Confident Orienteering

    Left, Right, or Straight: Leg Analysis #17 Today, we're going to explore a few legs from an area near the city of Daugavpils, Latvia. This is where the traditional Latvian multi-day event   Kāpas 3 Days , was recently held on June 28 -30th. Kāpas is organised annually by the Kapa OK club in different parts of Latvia, typically in the middle of summer. This year, the first day took place in the sand dunes of pine Forest. In such a unique area, you could also meet in Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia. The origin of such a landscape is most likely connected to the movement of a glacier in the distant past. The visibility in the mature forest is excellent, and the ground is hard (the moss is not very soft). This is evident from the athletes' routes, as they tend to stay as close to the line as possible. Even on those legs where there was a clearing or path near the line, the athletes did not use it. Additionally, some paths and rides can be sandy, which slows down the...

Analysis of the terrain for the upcoming competition #1 I found an advertisement online today for an upcoming event "Alaska Orienteering Festival" in Alaska. The event  will take place on the 3rd and 4th of August, 2024. Event's Website The first day will feature a very challenging map called Willow Creek , as presented on the competition website. Here are several key observations about this terrain that I can highlight based on the map analysis: Judging by the photo next to the map on the competition website, visibility in the forest is quite limited for open forest.  The terrain is very gentle, with a relief (it is looks like contour interval 2.5 on this map). However, the main difficulty lies in the fact that the terrain does not provide clear, long navigational lines that can be followed on the leg to more easily keep to the planned direction of travel. In the example below, you can see how short and oriented in different directions the navigational lines of the s...

  Diving Deeper #1 There was significant interest in the middle distance at  SOFT ROCK map from the 2024 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival , which we shared in our group "Orienteering Technical Trainings. " This event took place on June 28, 2024. The course setter of this event, Boris Granovskiy (pictured below), offered to provide insights about the terrain and the courses. This interview starts of a new series "Diving Deeper" on my blog where I will publish interviews with various orienteers. Thank you, Boris, for agreeing to answer questions about the Soft Rocks map and the courses you've designed.  Boris Granovskiy; (photo by Conrado Escobar). Could you briefly introduce these competitions to our readers? Was this the seventh and final day of the Orienteering Festival ? Sure! This event was the 7 th day of the nine-day 2024 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival . The Festival was organized jointly by three clubs in the Northwest United...

Meet the Translator of "Confident Orienteering" in Danish   I asked Michael, who translated " Confident Orienteering Book 1:Fundamentals" into Danish, to tell the readers a little about himself. Michael: "Personal Information: Name:   Michael Nygaard Møller Birth: 1968 Orienteering Experience: Running Experience: Participating in orienteering for about 15 years Club Membership: Member of Ballerup Orienteering Club Competition Participation: Enjoys orienteering competitions in Eastern Denmark and participates in night orienteering, forest orienteering, and sprints Activities and Contributions: Book Translation: Recently completed the translation of Confident Orienteering in collaboration with the author, Aleksandr Alekseyonok Game Development: With a background as a software engineer, developed a 3D orienteering game (currently on hold but functional) Headcam Videos: Passionate about headcam videos from orienteering events and developed a program to inte...