Introduction to Orienteering

  • What is Orienteering?
  • Video Intro 
  • Getting started 
  • Orienteering Maps 
  • Your First event 
  • What comes next?

What is Orienteering?

Orienteering is an exciting outdoor adventure sport in which you find your way around a course between control points marked on a map. There is no set route so the skill and fun come from trying to choose your own route and finding the best way to go. It combines running (or walking) and navigation skills.  In competitive orienteering the challenge is to complete the course in the quickest time.

  • Most orienteering events take place in forests, though they can be run on any kind of terrain, including open moorland, local parks, sand dunes, and even city streets. You may get to see places that others don’t because Orienteering events are often held on land with no public access.
  • Orienteering usually involves visiting Controls in a particular order. The winner of any course is the person who has visited all the Controls on their particular course in the shortest time. This means thinking carefully about your route. Sometimes it will be quickest to go along paths, sometimes the faster route is a more direct one across rougher ground.
  • Orienteering is an accessible sport for all age ranges and ability levels, with courses that suit each person’s ability and events are regularly attended by people ranging from 7 to 85! 
  • Beginners and families can compete in pairs or groups. 
  • Many orienteers enjoy the social side of the sport – seeing regular faces around the UK (and abroad too) and making new friends from different walks of life. Speaking of ‘walks’ people participate at their own pace – from fast runs to comfortable jogs and leisurely walks. The choice is yours.
  • Hertfordshire Orienteering, like other orienteering clubs, welcomes members of all standards and all ages.

Here’s the BBC’s Mike Bushell giving it a try:

 

Is it for me?

In short, yes. Orienteering is for everyone. It is an exciting outdoor adventure sport suitable for all ages and fitness levels that exercises both mind and body.

Get started with orienteering

Choosing your event

We recommend doing a Hertfordshire Orienteering Saturday event. These are friendly events usually run on the first Saturday of each month. In the Summer months you could always try the Hertfordshire Street O Tuesday evening events (note that under 16s need to run with an adult at these events).  Alternatively, you could always look to take part at an event run by a neighbouring club if we do not have anything planned for the date you are looking at. The full list of all forthcoming events is published here.

Choose your course

All about courses
  • Orienteering courses vary in both their length and their technical difficulty.  
  • Courses may look relatively short, but the more technically difficult ones are likely to involve going across country rather than along paths. This could mean you have to go through undergrowth, cross streams and so on.
  • You will almost certainly travel further than the course length suggests, because you are unlikely to be able to go in a direct line from one Control to the next.
  • Courses are measured in kilometres in a straight line from Control to Control. 1km is 0.6 of a mile.
  • It is best to start with an easier course and move up to a harder one.
  • Most events label their courses with colours according to a standard scheme to identify their navigational difficulty and approximate lengths.  These typically range from about 1·5 km for children and beginners to over 10 km for experienced adults. Within the colours below you may also see short, medium and long variants designed to offer the same level of difficulty but different distances.
  • Below is a table of the standard course scheme.
  •   Course Length Length
      White 0.5-1.5km This is usually the shortest course on offer and is aimed at young children who are moving off the string course (see below) and into the terrain. The courses are very simple and stick to main paths.
      Yellow 1-3km These courses are slightly more technical than the white courses with some controls slightly off the paths, but on easy to find line features such as streams or walls.
      Orange 3-5km The orange courses are the usual start point for adult beginners at orienteering. Here you will be presented with basic route choice options and will use simple compass skills.
      Light Green 3.5-4.5km Here the technical and physical difficulty is increased again. The courses are slightly longer than orange and utilise point (e.g. boulders) and contour features.
      Green 4-5km These courses are at the most technical level possible on the area and are aimed at those wanting a relatively short run with a technical challenge.
      Blue 5-7km The courses and those below are all still at the highest technical difficulty, but are longer and more physically challenging than green courses
      Brown 7km+ The brown courses are technically difficult and fairly long.
      Black 10km+ These are the longest courses at standard orienteering events with typically distances of over 10km
    If you have any questions on which course is most suitable, then please email the following people for advice:  chair@herts-orienteering.club or juniors@herts-orienteering.club

Orienteering Maps

Orienteering maps use colours, symbols and scale to show the area

Colours 

Key colours: 

  • Black = Man-made feature e.g. fence, building
  • Blue = Water feature e.g. river, marsh
  • Brown = Earth feature e.g. knoll, depression
  • White = Open Forest which is easy to run through
  • Green = The darker the shade the denser the forest
  • Yellow = Open area 

Symbols

Symbols are drawn to an international standard. All O-symbols can be found here.

Scale

Map scale depends on the area and represents one cm on the map and its equivalent to cm in real life e.g. 1:10,000 means 1cm on the map is equal to 10,000cm or 100m in real life. 

Your First event

Entering

All our events need to be entered in advance online through a company called SIEntries. Links to enter are on their event page which can be found on the fixture page here.

If it is your first time orienteering, you will need to hire a ‘dibber’ – this is a small timing chip which records your control visits so that your split times to each control point are recorded along with the total time taken. Just tick the box on the online entry form. Once you have entered for your first event, please email the club if you would like some help on the day. Tell us your name, what course you are running and what your start time is. We can then make sure that someone is there to help you out.

If you get stuck, we have a handy step-by-step guide Entering for the first time to help you with this.  If you have any further issues please email;  chair@herts-orienteering.club or secretary@herts-orienteering.club.

Clothing and equipment

Clothing: All you need to begin with is suitable clothing. You should always wear long trousers to protect your legs and on your top half a T shirt or running top is fine. For footwear boots, running shoes or trail shoes are fine, it is likely to be muddy so keep this in mind when choosing footwear. Wear old clothes if possible as you may get dirty. Equipment: a compass is useful but not essential for your first event. If you enjoy it, then buy one later as you become more experienced and attempt the technically more difficult courses.

On the day

Event details like parking location are posted on our website.  When you arrive, you will be directed to the event centre where you will pick up your dibber. If you emailed ahead, someone in Hi-Viz will be there to guide you through how everything works.  You will be walked over to the start point. Please ask as many questions as you need to.

What Comes Next?

Why not try a couple more of our Saturday Series events to see how you feel? If you enjoy it, then why not join the club? Click here for details of the benefits of club membership and how to join. If you would like to, you can join us for training sessions to improve your skills email training@herts-orienteering.club.

If you prefer, you can follow us on Instagram @hhorienteers or find our Facebook here.