024 World Ski Orienteering Championships (WSOC) are taking place in Ramsau, Austria from January 23-27. The Junior World Ski Orienteering Championships (JWSOC) and European Youth Ski Orienteering Championships (EYSOC) are being held concurrently on the same maps. The US National Team has skiers competing in all three events.

Ramsau is famous for its Dachstein glacier which is the most famous place in the world for summer skiing and is also a popular place for skiing in the winter with an extensive network of cross-country ski trails and beautiful mountain scenery. The weather conditions have been challenging with warm weather and rain resulting in melting and slow snow making it difficult for organizers and skiers alike. The organizers had to change some of courses less than 24 hours before the races.

US veteran ski orienteer Adrian Owens (GMOC) has had the best US result in the men’s World Championship races this week where he has had a friendly battle with fellow US team member Ari Ofsevit (CSU). To get to the start of the sprint race skiers took a chairlift resulting in fast conditions being mostly downhill through an extensive network of trials requiring quick decisions at high speed. In the sprint race, won by Jörgen Baklid (NOR), Adrian Owens placed 63rd with Ari Ofsevit close behind in 64th separated by a mere 21 seconds.

The grueling pursuit race was a a mass-start long race run as a one-man relay with three loops and Jörgen Baklid once again taking the win. Adrian was 54th and Ari was 55th. When asked about the race Adrian said, “I went and fought and fought on the course and finally made it to the end. There were really a lot of tough climbs today.” In the middle distance Adrian Owens was 59th place and Ari Ofsevit was 61st. When asked about the races in Ramsau US skier Ari Ofsevit replied, “Our hosts here in Ramsau have done an admiral job in somewhat adverse conditions. The long and middle distance races took us through many fields and forests with significant climb before an exhilarating downhill into the stadium”.

The US was represented by Alex Merka (QOC) in the Women’s Junior World Championships. This was Alex’s debut in international ski-o racing. She ended up 33rd in the sprint, 30th in the long race where she showed off great determination and stamina, and had her best race in the middle distance finishing 33rd. When asked about her races she said, “After the sprint race, which was skied in a blinding snowstorm, it was nice to have a sunny day for the long course, but that produce slow snow. I have discovered that long courses in ski-orienteering are really tough physically. I am happy that myself and my skis are durable.

The US was represented by Erik Fey (ROC) in the Boy’s European Youth Ski-Orienteering Championships. While not quite the results Erik had hoped for, he had impressive results for the US with a 14th in the sprint, a 16th in the long, and an 18th in the middle. Erik showed off his skiing speed staying near the front for the first five controls in the long mass-start race, however, he was not able to turn this into the results he had hoped for. Erik said, “This was my first time to race in the hilly Alps which was a good experience but created very different orienteering route choices from what I am used to. It inspires me to be here, and I will train even harder for next year.

The racing concludes with the relay races on January 27th. Races have been covered live on TV in several countries and can also be viewed on IOF TV (live or via replay). The team expressed their thanks to the great cooking by US Ski-O Team Cook and motivator Allison Van Akkeren who is the former US Biathlon Team cook and cooked healthy dinners for a hungry team all week. The team also expressed their thanks to US Team Coach Carl Fey for his long days of waxing, support at the races, attending team leaders meetings, and briefing team members in the evening. The US team has often not had a coach at international ski-o races and several team members mentioned this was much appreciated so that they could focus more on racing.

The US Ski-Orienteering Team would like to say a big thank you to Orienteering USA and other supporters this year. The US Ski-O Team hopes to field an even larger team at international races next year. This is only possible with financial support from Orienteering USA and others. Donations, which may be designated for the US Ski-O Team, can be made at: https://orienteeringusa.org/support/

For more information about the US Ski-Orienteering Team or how to qualify, please contact Adrian Owens, Chairperson of the US Ski-O Team Executive Committee at: aowens@nullsterlingcollege.edu

2024 Anza-Borrego Desert Orienteering Festival Event Recap

January 13-15, 2024

  • Events:
    • Adventure Trek (mini-rogaine)
    • Middle Distance Maze
    • Night-O Goat
    • Classic NRE
  • Host: San Diego Orienteering
  • Venue: Anza-Borrego State Park, Borrego Springs CA
  • Event Director: Mark Prior
  • Event Website

