SOL 1

[EddieH]

Not many events have so much comment on the terrain as Auchengarrich. I heard reactions from every extreme, but definitely the vast majority of them were on the lines of "I loved it".

It certainly showed how an unlikely area can be made with a brilliant map. Take a look at Tay's routegadget and see what you'd think. I knew that Mill of Fortune (the northern part) was a brilliant tough area (sadly half felled ) but the rest was an unknown quantity. Once through the early green (spruce) the rest was mostly larch which, whilst slow was not painful.

I thought it was fantastic - what did others think?

[graeme]

Hated it. First bit (Mill of Fortune) was way too rough for my likings, just a boring plod around heavy-impenetrable brash/windblow. Plus a big, early blunder meant I lost heart .

Which having been said, the Auchingarroch bit was really good, though I was past caring. A lot of kudos to whoever had the vision to see it would make a good area, because it's not obvious from the map.

Once you realised the the dark green in Auchingarroch was easier going than anything in MoF, you still really had to think about route choice which is quite rare in Scotland.

[Becks]

Like most people, I saw the map excerpt with all the green and thought it was going to be one of the worst races I'd ever run! But it was awesome! I'm glad we got out of Mill of Fortune pretty quickly and the planner resisted the contouring legs that left me vowing never to return last time! But the bridging section in the dark green and then the crazy rides etc were absolutely brilliant. Whoever had the vision to do this was certainly radical, but bang on!

[NeilC]

As a southern softie, sprint specialist the Saturday was the priority for me (alas another 4th place) however having SOL1 make a weekend of it was great.

Chatting to the above first two posters just before heading off to my start didn't give me many clues about what to expect. However the first control on Short Brown was found without difficulty which led to over confidence and big errors on the next two. Got into the map after that and navigated cleanly through the early controls in Auchingarroch although I see that EddieH was taking 30-60 sec out of me on many legs despite taking identical routes. Felt strong near the end and tried to run away from someone that I'd caught up only to miss a ride and spend 4 mins thrashing around in some dark green.

Regarding the questions posed at download I found the 1:10000 map fine and easy to read. The various rides etc seemed appropriately mapped (no I don't think they should have had a white underlay) and at times felt like a city race with rides instead of streets. There did seem to be a problem on the Short Blue with the red line almost completely obscuring one of the rides and routegadget shows that many runners missed the best route because of this.

Thanks FVO and TAY for a great weekend

[andy]

Really enjoyed it, was an excellent challenge physically and you had to your wits about you navigationally...

Would've been better if I hadn't lost a contact lens to an 'evil tree branch' incident half way round and my arms hadn't been ripped to shreds from having a short sleeved top on, oops! Also, being tall wasn't much fun either.

[Becks]

My arms are covered in tiny red spots that hurt when my sleeves brush against them! Wonder what plant that was?!

[Rosine]

I agree with people above that the MoF part was not very inspired. Most of our attention was on the new part of the map for a number of reasons:
- the area was being mapped while planning. I started scouting with a photocopy of the OS map which showed solid forest with a single forest road, and some pencil scribblings from Dave Prentice like "rides here". The version used at the event was finalised the Monday before, and there are still areas of the map we would like to work out further.
- most of the courses used the new area
- There was some controversy about mapping this area so there was some pressure to make to make it work out
- MoF is an existing area, had good feedback in the past, so I assumed it would be OK. Only when I went in to tape controls I realised how hard going it was. I cut out the descent on the N side as it would only mean having to climb back out, but that left the courses more or less circling around the steep edge of the main hill, trying to avoid the very bad top of the hill.

I think once we have added more details in the S part of the new map we can have longer courses there without too much circling round, maybe even all courses. That would also remove the crossing-over between the areas . The one used was the best option, but it did add one control (5 on brown/short brown, 6 on black) which was purely there to get runners to the least unpleasant way down through the clear cut.

I will see if I can put some images together of how the map evolved. Originally many areas were mapped as solid green, and Dave P spent a lot of time on both map and terrain corrections. Map corrections meant convincing Pat to add more shades of green and white, and terrain corrections mean cutting off branches where this would open up connections that would improve route choice options. Sometimes opening a small cut between 2 clearings, or a opening up a short section of a ditch that was blocked.
This has focused on the centre and the NW part of the map.

