February 12, 2022

Ski Orienteering at Bigfork Community Nordic Center

The Flathead Valley's "first" - and Montana's - "second" ever ski orienteering event took place at Bigfork Community Nordic Center - a brand-new venue for orienteering - on Saturday, February 12.  We had a blue sky day with spring like conditions in the afternoon ;  we had plenty of hot coffee, cocoa and snacks. Will Dickinson, the heart and soul of GrizO's efforts in the Flathead Valley, created the map, obtained permission, and set the courses for the event.

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The event featured some outstanding performances on all the courses. Liam Browne and his brother Euell Browne, members of the Glacier Nordic ski team, dominated the Long, Medium, and Short Courses! Liam Browne finished the Long course with a blazingly fast time under 45mins! and Euell Browne had an equally notable performance winning the medium course! After that they went out for another round with first and second finishes on the short course! 

Teresa Narchizzi and her dog braved the ungroomed southern tract to win the ScoreO course. 

Thanks to North Shore Nordic Club for the grooming and their encouragement to see more of this type of event at Big Fork! 

We had homemade wood burned "Noisey Gnome" awards for all the course winners with a design by past GrizO event winner Crystal Brown.   

Results are below. You can see the split times here.

Some photos, courtesy of Will Dickinson, and all the course maps are here.

Thanks to volunteer Harvey Goldstein for providing critical support with planning, registration, course checking, and control pickup.  

Special thanks to Liam Browne for staying and helping pickup the "far" controls on both the ScoreO and SkiO, he likely put in over 25km on the groomed and ungroomed trails.... what a performance!

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