Results, Photos & Maps

2024 Georgia Navigator Cup Event Recap

January 12-15, 2024

  • Friday: Middle Distance NRE
  • Saturday/Sunday: 2-Day Classic
    • including Southeastern Interscholastic Championships
  • Monday: Mal Harding Extreme-O
  • Host(s): GAOC (Fri-Sun) & VOC (Mon)
  • Venue: Red Top Mountain State Park, Cartersville, GA
  • Event Director: Fred Zendt
  • Course Designers:
    • Fri: Sam Smith
    • Sat: Andi Berger
    • Sun: Austin Fowler
  • Event Website

Results, Photos & Maps

Queen of the Hills Event Recap

November 4-5, 2023

  • 2-Day Classic – combined time
  • Host: DVOA
  • Venues:
    • Sat: Iron Hill Park
    • Sun: Fair Hill Park
  • Event Director: Angelica Riley
  • Course Setters:
    • Sat: Sergey Ryzhkov
    • Sun: Bob Agosta
  • Event Website

Results, photos, maps

2023 New England Championships Event Recap

October 7-8, 2023

Classic Day 1

Classic Day 2

2023 OUSA Master’s Nationals Event Recap

September 23-24, 2023

Day 1 – Sprague Brook

Day 2 – Letchworth SP

Overall Results

  • 2-Day Combined Time Results – PDF
  • 2023 OUSA Masters Champions
    • F35+ Kseniya Popova – HVO
    • F40+ Anna Bringle – GAOC
    • F45+ Angelica Riley – DVOA
    • F50+ Kristin Hall – NEOC
    • F55+ Anne Jepsen – QOC
    • F60+ Pavlina Brautigam – WCOC
    • F65+ Chiori Shimizu – COO
    • F70+ Janet Findlay – EMPO
    • F75+ Sharon Crawford – RMOC
    • F80+ Valentina Grigoryeva – HVO
    • M35+ Sergei Federov – DVOA
    • M40+ Brendan Shields – CSU
    • M45+ Ken Walker Jr – CSU
    • M50+ Ryan Knecht – WPOC
    • M55+ Ted Good – QOC
    • M60+ Sergey Velichko – CTOC
    • M65+ Kevin Teschendorf – A/L
    • M70+ Walter Siegenthaler – COK
    • M75+ Peter Gagarin – WCOC
    • M80+ Eric Smith – CNYO
  • Historical List of previous OUSA Master’s Champions at OUSA Library
  • Masters Champs Recap (From a bunch of non-masters) – via OUSA Team Blog

USA Radio Orienteering Team Brings Back Silver, Bronze, and Experience From World Championship in Czechia

The USA Radio Orienteering Team won an individual silver medal and two team bronze medals at the 21st World Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF) Championship in Liberec, Czech Republic, held August 27 to September 2, 2023. USA fielded its largest-ever team of 21 athletes with seven competing in a world championship for their first time. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and Czech Radio Club (CRC) hosted the event in the mountainous region of North Bohemia with 28 countries and nearly 400 racers attending.

Next year the USA Radio Orienteering Championship will be held in Michigan October 7-13, 2024. Team USA will select its next team at the 2025 USA Championship. That team will then travel to Lithuania in 2025 to compete in the 22nd World ARDF Championship.

Read the Full Press Release here

2023 Laramie Daze Event Recap

August 30 – September 4, 2023

Daze 1 – The Unfair Race

Daze 2 – Knockout Sprints

Daze 3 – One Cowboy Relay

Daze 4 – Sugar Hill NRE

Daze 5 – Area 307 NRE

Daze 6 – Remarkable Flats NRE

California Orienteering Festival Event Recap

July 17-30, 2023

  • Event Website
  • Director: Gavin Wyatt-Mair
    • Coordination: Sarah Williams
    • Registrar: Team
    • Technical quality: Erin Schirm
    • Technology: Jay Hann
    • Volunteers: Marie-Josee Parayre
    • Publicity: Stephanie MacLean
    • Mapping: Bill Cusworth
    • Consulting: Tapio Karras
    • Treasurer: Gary Kraght
    • IOF advisor: Erik Blake
    • IRF advisors: Merv Trease, Vic Sedunary, Phil Wood


