Skijor Orienteering
Creamer's Field
Sunday, March 2, 2003
35 degrees F

Nine skijorers and their dogs tackled something different at Creamer's Field on Sunday morning when the already challenging activity of skijoring was combined with orienteering.  Competitors were given a map of the Creamer's Field and Alaska Dog Mushers' Association (ADMA) skijor and mushing trails marked with the locations of twenty orienteering control points.  Each control point was worth between 10 and 100 points, depending on how difficult the control was to access.  After electing to spend 30 or 60 minutes in search of controls, skijorers headed out on to the course to score as many points as possible in the allotted time.

In a very close contest, Matt Bray and his two huskies won the 60 minute class by locating all twenty controls to score the maximum possible 1000 points in 50 minutes and 48 seconds.  Gail Davidson and her chocolate lab Tobi also located all the controls to score 1000 points, but lost the tiebreaker by taking only forty seconds longer to complete the course.  Pat DeRuyter finished in third place by finding 19 out of 20 control points and scoring 970 points.  DeRuyter spent only 47:55 on the course, but the length of the course and the warm temperatures left her with two hot and tired dogs that were not real interested in locating the final control.   Doug Knutson had a raw score of 950 points which would have placed him fourth, but he was assessed 170 penalty points which dropped him to sixth place for returning to the finish area 17 minutes late because competitors were assessed a ten point penalty for each minute they finished after their allotted time.  Jim Altherr and Matthew Mapes also competed in the 60 minute class, scoring 890 and 870 points to finish fourth and fifth, respectively.

Brandy Berkbigler won the 30 minute class by finding eleven controls worth 370 points to best Sara Elzey's 240 points and Melissa Hill's 170 points.  This is the first season of skijor competition for both Berkbigler and Hill.

Volunteers for the event were Carol Kleckner who ran the registration table, Amanda Byrd who did the timekeeping, and Mike Malvick who served as race director and course setter.  Anchorage-based Arctic Orienteering Club provided the set of controls used to mark the course.

The next skijoring event will be ADMA's Limited North American Championship, March 7-9.  Registration and Race Draw held at the Fairbanks Princess Hotel in the Jade Room, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5.

Prizes for the event were provided by Play It Again Sports, Beaver Sports, and 49er Feed Distributors.  

Photos:  (Top) Pat DeRuyter punches her score card at Control #4 while her two huskies patiently stand by. Sara Elzey approaches the control in the background.  (Bottom) Matt Bray consults his map for the best route to the next control enroute to his winning effort at ASPA's skijor orienteering event at Creamer's Field.

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This page was updated March 02, 2003
Please send corrections or comments to Mike Malvick.