Kilnsey is complicated for other reasons.  We learned at JK 2016 that relying on a field for parking in March/April is not a good idea.  Emergency arrangements were needed just before that event when it was clear that a nicely sloping parking field with top access and a lower exit used for maybe a thousand cars for the Kilnsey Show in the summer would just be too wet in March/April.  Threshfield Quarry is massive and can swallow up lots of cars on hard ground.  But it means a long walk to a start and from a finish.  It was thought that this would put a lot of people off, though in the end it didn’t.  Cars for the event easily fitted into the quarry with hardly any hold ups even though much of the parking near the quarry entrance was initially taken up by Fellsman Hilke competitors returning from their event.

Kilnsey South rises to 450m.  With a north wind and rain it can be a serious concern.  Competitors were warned when the event was first advertised that a waterproof hooded top might be compulsory.  A few days before the event all competitors were informed that such tops would be compulsory.  It was very cold on the day when the start team went off to set up and early starting helpers went off at 10 o’clock.  Later starters were a bit luckier.

The area is used for farming sheep and cattle.  This gives two problems.  There are lots of walls and fences to keep the animals where they should be, and where would the animals be on the day of the event?  To a non-farmer, the latter seems simple, but farmers often don’t know where their animals will have to be, as it depends on the weather, the progress of lambing and so many other jobs that have to be done.

Yorkshire Dales walls and fences are big and they need big stiles to cross them where there are no gates.  Competitors on the longer courses were treated to a variety of ladder stiles, milk crate steps, a crawl through and a specially built step stile near the end capable of taking 700 plus competitors at a rate of 4 or 5 a minute.

The highlights of the day came as the first competitors returned smiling and giving very positive comments about their courses and the arrangements.  At the same time the weather started to improve.  And then when it improved further the ice cream van started doing business and it was warm enough for competitors to be standing around looking at results and discussing their courses.

CLARO is a small club and this was the biggest event the club had ever taken on.  Some much appreciated help came from elsewhere, but members rose to the challenge and did an excellent job on the day.  For the rest of the year the club will revert to hosting evening and family events with regionals in June and September.  This will be a relative rest before helping with the JK in 2025.

Northern Championships 2024 results. 

Kilnsey planner Vicky Bailey's perspective

Planning on Kilnsey was a challenge for all the practical reasons Mike has mentioned, but also because as planners we had two hard acts to follow in the shape of 2016’s epic acts-of-God JK and AIRE’s sunny summer special in 2018. It seemed appropriate then that our event served up something in between; on the day, a moderately grim start melting into a modestly mild finish; in the lead up, a catalogue of every other available weather, never friendly enough for shorts but nothing so hostile that it saw us off the hill. No sun, no hail strikes, but come the day: a sunburst of primroses.

With the assembly area already fixed we were limited with how much we could vary from AIRE’s event, which had used the same quarry for car parking. Early efforts to find a novel start location were quickly abandoned – you didn’t want a longer walk to the start, did you? But for the finish we gambled on a short walk back to assembly for the fun of a combined finish with the White and Yellow courses in the caravan park. This also left us with a little more length in the courses, which meant a better share of Kilnsey proper for the shortest senior courses before the inevitable march off the hill. For the longer courses, Mike and Chris’s efforts with permissions and crossing points opened up access to additional areas not used since the JK – a big help for keeping things fresh. Planning tactics evolved over the thrashing-out process. Our early strategy of avoiding long legs crossing the walls resulted in somewhat bland Middle-style courses that lacked “story”. In the end, using the walls to set up macro route choices provided better structure, and made for some entertaining post-race analysis on Routegadget. Every crossing point was worth it, Mike, honest!

The most memorable part of planning at Kilnsey has been the efforts undertaken by so many volunteers to overcome its challenges. Fathomless feats of endurance and ingenuity! An alphabetised schedule of animal-dependent crossing point logistics. A 60kg sheep-proof control marking solution! Dauntless control collectors taking on longer loops than their original courses and a map layout for every permutation of scale and paper size. The amount of time and care that goes into these events is in equal parts scary and inspiring. My tip for anyone considering taking on something similar is to get yourself a co-planner. Find one who always finds time to be slightly less busy when you are super busy; who has a seemingly exhaustible supply of patience, and a very good recipe for flapjack – then no amount of trans-Pennine weather tantrums and late-night PDF checking can get you down for long!

David Williams, the planner, identified a possible field for the arena, which we had never used previously; the field just to the south of the one we eventually used.   This allowed him to use the best of the area. He structured the courses Jan–March 2023 at the same time coordinating with Tony Thornley producing the completely revised map off new LIDAR data. By this time a year ago to allow review in competition condition the courses were more or less fully planned and controlled. Having had input during April 2023 from David Bowman assistant planner and Mark Garside (WCH) controller. Subsequently courses and map were given constant minor amendments and updates to take account of the storms, wet conditions and middle distance RWT rule changes.

The parking field has become a regular for us over the past 15 years, when we hold Regional events at Danefield.  We knew it was well drained.  It has coped admirably with the cars for all previous events.  We’ve checked it regularly throughout this very wet winter, and never had any doubts about it coping, despite having to accommodate three times the number of vehicles we have previously.  It meant quite a long walk to the arena, but we knew it was 100% reliable.

