Orienteering The Thinking Sport A life-long sport in which participants find their way over unfamiliar terrain using only a detailed topographic map and a compass. The object is to find marked control points in the forest; and in competition, to do it as quickly as possible. Orienteering originated in Scandinavia about 100 years ago as a military exercise. Today, there are participants all over the world, although the heaviest concentration is still in Europe.

Features Combines mental skills (navigation and route selection) with physical skills (moving over natural wooded terrain) Orienteer chooses the activity level Run, jog, walk, stroll, meander Easy, moderate, and difficult courses Take your performance seriously or not Compete against your own age group or not Orienteering is open to everyone capable of walking in the woods. It is up to each person whether to take the sport seriously and compete or to take a recreational approach.

Overview for Today Orienteering Maps What skills you need and who does Orienteering What a course is and what the orienteer does at an event Orienteering when there is no event

Edge of Indiana: USGS To appreciate what an orienteering map is like, lets first look at a standard topographical map, like those available from the US Geological Service. Note the lack of detail. We see roads, buildings, utility lines, smoothed contours, major streams, with a simple color scheme (green=forest, white=open, pink=city).

Orienteering Map of the Area Here is an orienteering map of part of the same area. It uses a different color scheme and adds a lot of detail. White and green are forest; vegetation thickness is shown with shades of green; trails are shown, not just roads; small details (boulders, pits, gas wells, small streams, more detailed contours, etc.) are shown.

Map Features Scale - usually 1:15000 or 1:10000 with North lines pointing to Magnetic North 6 Colors; each has meaning: Black Roads, trails, boulders, cliffs Blue Ponds, lakes, streams, marshes Brown Contour lines - connecting points of equal elevation; usual interval is 5 meters. Yellow Open, cleared areas White Runnable forest Green Vegetation, darker means thicker There is an international orienteering mapping standard which dictates how various features are to be shown on the maps.

Your School Topo Map

As an Orienteering Map

The Compass Used to keep you and your map oriented Used in taking a bearing Used when you become disoriented (lost) This is a standard base-plate compass. Important elements are the see-through housing, the fluid filling the housing, the north alignment lines, the scale.

Skills Used Terrain association (the first step) - ability to translate what the orienteer sees in the forest into its depiction on the map and vice versa. Taking a bearing – finding a direct route to a control off in the forest. Counting paces – to measure distance Making route choices – deciding how to get from here to there Adjusting for errors When in competition – doing it all on the run Orienteering usually begins by learning to orient the map – making map north and magnetic north agree so that the terrain is depicted on the map in the same direction as it is in real life. Taking a bearing is the next step, along with learning how to follow it. The other skills are added as one becomes more proficient.

So, Who Does This? Orienteers Boy scouts, girl scouts, cub scouts 4-H clubs ROTC and JROTC Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue units Adventure racers Cross-country runners, Hikers, Hunters Almost anyone who enjoys the outdoors and wants a little structure or challenge in their activities Among these groups are competitive orienteers, recreational orienteers and people who are interested in the navigational skills involved for purposes related to their jobs.

A Course Typical “cross-country” course: sequence of marked locations in the forest, each is called a control point Control points are marked in the forest by orange and white control flags and on the map by purple circles The circles are connected by lines to show sequence but not route The orienteer must choose his/her own route The orienteer also gets descriptions of the control feature Flags are not hidden. A control point must be on a mapped feature. An orienteering event will have multiple courses; participants choose which course to do (with advice).

Beginner Course Here is a typical beginner course. Control points (the places to go to) are circled and numbered; the clues describe what feature is in the circle and specify a label that appears on the control. Note the handrails (features you can use to guide you toward a control).

Yellow – Advanced Beginner About 1 km longer than the White course with some control points placed away from trails by 50-100 m.

Orange - Intermediate Transition level: Control points may be far from trails and fields but there must be a catching feature to prevent wandering off if the control point is missed. The control descriptions are also changing.

Control Description Change Control descriptions are shown in symbolic form and in English. At the expert level, only symbolic descriptions are given.

Red – Advanced Long This course is over 7 km long. Note how the use of trails is not practical from 6 to 7 to 8 to 9 to 10 or from 12 to 13 to 14 to 15. The control features are also small – a knoll, a boulder, a depression.

What an Orienteer Does Interval starts on course of your choosing; spaced at least two minutes apart Go to each control in sequence At the control, make a record of having been there After the last control, go to the finish and get the record verified and time recorded Brag or complain about how things went; compare with others on the same course

Control Point Each control point has an orange and white marker with a label and a recording device, usually a punch – used to prove participants have visited the control. On the right, an electronic recording device is being used instead of a punch.

Proving you have been there Manual punches create different patterns on the control card that each participant carries. For electronic recording, a “finger stick or e-punch” is used to record the visit; essentially it is like a flash memory.

Permanent Course Controls 4-inch white/orange squares with letter and/or number Placed on a post Orienteer records square letter on paper; and checks letter sequence for correctness Posts for permanent markers may be wood or metal. The squares are attached in such a way to make it difficult to remove them.

Western Pennsylvania Orienteering Club Public O-meets, Fall & Spring Free instruction for all beginners And it’s near you – throughout Western PA www.wpoc.org orienteeringusa.org for other clubs in USA In addition to the O-meets that WPOC offers, we also provide workshops and presentations on orienteering, generally free for any organization that requests them.

Western PA O Maps The red and white squares show complete orienteering maps; the green and white squares show maps that are in development. Having an orienteering map of an area does not necessarily mean that a whole park is mapped; see the list at the end of the presentation.