Discussion: Why you shouldn't miss the Vasquez Variety Pack

November 17th is the early registration deadline. If you haven't registered yet, here are some reasons to consider it:

- It's probably warmer here than wherever you are!

- Trail/Sprint/Middle format means you can run all out without having to save anything for a longer race!

- All the top US Trail-O stars will be there, including two time World medalist David Irving!

- on jeffw's top ten list!

- Fun awards!

- It's a real live movie location!

- Awesome venue, Awesome courses, Awesome map (brand new sprint version of the map)!

Vasquez ROCKS!

I am always sad the years I miss the Vasquez Rocks event. It is a special map.

How about some map snippets and some accompanying photos?

Does "special" and "awesome" in this case just mean "novelty"? Or actually nice?

I'm not trying to be a pain, but based on the terrain and map and course setting at the last LAOC A-meet I'm going to need something more convincing than a fun list to get me to go.

My foots would like to decide how to vote.

I wish I could go. I've seen the map and it looks like a fun place.

Map on Routegadget
This map has a bad color table, in particular the contours are far too weak, but this issue is fixed.

Photos from a past event

Our course consultant has provided excellent feedback (we didn't have one for the last LAOC A-meet). He ranked every course on a 1 to 5 scale of appropriateness and has given everything a 5 except for the Middle Orange course which is a 4 (for slightly more technically difficult then optimum). I also believe it to be slightly more physically difficult than optimum and expect Orange to have the longest winning time.

Other quotes from the consultant:
"I have visited the race area in July, when I participated in the meet at Mt.Pinos. I was amazed by the beauty of the area and I was imagining how beautiful orienteering in this area can be... The map, which I was able to check in terrain, was of outstanding quality...the terrain is excellent, I would even say that it offers unique opportunities for great orienteering courses in North America...I looked at the courses. They are awesome. I would love to run them."

The course stats are not yet posted. For the Middle courses they are short but steep (about 5% climb). I personally pre-ran (something else that didn't happen at our last A-meet) Blue, Green and Orange to get a sense of speed in the terrain and believe the winning times will be Middle appropriate. We have made a concerted effort to insure that the nature of the sprint and middle are decidedly different - the sprint is much flatter and faster, but still with technicality - the middle is steeper and highly technical, using different areas of the map for a different experience.

I believe that this is video of the terrain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQeMknVWuU0&feature...

Cool - will Kirk, Spock and the gang be in attendance at the meet?

As you can see from the preceding video, the Gorn that live at Vasquez are very slow. Only the very worst runners will be eaten.

Some Gorn actually prefer to dance. http://img.trekmovie.com/images/stillerarena.jpg

Here's a good set of photos of the park, without Gorn. http://www.atpm.com/15.04/vasquez-rocks/

Vasquez Rocks is LAOC's most technical venue. The rocks are well mapped but hard to read at speed. The long rows of cliffs with intermittent breaks can make for some nice route choices as well. The light green is chaparral, but it is scattered in most places and still quite runnable. Gaiters are a good idea though. Its perfectly suited for middle distance in my opinion. In general, the course setting over the years at this venue has been about as good as any other meet I've attended around the country, A-meet or otherwise. There have been exceptions when novice course setters have taken on the venue, but that's to be expected. Its a different feel from Anza Borrego with a lot more rock, but if you like the northern (steeper) section of the Buttes Pass map (typically Day 1 of that meet) and the Maze-O terrain, you should like Vasquez.

It looks (from times of previous events) that terrain is quite difficult to move through. Almost as difficult as it gets. Top runners like Kristaps Jaudzems spent about 10minutes per nominal kilometer of the course. Average red runner uses full 20 minutes per nominal km.

This about as tough as Montebello, BAOC, or Salmon Run, COC

But he made a big mistake. 2006 P Muukkonen ran there about 7 min/km.

We are expecting winning Blue time to be about 8 to 9 min/km. But don't think it's because the terrain is difficult to run through. If you don't care where you are going, you can move quite fast. What slows you down is the technical difficulty of the navigation and some steep climbs now and then.

Well, it does sound interesting and worth a trip. However, you guys will turn off scardy-pants like me by comparing it to the Maze-O terrain and talking about steep climbs in cliff-riddled terrain. :-)

@Jagge: P Muukkonen was a glitch he was faster the Rex and the rest almost by factor of two. Even Thierry G. is not as fast....
and the rest were in 12 min + region
It should be very interesting race, do not be afraid.

How, I ask an uncaring universe, can anyone see fit to describe an event as taking place in terrain that "was recently featured as the Planet Vulcan in the Star Trek movie." but fail to mention that the same terrain was used in filming the Arena episode of the original Star Trek series? It's like people have no sense of history.

Yes, I probably do take Star Trek too seriously.

The scariest thing at Vasquez Rocks are the ravens.

And the only star trek episodes that matter are the ones I worked on (sadly not filmed at Vasquez Rocks).

According to Wikipedia, the terrain was also used in the TOS episodes "The Alternative Factor", "Shore Leave" (remember Ruth?), and "Friday's Child," in the TNG episode "Who watches the watchers", in the Voyager episode "Initiations", and in various Enterprise episodes.

I think Friday's Child probably best illustrates the impressive climb that can exist.

I'm fairly sure that "... take Star Trek too seriously" has no semantic meaning.

Star Trek Shmar Trek.
It was the Flintstones movie that made Vasquez Rocks a star.

Vasquez also doubled for Utah in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: See the bottom image here.

Vasquez Rocks on TV -- RIGHT NOW (NCIS on CBS)

Posing as Arizona

Okay, I don't doubt that this Vasquez place is pretty awesome to look at, but really... posing as Arizona? Please.

Cristina, any gravel pit will do. Like in The Unhanged
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unhanged
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccxcXPSFRYs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAJRK5ApGXI

A Finnish Western! Will wonders never cease?

I caught that NCIS episode and GuyO is right. There is no doubt where they were filming.
NCIS regularly has Los Angeles County scenes such as Griffith Park posing for the terrain around Quantico VA so Vasquez subbing in for Arizona is actually less of a stretch than usual.

I like the winner's route to #1 on the green course on Routegadget :)

He wasn't the winner. The intrepid mapper is for some reason listed near the bottom.