2026 Skyline (local) Results and Summary 

Skyline 13-September-2026

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Our September competition was originally supposed to be at White River East Sno-Park, but that location remained closed because of the nearby Grasshopper wildfire, so we had to quickly shift gears to create courses for Skyline Sno-Park. The Skyline map had already been used this year for one of our two Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival events last June, but by running the courses in different directions and providing new legs between controls, we kept this event fresh and challenging.

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The weather turned out to be unseasonably cool and a little wet, but the air was clear of smoke and the rain was minimal, so conditions were nearly perfect for an orienteering competition.

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This event included seven courses for all skill levels, and we had competitors on all but the white (beginner) course. Many of our competitors were first-time orienteers, but some of them were long distance or adventure runners, who opted to start (and finish) with the intermediate or an advanced course. Some did not complete their courses, but just about everyone had a good time despite the physical and technical challenges that they faced.

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The yellow (novice) course had two starts. One had a team of three with veteran orienteer Heidi Abbot (SLOC) taking a couple first-time orienteers on that course, which they enjoyed doing. The other, Colby Loper, had so much fun with that course that he went out again on the orange course, which he also enjoyed.

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The orange (intermediate) course had five starts with four finishes. Nathan Sutherland finished first in almost exactly 60 minutes, which was terrific given the challenges of this terrain.

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The brown (short advanced) course also had five starts but only one finisher. The finisher was a team of five and they seemed to have had a good time (based on their smiles after finishing). The non finishers mostly ran out of time before they needed to leave for other commitments for the day.

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The green (medium advanced) course had three starts with two finishers. Jennifer Castelluccio persevered through some very challenging legs to finish…as always smiling. Bjorn Freeman-Benson finished his course (a first for this venue) with some nicely navigated legs. 

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The red (long advanced) course had only one start, Andy Heydon, who finished the course in a little over two hours. He nailed nearly all the controls and then had some challenging times towards the end of his course, possibly the result of getting tired after running hard on a very physical course. 

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The blue (very long advanced) course had four starts, four impressive performances, and three finishes. Samuel Schiess finished first with a time around 100 minutes. The other competitors had definite challenges but persevered to find their controls. Only one did not complete the course and then only towards the end in order to finish just within the required 3 hours. 

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Nearly everyone on the blue, red, and green courses posted their GPS tracks on LiveLox, which is something that everyone should look at. It is impressive to see how some competitors nailed their navigation to controls, but sometimes it is more interesting to see how people recovered after making one or more discouraging errors while looking for a control. This venue was not only physically tough but also very technical, which means that errors were going to happen even to the best runners. Sometimes the measure of a good orienteer is how they recover after making errors.

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A huge thank you to Bjorn Freeman-Benson for running all the starts and picking up a significant number of controls.

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-Tony Pinkham