Paul Smith's College VIC Entry Sign (28 December 2012). Photo courtesy of D. Kirche.  Used by permission.

Cross Country Skiing in the Adirondacks:
Empire State Winter Games Ski Orienteering Competition
Saturday, 8 February 2014

Ski Orienteering Results

The Paul Smiths VIC will host the Empire State Winter Games Ski Orienteering competition on Saturday afternoon, 8 February.  Registration is at noon.  Orienteers will take to the VIC trails from 1:00 to 4:00 PM in search of controls placed at designated locations.  The center will remain open to the general public during the competition. Athlete Registration

Ski orienteering is a cross country skiing endurance winter racing sport. Ski orienteers use the map to navigate a dense ski track network in order to visit a number of control points in the shortest possible time. The track network is printed on the map, and there is no marked route in the terrain. The control points must be visited in the right order. The map gives all information the athlete needs in order to decide which route is the fastest, including the quality and width of the tracks. The athlete has to take hundreds of route choice decisions at high speed during every race. Ski orienteering is time-measured and objective.  The clock is the judge: fastest time wins. The punch card verifies that the athlete has visited all control points in the right order. 

About the Empire State Winter Games

The Empire State Winter Games are a multi-day Olympic-style sports event which will be held 6-9 February, 2014. For more than 33 years, the Empire State Winter Games have provided athletes of all ages the opportunity to compete in the largest multi-sport amateur athletic winter sporting event in North America.

The Empire State Games were created in 1977 as a state-funded event. The winter games took place in February in Lake Placid, using many of the same venues used during the 1980 Winter Olympics. After New York State canceled the games in November 2010, in response to a budget crisis, local officials took over the winter games. The Empire State Winter Games is a community-driven event, courtesy of a partnership between the Lake Placid CVB, the Town of North Elba, the Village of Lake Placid, the NY State Olympic Regional Development Authority, the Village of Saranac Lake, the Town of Wilmington, Town of Harrietstown, Town of St. Armand, and Essex County.






















Explore the VIC

The Paul Smiths VIC offers a wide variety of programs throughout the year to educate and inform Adirondack Park residents and visitors about the natural wonders of the Adirondack Mountains. You can help support these programs by joining the Friends of the VIC. More information on Friends of the VIC memberships

Explore the Trails

The VIC trails are free and open to the public, from dawn to dusk, spring through fall. In winter, the trails are open to cross-country skiers and snowshoers for a fee. Day or season passes may be purchased.