Navigation Curriculum 1 Orienteering Skills Overview

Orienteering Skills Overview

An orienteering meet is a timed map and compass course. Most orienteering clubs keep moving their course so racers can keep seeing new places, and so past participants don’t have advantages by knowing the terrain. They are a fun way to challenge your navigation skills. Some navigators compete against each other aggressively, but most racers are just out to see some new terrain, hone their navigation skills and have fun with other outdoorsy types.

Length: Junior courses are usually less than 2 km long and control points are easier to find. Masters’ courses are usually more than 10km long. Intermediate courses can be anywhere in between. The winner is the one who finds all the control points in the least time. If no one finds all control points, then whoever finds the most control points wins.

Maps: Participants are shown a master map with X’s marked on it. They copy the appropriate X’s onto their own map. Careless copying makes for longer searches at each control point, so most racers measure very precisely before transferring each X onto their map.

Clues: There is sometimes a list of brief clues posted. On a junior course the clues might be as simple as “look in the culvert.” On a master course the clue may be a riddle, or it may use more obscure map language.

Control markers: You will be looking for a flag, milk jug, or other unnatural object. Look for a Greek letter, written phrase, or other key identifier that you can record to show that you found that exact station. Some systems use specialized punches that you use on your “control card” to show that you were there. Some trickier courses have “dummy stations” near the real stations, to see how carefully you are reading your map.

Legs: Participants call each line of travel between control markers a “leg,” as in a leg of a journey.

Bearings: These are directions of travel, as indicated by your compass azimuth. Also, these are just referred to as azimuths. People who don’t have a declination offset dialed into their compass usually just use magnetic bearings. People with declination adjusted use true bearings.

Declination: This is the local difference between True North and Magnetic North. You should never ever have to add or subtract declination during an orienteering meet, unless you are trying to learn how to do unnecessary mathematics in stressful situations.

Check points: These are obvious terrain features along your route of travel. They help you ensure that you stay on route in between control points.

Terrain association: This is a style of land navigation where you read the map to see what terrain will be visible from your intended route of travel. You then move through the land keeping a certain peak to your left, another to your right, go over the saddle, etc. In terrain that has numerous features, terrain association is often the fastest way to navigate. Navigation Curriculum 2 Orienteering Skills Overview

Handrails: There are many terrain features and manmade objects that you can “hold on to” while you move quickly. For instance: instead of slowly following a bearing for 5 miles, travel along a river or highway that leads in the same direction. Be sure you have some sort of backstop picked out so you know when to stop.

Backstop: This is a long object that will appear when it is time to stop the current leg of your travel. It could be a highway, a cliff band, a river, or anything else you would notice if you saw it. If you won’t be sure whether to turn left or right when you hit your backstop, be sure to use an offset.

Offset: It can be challenging to hit an exact spot. Let’s say you need to travel due East to meet a boat that will pick you up on the beach. If you travel due East and hit the ocean, but aren’t exactly where the boat is, should you search North or South to look for that boat? Many navigators intentionally offset their path so they are confident they end up on one side of it (let’s say North). They get to the coast, and immediately head South to find the boat. The degree of offset depends on the length of that leg, the terrain difficulty, and your own navigation confidence. Some people call offset navigation “aiming off.”

Attack Points: An attack point is a definitive landmark near a control point. Use terrain association to travel to these easy landmarks, then do more detailed compass navigation from there. It is usually faster and less problematic to travel quickly (even over a longer distance) to get to a definite location (like where two streams intersect) than it is to try to travel in a beeline from one control point to the next.

Pacing: Some racers go to a football field and measure how many paces it takes them to travel each 100 yards. They can use that system to measure how far it will be from an attack point to a control point. Pacing is usually used in combination with carefully following a bearing.

Plan ahead! If you are going to run hard in an orienteering meet, your mind won’t be very sharp towards the end of the course, due to fatigue. Measure any bearings you might need, in advance. Write down bearings, back-azimuths, and distances from attack points, in a way that your tired mind will find it easy to access without error.

Pace yourself: New racers often assume that the speed they travel at will decide how quickly they complete the course, but tired racers make more errors. Save enough energy that your brain will help you find all of the control points. Remember, in terms of competition, any team that finds all control points beats even the fastest team that missed any control point. Completing the course is your top priority; completing it quickly is a secondary priority.

Learn more about orienteering at the US Orienteering Federation http://www.us.orienteering.org/