All Over The Map Orienteering Tests Skills At Following Directions

Even here, in the city of Bloomsday, a cross country running sport called orienteering has little chance of being wildly popular.

First, the activity has Scandinavian origins. And just as lutefisk, pickled herring and running from the sauna to plunge through a hole in the pond ice have found only peripheral interest in the United States, so it is for this curious mix of heavy breathing and compass navigation.

Orienteering is a run that requires thought. Participants play their game down an uncertain path on unfamiliar terrain.

Foot speed is useless without the ability to read a map.

This limits the field, even though the handful of local enthusiasts are more than willing to share the basics before any meet.

Organizers were pleased with the crowd of 15 who showed up not long ago for one of the Eastern Washington Orienteering Club’s informal meets. This one was on the Gonzaga University campus.

The contestants ranged from sinewy specimens in flimsy running shorts, like club president John Harbuck, to couples who walked the course in jeans and felt-lined boots.

Michelle Breach was at the starting line leashed to her neighbor’s dog, Daisy. “I thought this would be good for both of us,” she said.

Murmurs could be heard at the arrival of Sister Madonna Buder, Spokane’s nearly legendary world-class triathlete who, at 69, spreads her faith and endurance where only Ironman finishers dare to go.

“She has an incredible motor,” one man said. “If she could navigate, she’d be dangerous.”

“Lucky for us,” said one of Buder’s friends, “she had trouble finding her way from the parking lot to the starting line.”

Race director Scott Coble handed out the specially made detailed maps.

“This course has three different loops and three maps,” he said. “When you finish one loop, you take a different map until you finish all three loops. This way, you can’t just follow the svelte-looking runner ahead of you, because he or she might be doing a different loop.”

A certain number of checkpoints (controls) are marked on each map. It’s up to the runner to decide the fastest route to each control, which is marked by the course-setter with a flag. Using the tool attached to the flag, the runner punches his card to prove he has been there. Then, it’s off to the next control.

“This three-loop course is called a motala,” Coble said. Asked what that means, he said, “I have no idea what the word means, but that’s what they call it in Sweden, so we will too.”

Sometime later, this reporter found a man who could speak Swedish. He said he wasn’t familiar with the word but thought it meant “cooking oil.”

“Strange,” he said. “It’s probably a Finnish word.”

No matter. Born in Sweden about 90 years ago, orienteering is still in its infancy.

The sport’s biggest event, the O-Ringen, is held annually in Sweden and attracts 15,000 competitors from around the world.

In the United States, the sport has slowly gained popularity since its introduction in the ‘60s. Today there are about 70 chartered clubs with 7,500 members in the U.S. Orienteering Federation.

In 1998, an estimated 52,000 people across the country participated in USOF-sanctioned events.

Gary Kraght, a USOF president, said the sport draws, in general, “Computer programmers and software engineers, nerds of any kind.”

Actually, the sport attracts everyone from educators to repairmen, but most enthusiasts tend to be well-educated outdoor types with an analytical streak. Not surprisingly, many dedicated athletes are also drawn to orienteering, especially those who enjoy endurance sports.

Coble picked up on the sport when he was a Boy Scout.

Indeed, Troop 333, a gaggle of Girl Scouts from the North Side, was there to do the course as a group.

“You take the compass,” one girl said.

“No, you take the compass.”

This was the biggest issue.

After one loop, they stopped for lunch.

“The idea,” said John Beck, “is simply to finish - somewhere in the United States.”

Beck, one of the local pillars of orienteering, doesn’t look athletic at all. He showed up in slacks and a knit shirt with a collar, his pale skin looking more like that of an accountant during tax season than an aficionado of a rugged outdoor sport.

At the competitive level, one must have speed, agility, endurance and a sense for reading the subtleties of terrain from the symbols on a sheet of paper.

At the fun level, Beck said, you need only to be game for a chess-like challenge as you move through the landscape.

Minimal equipment is required to get started in orienteering. The standard uniform for the competitive orienteer appears to be a rip-stop nylon running suit, knee-length gaiters to ward off the thorns and branches, sweatbands, and lightweight, stud-soled running shoes.