One of the areas where this wasn't done yet for example is the green area N of control 21 on black. Looking at routegadget a number of people find routes straight through, and Dave has notes describing a number of clearings and individual deciduous trees (mapped as white circles), rides and more runnable areas that can be put in there but there was not enough time.

One problem with the map that I didn't spot in time is that the way through from the open hill into the S clearing with a crag (control 26 on black) was partly obscured by the fence symbol and for the rest by the control circle, which meant people still going through spruce rather than the gap we cut.

I'm enjoying routegadget today. Both the controller and I have got lost in the area E of the lake, and on routegadget there are all those lines of people straying off course until they hit the lake and realise. I also saw on routegadget that some people managed to get themselves into the very wet bit S-W of the small lake which I specifically tried to avoid

Roos (planner)

ps I get those red spots from spruce. Gorse gives red spots with black needles in them. Black spots with some red around them are ticks. Red spot in middle of forehead means bending forward to tie a tape around the start tree and hitting a branch end dead-on...

[EddieH]

Don't denigrate M of F. Tough going yes, but technically superb. I get the distinct impression that a lot more time per km was lost there than in the new bit. Just look at Graeme's route there on Brown (Why were you not doing black Graeme? Hardly fits your statement on another topic)

[graeme]

Why were you not doing black Graeme?

When I read the details, I took the view it wasn't going to be the type of area I'd particularly enjoy... I wish I'd run my age group - Jane reckoned short blue (W45L/M45S) was superb!

[AncientFootsteps]

I enjoyed Short Brown on Sunday thanks. However I did think the MoF start was dreary - so much windblow that routeplanning became a matter of chance. Later on there some good legs with a reasonable number of route choices. I lost concentration a couple of times and was punished accordingly!

Less happily I brought along a friend to try the Long Orange for adult novices. But it was far tougher than any Orange (or Red for that matter) - more like Light Green in distance and difficulty. There weren't many route choices and many legs had no collecting features. So it wasn't a fun experience for my friend or for many of those who tried it I fear - the winning time was 67 minutes and there were many non-completions. A missed opportunity to lure in the O curious.

[Rosine]

I had noticed the results on the Long Orange and was about to post something about it. I think there are 2 questions:
1. is the long orange really as suitable for adult novices as it is being suggested
2. did my course fit the criteria (I'll get to this one in a later post after dinner)

1:
The Long Orange is supposed to be half the distance of the black, and twice the distance of the orange.
The black has a suggested winning time of 67 min for a top elite runner; orange should be around 30min, so a winning time of around an hour for the long orange seems proportional. That is quite long for a novice who may add time by navigation errors or by walking instead of jogging - I'd probably be happier to start someone off on a normal orange.

From the guide on the BOF site ("planning the orange course":
The sort of skills needed for TD3 are:
- Corner cutting: a leg that can either be done by 2 line features following 2 sides of a square, or by taking a diagonal shortcut.
- use of compass to navigate between 2 line features
- a short leg on a rough compass bearing to a control on or near a collecting feature
- legs with several decision points (up to 4 or 5 decision points)
- simple route choice decisions

"The basic shape of the course will normally follow distinct line features
such as tracks, paths, fences, walls, rivers, large ditches and very distinct
vegetation boundaries (e.g. forest / open land), so that relocation in the
event of a mistake is relatively easy. Controls should either be on the line
features, or on prominent point or contour features which can easily be
found from an attack point on a line feature close to the control. A route
along line features to the attack point should be possible."

Skills they are learning: interpretation of contours (and in our case I would say vegetation details). This is introduced by using them as control sites, not for navigation.
The examples given in this guide (and actually similarly for the TD2 and TD4) courses are maybe harder than these courses are normally planned.

Is an adult novice expected to use a compass somewhat reliably? To interpret all the line features above on the map?

[Rosine]

Part 2: my course. Not trying to defend myself, I don't like the number of DNF on the TD2 and TD3 courses and want to learn from this - I'm interested in your friend's feedback on what made it too difficult.
One complication with both orange courses btw was the fact that less than 2 weeks before the event someone mentioned a possible red kite nest in the NW corner of the forest and I had to reroute some courses.

