The North American Ski Orienteering Championships are coming to Presque Isle this weekend.
The sport of ski-orienteering, or ski-o, blends cross country ski races and navigation. The racers are tasked with reaching a certain number of locations within a trail system and, using a map, finding their own routes.
“We chose the Nordic Heritage Center because it has a fantastic network of trails,” said Alex Jospe, a member of the U.S. Women’s Ski Orienteering team from Newton, Massachusetts.
“After checking it out last spring with the event team, we were sold.”
Ski orienteering is “unique in that you’re allowed to take short cuts through the woods if that will get you to your checkpoint faster,” she said. “The forest at the Nordic Heritage Center is pretty open thanks to the maple sugaring operation, so I expect that skiers will be making a lot of shortcuts.”
Most of the U.S. Ski Orienteering Team will be racing this weekend, with some of the competitions being qualifying races to got to the world championships in March 2017, in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
