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Sage Stomp XL Kelowna

June 7th 2025 9:00am - June 8th 2025 4:00pm

Organizers: Kevin Matrosovs (Event Director), David Bakker (Course Planner), Brian May (Course Planner), Stan Woods (Controller), JP Buysschaert (Controller)

Map: Kelowna Nordic

Save The Dates!

The 40th Sage Stomp will take place near Kelowna in the Kelowna Nordic and Thunder Mountain terrain that was used for the 2023 Western Canadian Orienteering Championships.

If you missed it last time or would like to enjoy this spectacular orienteering terrain again, mark this weekend in your calendar.

The Middle and Long are sanctioned Canada Cup events!

Details will be posted here as they are confirmed.

View from Thunder Mountain map

Registration

Registration will open in early April. Watch this space!

Program

  • Saturday Morning (June 7): Canada Cup Middle – Kelowna Nordic
  • Saturday Afternoon (June 7): Mass Start or Relay – Kelowna Nordic
  • Sunday (June 8): Canada Cup Long – Thunder Mountain

Saturday Morning: Middle

A middle distance point to point orienteering event with course planning built around driving highly technical map reading on one of the best pieces of middle terrain in western Canada.

Parking

Kelowna Nordic main lodge parking lot.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/MmSZKVZNMoFZBsJK7

Arena / Registration / Finish

Immediately adjacent to the parking lot. We have access to the Kelowna Nordic lodge to keep you warm and dry (and out of the bugs!).

Toilets

There will be port-a-potties in the Parking lot by the Arena.

Schedule & Course Details

This is a Canada Cup event with skills based courses. Details will be added later.

Organizing Team

  • Course Planner: David Bakker
  • Controller: Stan Woods

Map: Kelowna Nordic

  • Mapper: David Bakker (2022, expansion in 2024-2025 that almost doubled the map area. Minor updates to original area as needed.)
  • Specification: ISOM2017-2
  • Contours: 5 m

Generally flat terrain (for the west coast) with terrain undulations of around 20 meters. Small portions are in recent clearcuts, but the majority of the map is in 40 year old mono-culture lodgepole pine forest. This vegetation type makes for excellent runnability, no deadfall, and limited visibility as the low branches of the pine trees are rarely more than 8 feet off the ground. A medium to low density trail network, widespread marshes, scattered boulders, and a mix of detailed and broader contour features complement the vegetation perfectly.

Kelowna Nordic Map Sample

Saturday Afternoon: Mass Start

A mass start event of some variety (exact format TBD). With the same parking, arena, etc. as the middle event in the morning.

Parking

Same location as the Saturday Morning Middle, at the Kelowna Nordic main lodge parking lot.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/MmSZKVZNMoFZBsJK7

Arena / Registration / Finish

Immediately adjacent to the parking lot. We have access to the Kelowna Nordic lodge to keep you warm and dry (and out of the bugs!).

Toilets

There will be port-a-potties in the Parking lot by the Arena.

Schedule & Course Details

Will be added later.

Organizing Team

  • Course Planner: David Bakker
  • Controller: Kevin Matrosovs

Map: Kelowna Nordic

  • Mapper: David Bakker (2022, expansion in 2024-2025 that almost doubled the map area. Minor updates to original area as needed.)
  • Specification: ISOM2017-2
  • Contours: 5 m

Sunday Morning: Long

A long distance point to point orienteering event with course planning built around route choices through the beautiful lodgepole pine forest.

Parking

Along the Kallis Creek FSR. Exact location TBD, will be added later.

Arena / Registration / Finish

Immediately adjacent to the parking lot.

Toilets

There will be port-a-potties by the Arena.

Schedule & Course Details

This is a Canada Cup event with skills based courses. Details will be added later.

Organizing Team

  • Course Planner: Brian May
  • Controller: JP Buysschaert
  • Controller Mentor: Andrée Powers

Map: Thunder Mountain

  • Mapper: Bryan Chubb (2021-2022). If you were on the this map back at Westerns in 2022, we will be on some areas where none of the courses got to last year, along with some of other areas of the best terrain that we will return to.
  • Specification: ISOM2017-2
  • Contours: 5 m

This map features hillier terrain with larger contour features and small pockets of contour detail. The vegetation is very similar to Kelowna Nordic Core, but there are sections of very dense forest in otherwise highly runnable, white forest with no deadfall. Combined with the low density trail network, these topographical and vegetation features drive challenging route choice decisions perfect for the ultimate long distance orienteering race.

Thunder Mountain Map Sample

Getting Here

Kelowna is served by Kelowna International Airport (YLW), to which there are direct flights from a number of nearby hubs, including Vancouver (YVR), Victoria (YYJ), Calgary (YYC), Edmonton (YEG) and Seattle (SEA).

Kelowna is roughly 4 hours of scenic driving from Vancouver and 7 hours of spectacular driving from Calgary.

The event sites are at the Kelowna Nordic Ski & Snowshoe Club, roughly 45 minutes of driving on Highway 33 east from downtown Kelowna.

Accommodation

Camping

Camping is NOT ALLOWED in the parking lots at any of the event locations. See below for several nearby campgrounds that are very inexpensive.

No open campfires outside of designated, government-approved campground fire pits!

There is no drinking water supply at any of these campgrounds. Please bring your own.

Hydraulic Lake Recreation Site & McCulloch Reservoir Recreation Site

These are 2 Recreation Sites and Trails BC (RSTBC) campgrounds close together and very near to the event sites. These cannot be booked in advance and are first-come-first-served, but we expect that the event weekend will not be too busy.

Fees for these 2 RSTBC campgrounds are $15 per party per night, or $7.50 per party of seniors (65+) per night. A party is considered to be 1 to 6 people who generally reside at the same address. There is generally 1 vehicle per party, though a fee can be paid for an extra vehicle. As long as a campsite has the space, more than 1 party can occupy a single campsite. Fees are paid in cash on-site or by e-Transfer to the campground operator.

There is Wi-Fi at the Hydraulic Lake campground but not the McCulloch Reservoir campground. It is free for the first 30 minutes and then paid after that. Great for email but probably not Netflix!

These campgrounds are rustic and do not have shower facilities. However, both are on Hydraulic Lake. The water is bracing but the weather is warm. If you’re driving, maybe bring your standup paddle board…

Campfires are allowed in the designated fire pits.

Hydraulic Lake Recreation Site

McCulloch Reservoir Recreation Site

Browne Lake Recreation Site

Idabel Lake Private Residences

Privately-owned resort residences on Idabel Lake, which is a roughly 15 minute drive from Kelowna Nordic. Some suites are available to rent on AirBNB or Vrbo.

https://idabellake.ca/

Additional Options

There may be options in Big White Ski Resort, which is a roughly 30 minute drive from Kelowna Nordic.

There are many options in Kelowna, which is a roughly 45 minute drive from Kelowna Nordic.

Transportation

Public transit does not service the event sites which are roughly 45 minutes from the Kelowna International Airport, so transportation by private vehicle is a must.

Kelowna

Orienteering events occurring in the Central Okanagan, typically around Kelowna and Vernon.

Location

Photos

Photos are from Flickr. To add your photos to this section, tag your Flickr photos with: whyjustrun5637 (all one word)