Long-O

[JohnB]

Since the "Lancashire sand dunes" long-O back in the summer there has been a lot of discussion about long-Os. Personally I welcome any variation on standard orienteering, much as I love it, 'cos variety is the spice of life apparently. My own club LOG is involved in a long-O as part of The Lincolnshire Bomber weekend in January, a joint venture with RAFO, which also includes a standard C4 and relays. As well as being blatant (sorry) advertising for this event I am also genuinely interested in peoples' experiences of long-Os, both as organisers and competitors. Does the e-card memory restriction on the number of controls mean lots of dead legs on tracks? How many people out there are interested in this particular style of orienteering and how many would always run standard courses if they are on offer (boring!)? Is there enough interest out there to warrant regular long-Os? Sadly my previous experience suggests that when a club puts on something different they get a poor turn out, but I get a feeling that this attitude is changing, or am I deluding myself?

Go here http://www.rafo.org.uk/Rafo/pages/lincsbomber.htm if you're interested

[mikey]

Long-O = good fun.

Just make sure that there is no Giant Hogweed in the woods - it makes the event more pleasurable.

[stodge]

Long O can be used as a way of accessing areas that have too much vegetation in the late spring / summer, using long legs with lots of path route choice to get to less brakeny or brambly areas.....
You can also hire metal base plates for the SI boxes to wire them to immovable objects in more sensitive areas.
There has been an idea to do a long O on cannock chase - joining all the O maps together - perhaps the forest of dean could also be used...

[lough]

I can remember a 24K long O on Cannock back in 1979 I think it was .... my records do not show where I finished or how long I took!!

[JS]

The Warrior (WAROC) O trial held (almost) every year in the lakes in winter is a cracker. The last 2 year's have both been time based score events on the fells...the next one is Jan 22nd well worth a trip.

[Jon brooke]

the Greythwaite estate as a venue for a long O? The JK maps from 2 years ago were contiguous, so you could just do one big map and do a fantastic long-O on it.

[mharky]

that sounds like a good idea. where was the British Blodslitet when it was on the cover of compasssport??? And does it not happen any more??? SROC?

[Ed]

the Greythwaite estate as a venue for a long O? The JK maps from 2 years ago were contiguous, so you could just do one big map and do a fantastic long-O on it.

you could get more than Greythwaite - with only the occasional venture out onto roads (or unmapped forest/fell) you can stay on quality O maps from Silver Howe down to Bigland and from Yewdale Fells to Claife Heights.

Contiguous/nearly contiguous maps:
Silver Howe
Loughrigg Fell
(<1km gap to) Black Fell
Holme Fell
Yewdale Fells
Tarn Howes
Guards Wood

(bit of a gap from Tarn Howes through to Grizedale - it's forest but is the "quiet area" so no o-ing allowed)

Grizedale
Esthwaite Intake
Graythwaite
Bishops Wood
(<1km gap to) Claife Heights
High Dam
Finsthwaite Tower (map has a different name that I can't remember right now what that is)
Haverthwaite Heights
Bigland

Within the realms of a long-O you could even get down to Brantwood, Bethecar Moor and Nibthwaite from Tarn Howes, or from Yewdale and/or Guards Wood to Bleathwaite, Torver Back Common, Blawith & Torver Commons, Subberthwaite Common, Torver High Common, Broughton Forest, Caw, Stickle Pike...

I'd like to see an OCAD file with all those maps in it... (although it wouldn't surprise me if Bilbo already had one!)

Lakeland did do a Long-O on Stickle Pike/Caw/Torver High Common a few years ago - it didn't get that many takers. The Warrior O-Trial has done Silver Howe-Loughrigg and Black Fell-Loughrigg combinations...

The British Blodslitet was Simpson Ground when it was on CompassSport. It is now called the Tim Watkins trophy and is in about 3-4 weeks time (see http://www.sroc.org

[mikey]

that sounds like a good idea. where was the British Blodslitet when it was on the cover of compasssport??? And does it not happen any more??? SROC?

Now the Tim Watkins Trophy and being held on November 27th at Blawith.

[Supersaint]

where was the British Blodslitet when it was on the cover of compasssport???

that would have been on simpson ground, 2002

And does it not happen any more??? SROC?

yes it does, but it's now been renamed the Tim Watkins Trophy. From the SROC website

This mass start, long distance race was renamed the Tim Watkins Trophy in memory of Tim who died following a car accident in March of this year. Tim was instrumental in introducing this demanding race to the UK and had already organised two in the recent past. He had also already done a lot of work in preparation for this 2005 event.

This event will challenge an individual’s endurance and mental agility to the extreme over some of the Lake District’s finest orienteering terrain.

This year's event takes place on 27th November at Woodland Fell and Blawith Common in the south Lake District.

[Pingu]

You're all mad - I'll be there

[Heather B]

[Does the e-card memory restriction on the number of controls mean lots of dead legs on tracks?]

If you want more than 30 controls you just need to make sure that you use the new si-cards as they have bigger memories. [/quote]

[Nails]

you can do a long leg without visting a track!