Training Log Archive: 970130

Some advice on orienteering in these terrains for next time

Sandstone terrains
Flat sandstone plateaus with flat eroded valleys cut at a lower height, and quite steep slopes between the top of the plateau and the valleys with complex crag and rock pillars on the slopes. Route choice is key (straight is very often not great), but you can also waste a lot of time in the circles if you don’t know have a good picture of how the rock formations fit together around the control.
- There are always more contours hidden in the rocky cliffs than you can see, so the best route into the control sites is almost always climbing straight up from the valley or dropping straight down from the ridges. Definitely terrain that punishes weak/slow climbers.
- Climbing up and down slopes is tiring and slow, so you can run a long way around (like >2x leg length in places) on the top of the plateau or in the valleys to cut out extra climb. This is also good for reading ahead.
- It’s worth taking time to read the control descriptions/ look at the fine rock detail on the map and work out where the kite is going to be in the complex rock sections. Some rock pillars are 8m high on one side and 2m high on the other side so knowing where to go can save some unnecessary climb. On the control descriptions Czech planners tend to give the dimensions of the rocks (eg 2m/8m) which is useful for understanding the layout of the circle.
- Passages in the rocks can be quite narrow (>50cm), but you can normally see in the leaves/sand on the floor whether people have been up and down them before, so you can tell if it’s a dead end or not.
- White forest is generally fast and runnable pine or beech, light green is passable but slow, and dark green and yellow are worth going off line to avoid. Rough open is variable, sometimes slow young trees and sometimes just long grass.

Mountain terrains
Fairly smooth slopes in a mixture of pine and beech forest with some areas of bilberries, and with large areas of scattered boulder cover. These are trickier than the sandstones as there are fewer definite features so it’s harder to keep good map contact.
- The size of boulders is variable, but they tend to be significant within the local area (as far as you can see if you’re standing at them). Generally >1m high though, and often up to ~5m, the biggest rocks are often mapped as rock pillars/crags without tags.
- Distinct vegetation boundaries tend to be quite obvious and are often some of the best features for rough navigation as you can see them from quite a distance. Following the latest IOF symbol set update, in rocky terrain the symbol for distinct veg boundary is a dashed green line.
- White forest can be either incredibly runnable pine forest or quite deep bilberry, so more mapped on visibility than runnability.
- Light green is passable although slow, dark green and rough open (normally close packed young trees) are worth avoiding and going round.
- Knolls are variable in size and shape, but at least in the Slovanka region they tend to be fairly large and studded with small (~50cm) boulders, so they look quite rocky.
- Distinctive trees (green circle) are almost always large beech trees in areas of pine forest. The best way to spot them is to look up, either for the sunlight coming through the light green leaves or for the smooth trunk (pine trees have more small branches near the base).
- There are quite a lot of wells in the forest (mapped as blue squares), and these can be variable from just a manhole cover on the ground to a full on hut, so not that reliable for navigation.
- Ditches tend to be distinct if you are running along them, but it’s possible to cross them without realising as they can be quite shallow grooves.
- Terrain can be quite dense and rough so need to be looking at compass a lot to avoid being pushed off line in the greener section (or be strong enough in terrain not to be pushed offline)
- Good attackpoints are super useful, especially for making sure you’re at the right height on a slope.
- In terms of route choice, generally as straight as possible while avoiding too much green seems to be the best, as mostly the slopes are a bit less steep than the sandstones and therefore going up and down is not as slow.
- The key to orienteering well in this terrain is probably to have a solid plan that includes how to get all the way into the control, and then good compass to avoid being pushed about by the terrain so you can execute the plan well.

Valdstejn South- loops planned by Aidan
Feeling like I was getting the complex rock sections more cleanly and having a better picture of where the kite would be in the circles. A nice way to round off two good weeks.

DrongO circuits

Malinik- Part of Czech Long Champs 2019 H21
More in the mood for this than the middle course we did in the northern part of malinik (this was in the south), although the hills were pretty tiring so not trying that hard physically. Not sure I took the best routes on the long legs but generally executed my chosen routes pretty well and fairly clean into the circles.

Cervena Ruka- loops planned by Aidan
Nice beech forest although super rocky, more distinct contour features so easier to pick things off, felt like I was navigating well.

Cervena Ruka- downhill course
Super nice and nav was good, although no controls on boulders in boulder fields so possibly one of the easier trainings we’ve done.

Malinik - Polish Middle Final (mens)
Super tricky without kites, spent a lot of time wandering around in the boulder field circles trying to decide which boulder was the right one.

Jablonec- Sprintervals
4x ~800m sprintervals [~2:00] with Ben and Paul
Fairly easy tower block area, and legs a bit out of practice with anything faster than 8min/ks, so able to plan ahead and stay in contact with the map. Good to get some slightly faster leg turnover though.

Bramberk- loops planned by Aidan
Much better on the compass today and felt like I was picking off the features well.

Bramberk- more loops planned by Aidan
Nice compass again, and the course that was entirely distinctive trees which we thought might be super difficult was actually fine.