From Staff-Valstad.com (which is only in Norwegian, but has an English section under construction)

http://staff-valstad.com/analyser/VM%202001/vm_kortdistanse_2001_damer.htm

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), August 09, 2001

Answers

The map looks very complicated to this Kansas boy. I seems like it would be difficult to select attack points but very easy to get lost among all the detail on the map.

-- Eric S. (erics1999@email.msn.com), August 09, 2001.

Remember that workout at Clinton SP where we took turns followed the line on the map and waited for Spike to yell "stop" and relocate? That was one of the best exercises we can use in the simplify terrain in the Midwest. Seeing the Scandinavian terrain for the first time is scary. It's a matter of practice, spending a lot of time getting use to selectively using the detail - need to know what to use, what to ignore. With practice (some learn it faster than others) you can quickly match terrain features on the map with the real thing. First time on this kind of terrain, it helps to have someone like Spike do a mapwalk with you.

That terrain looks like a lot of fun!

-- mean gene (gmw@ku.edu), August 09, 2001.

I think Eric and Mean Gene are both right. The terrain is fun and hard.

One thing that made the terrain especially tough was how hard it was to run in. The ground all over Scandinavia is soft and rough. Each step is different and a lot of the energy you expend doesn't move you forward because the ground is soft (imagine jogging across a high jump mat). Most of the orienteering forests in Scandinavia show a lot of evidence of forestry -- you come across areas where trees have been felled or where the forest has been thinned and there are a lot of cut branches on the ground.

The visibility in the WOC forests varied, but was generally not very good. The areas that are mapped as light or dark green were especially low visibility. On some of the training maps, you could be inside the ring and still miss the control (even at a walking pace) becuase it was so difficult to see. The forests where the races took place were not that bad (for the most part).

So, how do you orienteer in this sort of terrain? First, you've got to simplify the terrain. Simplifying the terrain means looking for the pattern in the contours and looking for distinct features (like vegetation boundaries, large areas of bare rock, cliffs and marshes). Second, you keep contact with the map. You don't read every little feature, but you do keep good track of where you are at all times. Third, you often have to be careful to change pace during a leg. You might run very hard for the first 3/4 of the leg, but then run very slow the last bit (reading the map very carefully). Fourth, you look for ways to save energy -- running on the bare rock (mapped as grey) or on trails will save strenght that you'll need for running through the forest.

-- Michael (meglinski@yahoo.com), August 11, 2001.