Discussion: Ski-O

Hi Greg, this is Beatrice Zurcher, Switzerland, you might remember, Sandra's mom.
Marc's brother Stefan has an 18year-old son, Jan, who is a member of the Swiss junior ski-O team and a VERY fast skier. He now wishes to spend a year in the US, hopefully where he could train on snow but also go to school, his first year of college.
Could you help me getting the word out and also where I could post this message as well. The US O Federation website is not much help concerning ski-orienteering.
Thanks a bunch and say hi to your family, Beatrice
Beatriceol@bluewin.ch

Hey Beatrice!
There's not too much ski-o these days in the US, but my first thought would be something in the northeast. We got busy out here in Tahoe with kids and so haven't been organizing anything for a couple years. Portland has one or two every year. RMOC had a few. Anchorage has a few. But everything else was in NY or VT I think. Its hard to tell which clubs still have ski-o interest since covid killed most events in the last few years.

If he's looking for college skiing programs, this might be a good list to start from, I'm sure Alex would have thoughts on at least the Eastern ones. Here's an old (2008) article someone out here wrote about getting your kids into skiing colleges. I can't vouch for any of the info or if its still up to date, but its interesting as background and name drops a bunch of college programs at the end.

If he's just looking for college near skiing, that opens up a lot more possibilities, depending on how far he wants to drive to get on snow. Again I'd probably aim east, because that's where more orienteers and more ski-o is. My completely unbiased opinion is that the skiing itself is definitely more enjoyable out west, but there's more racing and organization in the east.

Hi Greg, thanks for all your information, that's very helpful. Wow, I missed it that you are having a growing family, I remember one, but you're speaking in plural. Congratulations.
Yes, you are right that it would probably more convenient in the East for Jan. But he is the one who has to decide.
And yessss, you are definitely right, nothing beats skiing in the Sierras or the Rockies :-).
I was just looking at vour race on Sunday, uhh, that makes me envious, though the Jura here is not bad. But I remember fondly the almost 2 years we lived near Stanford and the times spent in the sierras.
But time flies and the years of life slow me considerably down.
Say hi to your family :-).
Too bad there were fires last summer and Covid so we couldn't come to the USChamps on Donner pass and had to cancel all our flights.

Hi Beatrice, long time no see! I read your questions and the various suggestions people have been making. My thinking is that a lot depends on how Jan prioritizes the various factors. There's really no place in the US that's "good" for ski-O, because there's just so little of it being done, and even less that's representative of what someone aiming to be on a national team would really need.

On the skiing front there are certainly some areas that are better than others. For reliable snow in the northeast you almost need to be near an area with snowmaking. There are more of these starting to pop up, mostly at areas that want to be able to host national or world level xc or biathlon races. Craftsbury in VT and Mt Van Hovenberg near Lake Placid come to mind. Also Rikert in VT which I've not visited.

In terms of finding schools, a lot depends of course on what he wants from a school. Adrian Owens, of the US ski-O team, teaches at a small college in Craftsbury, and might be a useful contact, though I don't have an email for him.

Not terribly far from Lake Placid is a small college named Paul Smiths that has a very nice xc ski area right on campus. They recently started a program with the US biathlon team to enroll students who want to train for biathlon while in college.

Rikert is I believe associated with Williams College, which is one of the big ski team schools in the northeast.

I second Greg's suggestion to check in with Alex Jospe. She's now a xc ski coach for one of the private academy schools in VT and knows pretty much everything about xc in New England and probably the college ski scene there as well.

Hi!

Beatrice, I sent you an email, but I don't know if that is still your current email. Anyway, I hope that something will work for Jan. It really does depend if he wants to do ski-o, which he'll have to pursue basically alone and with travel back to Europe to compete, or if he wants to just ski cross country, where he'll have a wide variety of program choices.

As a European skier coming to the US, there are two options - the first is to do a "Post Graduate" year, which can be done at a program like Stratton Mountain School (my school, so obviously the best), Sun Valley, Alaska Pacific University, or Bridger Ski Foundation. I think that's about it for PG programs. One can do a PG year and just ski, which is a little one dimensional, or take a few classes in subjects he finds interesting, which is what SMS tends to recommend. This keeps you heavily involved in the ski community, but also gives you something to focus on to keep you a more well-rounded human.

The other option is to race for an American University. Most of the western schools recruit at a very high level, and a quick search on fis-ski doesn't show Jan with any points, so I'd guess he isn't fast enough to ski for that division. The eastern schools in division 1 are also quite competitive, but because they are not handing out ski scholarships, there is a chance for a less-developed skier to attend the school and race for the team, having gotten in on their academic merit. This is where doing a PG year at an academy like Stratton can be very beneficial.

There is also a division 3 league of schools, where the skiing is much less structured. Those schools generally have less support from the school in terms of a travel budget, dedicated coach, wax budget, etc, but do allow for more freedom in terms of the balance between academics and athletics. They have weekly races through the winter, culminating in a national championships for division 3 schools that is less hotly contested than in D1.

A third option is to repeat grade 12, but in the US, living with a family. In that case, I would recommend screening the families very carefully, and making sure that you end up with one that is heavily involved in ski racing at the highest level, because otherwise it will be very hard to mesh with a local club and travel to races. Lack of public transportation and ski races across a very large geographic area mean you really need your family driving you to the races every weekend. Again, this is where the ski academy approach takes care of all of this for you.

I hope this is helpful. Happy to answer any questions you might have! acjospe at gmail.com. Thanks!

@Mitch: thanks, Mitch, very useful information. And you are right, now, Jan has to really decide what he actually wants to do. And all your information gives more points to consider for his decision-making.
Yes, it has been a very long time seeing each other. Lately, I have not been able to come to the US for obvious reasons, but even before there was often very little time for going to an O-race between visiting. But I was in Idaho for the US-Champs !

@Alex: yes, I got your e-mail and will answer shortly. My e-mail is still the same. I really appreciate also all your information and suggestions and thoughts.