Length: the black was 9.6km with 320m climb. The orange 2.3km with 85m climb.
The Long Orange was 4.6km with 180m climb. This is in proportion, though I could maybe have reduced the distance a bit to compensate for the amount of rough terrain underfoot which was maybe a bit more on the long orange than the orange. Though all courses were already shorter than the guidelines for this reason.

Some of the legs are a bit long. The guidelines mention between 100 and 400m. All legs are within this range except the 711m leg coming down form the hill top through open terrain heading around the corner of the forest. Looking at where people gave up or got lost I don't think this leg was a problem, it was more some of the tricky navigation earlier on.

I think the fence crossing point on leg 2 (which was marked on the map, not on routegadget) should have been a control. This would have improved the yellow and orange courses; it would have caused 2 controls for white within 40m but I could have solved that with some tape. This is where I lost some runners.

The fiddly bit around the lake was taped to the beginning of the ride running W. The next couple of legs have a lot of detail but there are line features to hold on to, even if they're not the shortest route. Control 3 has the fence as attack point and the road as catching feature, control 4 was visible from the main road. To #5 there is some route choice, and the control itself is in the junction between 2 line features. I thought 6 would be ok, the vegetation boundaries are quite clear so you follow the rides and then the clearing on the hill with some larch in it. The control itself was supposed to set runners off in the right direction for the next leg. That next leg is difficult but relatively safe: wherever you enter the open hill, you can always follow the fence NW to the corner and then follow the fence SW until you see the control. Control 7 does not have a collecting feature but because it is on open terrain it is visible from the fence.

The hill top is not a standard TD3 control but I was hoping that it was an obvious enough and visible feature and looking at routegadget I think it was ok, as were the legs to #9 and #10. Control 11 is probably a bit too hard. I think coming down to the road is ok, as with a rough compass bearing you will at some point either hit the stream, fence, track or vegetation boundary and all will funnel you towards the track. I should maybe have had a control there instead of (or inaddition to) #11. Control 11 itself is reachable by line features but it is quite complex. But the junction of the path and the track is a good relocation point to get onto the right ditch. The control itself is on the visible side of the thicket.

Control 12 then guides you into the ride system.

Roos

[frog]

I don't think I'd recommend a long orange to a novice adult orienteer. When I started orienteering I'd done alot of hill walking and been on an FRA navigation course and done a few fell races. I started on a white course in a park area, found that pimpsy so then did a yellow. The different colours of an o map and fine navigation needed though do make it much harder once you go above yellow, especially in a forest. My next effort was a green in a wood (deciding orienteering was easy after my parkland experience). I started off going in totally the wrong direction and was out there for over 2 hours and still didn't finish the course. An orange or long orange may be fine for a beginner in an open area, but is pretty tough in a forest. Encouraging adult novices to do a yellow or white then yellow may be more appropriate. A long yellow would probably be ideal for adult novices but this would be difficult to plan in many areas.
Why was it decided to have white and long orange as the EOD courses for SOLs?
Would white, yellow and possibly ordinary orange be better if they are really aimed at the non orienteer?

[AncientFootsteps]

Thanks Roos for your full reply - and for setting courses in such a challenging area. I'm sure you followed the guidelines for Long Orange - I'm really querying whether this is an appropriate format to be advertised on the club site as suitable for "senior novices".

My friend had previously shadowed kids round Whites and Yellows and had also run a Red so wasn't a complete beginner or I would not have pointed her to the Long Orange.

Apart from various unforced navigational errors and the toughness of the terrain I think she had trouble:-
- from 1 to 2 (as you discuss)
- finding 5 - not sure why as it looks OK on the map although the underlying difficulty of this area is of course the potential for confusion between rides and paths
- finding 11 - tough boggy leg despite the friendly flag position - apparently others had problems here
- from 12 to 13 she chose to loop via the track rather than risk the path network - a safe choice but probably not planned as a route option?

Generally I think she found the criss-cross confusing - as opposed to a broadly circular route which is easier to visualise en route. 1:7500 would have helped too I think.

[Big Jon]

Relentlessly grim was my view of the day and it still is. Reminded me of the worst of central Scotland orienteering 20 years ago - Touch (before it matured), Loch Ard, Blairadam etc.