Last year by March the original assembly field was in prime condition.  This year we did a final check three weeks before the event, just before the map proofs were ready to be printed.  There was a strong chance the field would never drain sufficiently to take vehicles and 900+ pairs of feet.  This was when our brilliant hosts, Sue and Howard Cliff really came into their own.  They suggested we use the paddock and agreed to build us the bridge across the ditch leading to it.  It proved the best of arenas.  The grass didn’t cut up, and it was more compact than the original field which doubtless helped create the splendid atmosphere of the event.

The change of assembly field resulted in a few slight last-minute adjustments to the map, but did not affect the planning of the courses apart from the run-in.

We were able to pull the event off just using Aire members, which made recruitment and organising a good deal simpler than is often the case for a Major event.  From what I saw and heard on the day, all the teams did a pretty seamless job. 

At Danefield we were delighted to hear so many compliments about the courses and the organisation.  The rain held off, although a little more sunshine and a warm wind from the south would have been appreciated. I guess you can’t have everything.

We were pleased to see that both Rob and Lindsey King’s String Course and Maze were well used.

Results from the British Middle Championships 2024. 

Aire’s next large-scale events are the Sprint and Urban events in Leeds on 6–7 July 2024.

And the Dales Weekend in the Malham area on 14–15 September 2024.

The same leg where competitors’ routes have been added can be found here.

Find out more here. 

Route to O- Season 2020 example

The link to the World of O map of Day 1 Route to O-Season 2020 can be found here.

The link to the Route to O-Season 2020 series Day 1 webpage is available here.

Headcam videos

Try a virtual run with an elite/ good orienteer.  Headcam videos of elite competitors can give an interesting insight into the process of orienteering at a high level.  You can follow the route on the map as well as seeing the video of the terrain from the runner’s perspective.

Here is just one example.  Ivan Sirakov has posted a series of Head Cam videos with map inserts, on terrain around the world, in a series called ‘Analyse my Orienteering’.

Link to video here.

If you really want to do the full simulation, you can potentially find a map and course on World of O maps first here.

You could “solve” the route choices, then watch a competitor’s video for how they did it and re-evaluate your routes and / or skills and think about your ability to follow those routes you so confidently planned when just looking at the map!

Orienteering games and simulators

These have been featured in the British Orienteering press before but are well worth a look if you don’t know them.

The Forest (free)

Probably the hardest but most important skill in orienteering is visualisation.  The map needs to become a 3D reality in your mind.  The Forest, developed by Graham Relf, a UK orienteer, is a way to practice this and develop your ability to see the shape of the land from the map in front of you.  The Forest is free and does not require installation, it runs in your browser (PC, Android, Linux).  There are novice and expert versions of courses and you can plan and send a course to friends.  See the User guide.  There is also a treasure hunt available when in Explorer mode.

The game can be found here.

Graham has recently put a lot of work into improving the visualisations in The Forest.  As you learn the type of terrain that The Forest features, you become much better at visualising it from a map extract.  This mirrors what happens in reality, where the better we know a certain type of terrain, say complex fells in the Lake District, the easier it becomes to “see” in our minds what the map is showing.  Multiple World Champion Thierry Gueorgious’ father, Michel, calls this a Terrain Library that we build from our experience of orienteering in different types of terrain.  The Forest illustrates that learning process very well.

There are several orienteering games you can purchase.  Some have a free demo online.  The two suggestions here are not in any order of recommendation.  Both have been around a while, and both have been updating their digital landscapes.  Just as with real orienteering, don’t expect instant success.  The courses take a long time to work around just like real courses and when you get lost, you truly get lost!

Virtual O (game to purchase)

Virtual O is an orienteering simulation game.  The video link at the start of this article shows Simone Niggli playing it and captures the sense of total immersion in the terrain as though you were really sitting in the forest.  Clearly playing a game is not the same as really being outside, but the digital landscapes have come on a long way with realistic rendering from the maps.  It can take a while to get the hang of using the interface, but the quickest competitors are impressive.  The game is for purchase, but the demo video gives a good idea of what it entails.

The Virtual O demo page can be viewed below.

Catching Features (free demo then game to purchase)

Many orienteers have tried Catching features at some point. If you haven’t tried it, it’s worth a go.  You can try a course on the free demo version to see if it works for you.  The representations of terrain have moved on a lot from when such games first started.  Unlike most fast-paced computer games it requires a steadier approach and there is a fair learning curve at first to work how best to interact with the courses.  There’s a huge number of players already.  You get to practice route choice and map reading without going out.

This free demo gives a good flavour and can be found here.

Other orienteering activities

Build Your Skills

You can of course use some down time to review your skills and work out what you might be able to improve on.  Orienteering is a never-ending learning process.  There are lots of suggestions and resources on the Better Orienteering website here.  

If you prefer to learn by watching videos, here are two playlists. 

• The first is great learning videos.  Many British orienteers will have seen these, but if you haven’t, they are worth a look. These are available to watch here.
• The second list is just some great orienteering videos from around the world to inspire you and keep your hope up!  Of course, these videos will lead you on to many more on YouTube. You can watch these videos here.

These video links can also be a great way to try to get friends hooked on the idea of trying orienteering.

Make A Map – Open Orienteering Map

If you have never tried using Open Orienteering Map by Ollie O’Brien it’s a diverting way to make training courses.  Why not plan a club training session and some simple courses for when we are allowed back out into the great outdoors? 

The Open Orienteering Map, the easy Street-O map creation tool can be found here. 

Click on the little pen icon to edit text boxes.  Maps are exported as pdfs.

You can then import your pdf to PurplePen (which is free to download) and add courses for when orienteering returns.  Remember of course that land permissions are still needed.

Have fun orienteering online!