Orienteering

Orienteering is an outdoor recreational activity that involves navigating unfamiliar terrain using a map and a compass. Orienteering emerged as a competitive sport in the nineteenth century, but it derives from navigational methods that were developed to aid in survival and exploration as early as the first century CE.

The magnetic compass is a device that aligns with the earth's magnetic field such that it can be used to indicate the location of the magnetic north and south poles. Before the invention of the compass, explorers were forced to use landmarks for navigation. This greatly restricted travel, especially over the open ocean, where there are few landmarks to aid in navigation, save the position of the sun, moon, and stars.

In the fourth century BCE, it was discovered that lodestone, a naturally occurring magnetic mineral, would spin when placed in water and always point in the same direction. During the Han dynasty, unknown persons in China realized that this property could be used for navigation. Historians have found references to a "south pointer" used for such a purpose in writings from 83 CE. The compass was standard equipment on Chinese sailing vessels by the ninth century, but it was not introduced to Europe until the twelfth century. By the fifteenth century, compasses were standard equipment for sailing, mapmaking, and land exploration.

The first handheld compass was patented in 1885 and thereafter became a standard tool for European military units. The term "orienteering" was first used to describe crossing unfamiliar terrain with a map and compass in an 1886 publication from the Swedish Military Academy at Karlberg.

The sport of orienteering originated in Scandinavia, and the first public orienteering competition known to historians took place on October 31, 1897, in Oslo, Norway. Swedish major Ernst Killander (1882–1958), a military man who dedicated much of his life to working with scout groups, played a major role in popularizing the sport and is often considered the father of orienteering. The first international orienteering competition, between teams from Norway and Sweden, was held in Oslo in 1932. During the 1930s, orienteering was one of the most popular sports in Scandinavian countries.

National orienteering organizations started to appear in the 1930s. One such group was the Swedish organization Svenska Orienteringforbundet, founded in 1936. The first orienteering events in the United States were held in 1941 in New Hampshire and were organized by Dartmouth College. Bjorn Kjellstrom, a former Swedish military officer, played a major role in popularizing orienteering through the Boy Scouts and other youth groups in the United States.

While the popularity of the sport has waxed and waned many times during its history, military organizations and youth groups still regularly hold orienteering challenges in the twenty-first century. As of 2012, the United States Orienteering Federation had more than fifty member clubs around the country and thousands of individuals were involved in the sport annually.

Compass

The compass is the basic tool for orienteering, and most hobbyists and professionals use a fluid-filled plastic compass. The fluid in the compass chamber dampens the movement of the needle, thereby allowing the compass to be used without the need to hold it perfectly still. There are two types of fluid-filled compasses typically used in orienteering:

• Baseplate or protractor compass -- a fluid-filled compass set into a housing marked with degrees. Most contain tools for keeping track of distance while traveling.
• Thumb compass -- a smaller version of the baseplate compass developed in the 1980s, with a strap to attach to the wearer's thumb. The thumb strap allows the user to hold the compass and the map in the same hand for convenience.

Maps

Basic orienteering maps are typically drawn to a 1:10,000 scale, meaning that one centimeter on the map is equal to one hundred meters of terrain. Other styles of maps are also available with different scales (1:15,000 or 1:100,000). Official orienteering maps, sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation, use a standard color-coding scheme to denote features of the terrain, organized in the following scheme:

• Brown -- landforms and soft dirt obstacles
• Blue -- water features such as rivers and lakes
• Black -- rock formations and rock features
• Yellow -- open or unforested land
• Green -- forested areas or areas with undergrowth that might hinder passage
• White -- semiforested terrain with little cover or undergrowth

Optional Materials:

Because orienteering activities are generally held in outdoor areas, practitioners should be aware of the weather and climate conditions and should prepare accordingly. Likewise, additional materials used for orienteering include basic equipment for running and hiking activities.

• Shoes with appropriate traction to handle obstacles and wet terrain
• Rain gear
• Protective clothing to defend against insects, parasites, and minor injuries
• A portable first-aid kit in case of injury or emergency
• Emergency contact information
• A cellular phone
• Water and food to stay hydrated and to maintain energy during the activity
• A backpack or fanny pack

Techniques

There are a number of different types of orienteering competitions that involve different types of skills. Some orienteering competitions are organized as races with competitors vying to complete a certain course in the shortest possible time, while other types of competitions utilize other challenges such as finding hidden objects or determining how to surmount geologic barriers.

In competitive orienteering, participants carry a paper or electronic card that can be punched at various points along the course, known as "controls" or "control points," to verify the time in which the competitor reached each destination. Typically, orienteering courses have a number of obstacles or areas of difficult terrain, and competitors must compete to find the best and fastest way to surmount or avoid the obstacles presented on the course.

Classic orienteering combines map-and-compass navigation with hiking, and competitions are generally held in rural areas. Races in this category generally last from one to four hours and involve challenges that require participants to seek out a number of points along a predetermined route. Between these points, competitors are free to choose from a number of available potential paths, utilizing their skills and knowledge of the terrain to find the fastest path.

Orienteering can also be combined with a variety of other outdoor activities, including mountain biking, rock climbing, and skiing. In mountain bike orienteering, competitors must stay along a network of trails designated before the race. The challenge for a mountain bike-orienteering competitor is to limit time wasted taking routes that lead away from the objective. Similarly, orienteering can be combined with boating or canoeing, and a number of orienteering clubs hold canoe- or raft-orienteering competitions. In these competitions, competitors again must choose from a number of available courses in an effort to reach the final control point in the shortest period of time.

Trends

One of the most widespread modern trends in orienteering is the practice of "urban orienteering," in which orienteering competitions are held in urban environments. Orienteering organizations in the United States and Europe hold orienteering competitions in cities, many of which are organized into races that combine the navigational aspects of orienteering with recreational and competitive running.

Another recreational trend related to orienteering is geocaching, which involves hiding "caches" within urban, suburban, or rural environments and then challenging other individuals to find the hidden items using global positioning systems (GPS) technology and orienteering skills. Geocaching first gained popularity in the early 2000s and has become a popular recreational activity with thousands of people around the world participating in geocaching each year. Typically, the caches are logbooks hidden in weatherproof containers so that individuals who find the cache can sign their name and return the cache to its hiding point for other players to find.

Orienteering for Fun vs. Profit

Orienteering is generally a recreational or competitive sport activity. Few individuals are involved in orienteering for profit. Those seeking to turn their orienteering hobby into a business should consider joining one or more orienteering organizations and attempting to obtain a position teaching classes in orienteering to beginning practitioners. Many youth organizations support orienteering and train children in how to use compasses and maps for navigation, and those with knowledge of orienteering might be able to obtain a position teaching youth orienteering activities through organizations such as the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, or the YMCA's Adventure Guides program.

Bibliography

Boga, Stephen. Orienteering: The Sport of Navigating with Map & Compass. Mechanicsburg: Stackpole, 1997. Print.

Bratt, Ian. Orienteering: The Essential Guide to Equipment and Techniques. London: New Holland, 2002. Print.

Champion, Neil. Orienteering. New York: Rosen, 2010. Print.

Crego, Robert. Sports and Games of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Westport: Greenwood, 2003. Print.

Mattern, Jean. Orienteering. Mankato: Capstone, 2004. Print.

McNeill, Carol, Jean Cory-Wright, and Tom Renfrew. Teaching Orienteering. 2nd ed. Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1998. Print.

Renfrew, Tom. Orienteering. Champaign: Human Kinetics, 1997. Print.