Beginners can get by with old slacks and sneakers.

A compass is the only serious equipment required. The inexpensive protractor compass used by most backpackers works fine.

Serious orienteers use a small compass that attaches to the thumb. The more expensive the compass, the faster the magnetic needle will settle in its liquid case.

On more complex courses, competitors might get a course sheet with clues they use in addition to the map to find the controls. These sheets are pinned to their sleeves or wristbands.

In Spokane, the sport remains low-key. Most events send competitors onto the course at their leisure within an hour span rather than in a mass start.

Local advocates will be teaching a clinic in the Spokane Convention Center next weekend, followed by an event in Riverfront Park.

The problem-solving element in orienteering ought to be an incentive rather than a deterrent, since it levels the ground between athleticism and intellect as well as between youth and age.

And the sport is supple enough to be molded.

It’s being done on snow with skis, after dark with headlamps and who knows how many other variations.

Some orienteering clubs organize “rogaining” events. An Australian variation on the sport, rogaining involves teams of two to five ranging over a much larger area, visiting as many controls as they can in a period that might extend to 24 hours.

Matt Holbert, who finished second in the local motala at Gonzaga, had his own possible variation that could give him the edge to be a champ.

“Personally, I’d like to see an event that combines orienteering and golf,” he said. “I swing better than I run, but I’ve been in the rough enough to know my way through the woods.”

Spoken like a true non-Scandinavian.

These sidebars appeared with the story: BOOKS

Read about it Good books on orienteering include: “Be Expert With Map and Compass: The Complete Orienteering Handbook” by Bjorn Kjellstrom ($17, Macmillan General Reference) is a detailed text.

“Orienteering,” by Tom Renfrew ($14.95, Human Kinetics, (217) 351-5076) is a wonderfully simple explanation of the sport that can give any reader the skills to navigate around a course.

CONTACTS

For information about area events, contact Eastern Washington Orienteering Club, P.O. Box 944, Spokane, WA 99210. Coordinator is John Beck, 838-7078; e-mail beck@gem.gonzaga.edu/ For information on events throughout Washington, Oregon, North Idaho and British Columbia, call the Orienteering Hotline, (206) 783-3866, or check the Web site at http://www.pnwo.org/> Two easy steps to navigating orienteering courses

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to use a compass on a novice orienteering course.

Orienteering maps are drawn to magnetic north. No adjustments for declination are necessary.

Using a common protractor compass with a rectangular base plate, here’s all you need to do to orient yourself once you get your map.

1. Place the compass on the map with the long edge of the base plate parallel to the feature you want to follow toward the first control. Be sure the direction-of-travel arrow on the base plate is pointing the direction you want to go on the map.

2. Turn yourself with map and compass together until the magnetic needle lies parallel with the north-south lines on the map. There’s no need to turn the compass housing dial - just look at the needle. The map is set. Follow the direction-of-travel arrow.

EVENTS Join the action Following are upcoming orienteering events and classes in this region. Event fees generally are $2 for novice courses and $4 for advanced courses to cover the cost of maps. * Saturday: Orienteering clinic, 10 a.m. at Sportsfest, Spokane Convention Center. * Saturday: Orienteering meet, at Red Wagon in Riverfront Park. Registration at 11 a.m., mass start at 11:15. * March 18: Orienteering meet, 11 a.m. at Pullman High School. * March 28: Orienteering class, 3-4:30 p.m., at Farmin-Stidwell School in Sandpoint. Info: (208) 263-3613. * April 1: Weird-O Meet, 10 a.m. at Farragut State Park. * April 15: Orienteering class, 9:30-11 a.m. at Finch Arboretum. Fee: $9, includes following event. Register by April 10. Info: 625-6200. * April 15: Orienteering event, 11 a.m. at Finch Arboretum. * May 6: Orienteering meet, 10 a.m. at Liberty Lake County Park. * June 10-11: Inland Northwest Orienteering Cup/Washington State Championships, Fishtrap Lake.