Northern (England) Night Champs

[swat]

Thanks to all the SYO volunteers who braved the snowy conditions to put on last night's NNC. I thought it was great - running in the dark through snowy woods must be one of the best experiences this sport has to offer. I can't decide if the snow made it easier or harder: it did make things generally lighter and seemed to pick out the paths on the ground better, but running into the falling snow made it hard to see and the sticky snow attaching itself to the kites and making them merge into the general whiteness certainly didn't help.

[Homer]

Having a good run obviously helps. Congratulations swat on your result!
Sort of wish I'd run too.

[SteveE]

I would agree with swat's comments, regarding an enjoyable event. Thought the walk to/from the Start/Finish were very long however and would have preferred a map of some sorts at registration to explain where to go. Once the route to the start had entered the woods it wasn't that easy to see where the taped route went.

I think the snow helped identify the path routes/junctions, but white/orange kites on a white snowy background with snow covering the top of the boxes made it difficult to find the controls event within a few metres. A few times within 3m of a control and went straight past.

Other than the walk in/out, a good event and glad it didn't get cancelled due to the poor weather.

[DM]

We just made it over the Woodhead before that got closed for the night. Arrived close to last starts but managed to get passengers off to the starts just in time.

Over 2 hours on dodgy roads and then a quick run to the start was probably not the best preparation and late starters were out for longer as the snow was heavier. I didn't run but understand visibility was an issue with snow coming at you from all directions.

Sitting in the warm download room I did notice that everyone seemed to have enjoyed the run. Thanks due to all on the organising side, especially control collectors.

Bit surprised that the SYO site makes no mention of junior class champions??

Back in Stockport by Midnight due to delays on M62.

[Big Jon]

"but white/orange kites on a white snowy background with snow covering the top of the boxes made it difficult to find the controls event within a few metres"

Why are orange/white markers being used for night events? Reflective markers should always be used for night orienteering - they reduce the random/bingo/unfair element markedly. I am amazed that a major night championships went ahead without proper equipment! What were the planner and controller thinking?

[MAPS]

M/W18 champions now on web site.

[swat]

Thanks Homer! I agree, enjoying the event / getting a good result - there's definitely a correlation, but which comes first? I suspect there's more than a little of one causing the other. Anyway, I'd posted before I saw the results!

Big Jon - some at least of the controls did have reflectors, but due to the amount of snow piling up on the blocks, they were of limited effectiveness.

[ifor]

I don't know of any night events in England or Wales using just reflective markers, as I have seen at the spring cup. Are they the standard for the Deeside events?

I find they make quite a diference to the optimum technique. At least in Denmark my second time though I lernt that if the wood was open and depending upon the feature you could aford to run far harder and looser with the bearing so long as you just kept sweeping your head around, you could pick the reflector up from a long way off. The trick of course was realising when this is not going to work and knowing when to slow up.

I may try it next year for the Western Night League. Dangeling the si box below a small reflector sure will make puting the controls out a lot easier compared with having aluminium stakes and frozen ground like at the weekend.

[yted]

Reflective tape is for wimps - what's the point of having night events if we're going to make them as easy as in the daylight?

[SteveE]

Regardless of whether reflective tape is used or not, the skill is in navigation to the Control Site, not when you get to the control site trying to find the control marker.

Extract of BOF Appendix B: Course Planning guidlines:

3.8.1 Consideration should be given to the fairness of control sites
• The control feature should be visible from within 10m or 10% of the distance from the nearest attack point.
• For fairness, the visibility of a control should be the same whether or not there is a competitor at the control site. On no account should the control flag be hidden. Thus control flags should normally be placed at the side of pits or small depressions, and not “hidden” at the bottom.

[EddieH]

I planned 1 Deeside night league and placed all the reflectors that were on distinct points on the ground. Reentrants, I hung higher. Only complaint I had was the ditch end. When I collected it afterwards I found it trampled into the mud

[mappingmum]

Reflective tape is for wimps - what's the point of having night events if we're going to make them as easy as in the daylight?

Like

[Big Jon]

With properly planned courses and carefully sited controls the reflectors won't be visible from hundreds of metres away, but they avoid the problem of trying to spot faded orange controls in dead bracken or grass. As for being for wimps - they still leave night orienteering far harder than day O (in Deeside at least) and let the orienteers concentrate on planning best routes and running hard continuously rather than fannying about looking for needles in haystacks.
(Edited spelling 2038 7th Feb)

[madmike]

Big Jon

[Fourth]

Reflective tape is for wimps - what's the point of having night events if we're going to make them as easy as in the daylight?

"but white/orange kites on a white snowy background with snow covering the top of the boxes made it difficult to find the controls event within a few metres"

Why are orange/white markers being used for night events? Reflective markers should always be used for night orienteering - they reduce the random/bingo/unfair element markedly. I am amazed that a major night championships went ahead without proper equipment! What were the planner and controller thinking?