July 17 – Sprint NRE @ Presidio


July 18 – Middle NRE @ Golden Gate Park

  • Western States Orienteering Championships – Day 2
  • Stage #2 Info
  • Event Summary from Stage 2 Director Rex Winterbottom:
    • The persistent fog and slight bluster made it a true San Francisco Summer event, more so than Presidio. I think if we had our choice, it was better to have the better weather the first day to ease people into these 2 weeks of adventures.
    • Although wearing the event-director hat the majority of the time, from when I arrived at 5:55 A.M. until departing after 4:00 P.M., I was able to escape into the woods as the starts were closing and tremendously enjoyed the ping-pongy jaunt through a variety of Golden Gate Park habitats. Well done on the course planning, Andrejus!
    • Course setter Andrejus Masalkovas had 92 checkpoints to place, we weren’t allowed to place any the day before according to the permit, and we were severely limited for placings. 80% of the checkpoints had to be cones or stands according to Parks & Rec. So major thanks to Vladimir, Steve Haas, Dan Greene, and another guy who happened to be there earlier than planned at 5:55 A.M. to get it done. It was a tight squeeze before the first scheduled starts, and our pre-runners Clinton Morse and Steve Gregg didn’t have much time to verify the controls — none of which, fortunately, were disturbed, and all were easily recovered after the event.
    • An absolute thank you to all of our volunteers and participants for building a day in the park we could all enjoy. Thank you so much!
  • Official Results
  • Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
  • Results / Splits from AttackPoint
  • RouteGadget – view maps and compare GPS routes
  • Orienteering USA Official Photos [235 photos]

July 19 – Long NRE @ Morgan Territory

  • Western States Orienteering Championships – Day 3
  • Stage #3 Info
  • Event Summary from Stage 3 Director Martin Kunz:
    • It takes a village …  to organize a stage at Cal-O-Fest, so the old saying goes. Of course the good people in and around BAOC stepped up and raised the third stage out of its inception to full completion. I entered the doing only at a fairly advanced stage but as I heard through the grapevine, stage 3 went through various levels of near death experiences including a change of venue and a capricious permit procedure.
    • Gavin Wyatt-Mair, together of course with the Cal-O-Fest steering committee, were, so I have heard, instrumental in keeping the baby alive and unharmed by bureaucratic round-abouts and baby eaters. Many thanks to them from all the happy Orienteers that eventually got to enjoy a most memorable stage in our beloved Morgan Territory. 
    • I think this was the first time we dared to organize an event in this typical Bay Area terrain with its oak chaparral meadows and distinctly structured terrains in the middle of summer. It was a risk but we lucked out and the temperatures were in the very acceptable mid-eighties. It’s better to be lucky than to be good – another old saying I tend to live my life by. A total of 283 runners who came and braved the summer conditions at Morgan Territory.
  • Official Results
  • Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
  • RouteGadget – view maps and compare GPS routes
  • Orienteering USA Official Photos [76 photos]

July 20 – Rest Day


July 21 – Sprint WRE @ Northstar California

  • North American Orienteering Championships – Day 1
  • Stage #4 Info
  • Official Results
  • Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
    • Additional Results at Orienteering USA Rankings
    • (due to WRE some classes processed separately
  • Bjorn Kjellstrom & Future Champions Cup scoring
    • The battle for the Bjorn Kjellstrom Cup as well as the Future Champions Cup is underway in California. In today’s Sprint at Northstar California Resort, the US squad came out on top in the preliminary scoring.
    • BK Cup scores after today puts USA 126 vs Canada 62.
    • Future Champions scoring the tally was USA 109 Canada 46.
    • Scoring orienteers can be found at Orienteering USA Facebook
    • Thanks to Orienteering USA VP Competition Jon Torrance for tallying up these scores for us.
  • RouteGadget – view maps and compare GPS routes
  • Orienteering USA Official Photos [345 photos]

July 22 – Middle WRE @ Little Truckee Summit


July 23 – Long WRE @ Sagehen


July 24 – NAOC Relay @ Northstar California


July 25 – Rest Day


July 26 – Middle NRE @ Independence Creek


July 27 – Long NRE @ Spooner Lake


July 28 – Rest Day / WRC Model


July 29-30 – World Rogaining Championships