Orienteering Tips

What is Orienteering? (Rogaines are a form of Orienteering)

Orienteering (which originated in Sweden) is basically an individual cross-country running sport which involves map reading in unfamiliar terrain. Unlike a running/walking race/event, there are no tapes/signs telling you where to go - thats what you need to read the map for.

In many ways, orienteering is the perfect sport. It can be done at the most recreational level which would involve simply enjoying the outdoors while getting minimal exercise, walking, or it can be done at highly competitive levels, running, that require strength, stamina, determination, hours of practice, and fantastic mental abilities.

The objective with typical orienteering is to travel between a series of check points as quickly as possible. With a rogaine this becomes an objective to travel between and visit as many check points as possible in a given time frame. Choosing the fastest routes between the check points is the challenge, often the best routes are not the shortest or most obvious (e.g. taking a track around a piece of thicker forest, verses going straight through).

The other important aspect of orienteering is navigating to the correct spots on the map to find each control (check point). As a beginner you should look to use the bigger, more obvious features on the map (e.g. tracks, fences) and always check your direction using the compass.

It is the person who can plan and execute the best route choices, and navigate to the centre of the circle on the map (where the control will be) that will come away the winner.

Map Symbols - Legend / Key

On your map you will find a legend (or it will be provided separately). Below are the most common symbols you will come across and use to navigate so you can become familiar with them.

Symbol	Description	Symbol	Description	Symbol	Description
	Major Road (sealed)		Open ground - clearing		Contours (show shape and elevation of land)
	Road		Rough open ground		Index contour (thicker one). There is one every 5 contours
	Vehicle Track		Forest - easy running		Formline (shows shape of land but is not a full contour height)
	Foot Track/Path		Forest - slower running (less visability)		Re-entrant - gully
	Small Track/Path		Very thick vegetation - fight		Depression (down)
	Indistinct Track/Path		Undergrowth on the ground - slow running		Small Depression
	Fence - Crossable		Water trough		Erosion Gully
	High Fence - Uncrossable		Pond		Small Erosion Gully
	Gate / crossing point		Marsh		Earth bank
	Building		Uncrossable Marsh		Hill top, form-line hill
	Man-made Object (circle is often a water tank)		Stream		Knoll - small hill
	Impassable Cliff		Start Point (marked by a triangle)		Finish (marked by a double circle)
	Passable Cliffs / Rock walls		Control / Check Point (marked by a circle)		Out of Bounds

Quick Tips

Using a Compass

Silva have a great explanation on how to use a compass.

North Lines

On the map there are blue lines with arrows running through the map which point to north. This means to make sure you have the map facing the right way, and therefore you go the right way, you need to line these north lines up with the red arrow of your compass (which always points north!)

The map north lines are set to magnetic north, unlike topographical maps which are set to true north.

Map Scale

The foot rogaine maps will be 1:10,000. This means 1cm on the map = 100 metres on the ground. One of the mountain bike rogaine maps will be 1:20,000 which means 1cm = 200 metres.

Contours

Contours are the brown lines on the map that show the shape and elevation of the terrain. If contours are close together, the slope is steep, if they are further apart the slope is more gradual. Most of the maps will have 5m contours, which means there are 5 vertical metres between each contour line.