Route to Christmas: 2013

Route to Christmas: Day 1 2013


The first day of Route to Christmas 2013 takes us to Sweden – and the best long distance course from 2013 according to “Course of the Year 2013″. The race in question is the Swedish Championships long distance – organized at September 22nd 2013 – and we are looking at the very first leg in the men’s class. Quit

Route to Christmas: Day 2 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from the Matera course which finished second in Course of th Year 2013. This 7th leg in the M21E course is one of the longest legs on the course. This particular course had a lot of challenging legs – the shorter ones being just as tricky as the long ones. Matera is legendary – a place where sprint is really

Route to Christmas: Day 3 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a really long leg in Kongsberg, Norway – used for the Norwegian Championships long distance. The chosen leg is leg number two – after a very short first leg. The Norwegian Champs Long was organized at September 12th 2013. This leg might be very interesting for those planning to run the World Cup round

Route to Christmas: Day 4 2013


- The first control on the M20/M18 and W20/W18 caused the runners some headache, our tipster wrote us in an e-mail about today’s leg in Route to Christmas – which is the first leg in the Jugendcupstaffel (a youth relay) organized in Switzerland at August 17th 2013. Thanks a lot to Marcel Schiess for the tip! And this is indeed an intere

Route to Christmas: Day 5 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from the Norwegian Championships in night orienteering – a very tough race this year. After several years with mass start, the race was back with the traditional interval start scheme and a very challenging course. After a lot of wilderness in the start of the M21E course, leg 9 gave the runners the possib

Route to Christmas: Day 6 2013


Today we have got the longest leg so far in Route to Christmas 2013 – and even with comments from the course setter. That’s exactly how we like it – all other course setters with interesting courses are of course encouraged to follow Revenger’s example and submit a nice leg – with comments and GPS-data of at least a fe

Route to Christmas: Day 7 2013


On the 7th day in this Christmas calendar we travel to the country (or one of the countries) of Santa Claus – Finland. The place is Vuokatti – and the race is WOC middle. Today we take a look at the women’s course – the long leg to control number 7 is the chosen one. Some of you might already have taken a look at this leg ea

Route to Christmas: Day 8 2013


Today we travel to Slovenia to one of those very interesting karst terrains where you may easily get lost if you are not careful with your orienteering. Although this type of terrain is maybe more challenging for just finding the control than for choosing the route – there are many route choice challenges here as well. The leg we consider is

Route to Christmas: Day 9 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from an interesting course in a very tricky terrain – the Finnish WOC selection races. Many runners had big, big problems solving the orienteering challenges they got served from the course setter – you can see a collection of many, many of the mistakes and timelosses here. The chosen leg is leg numb

Route to Christmas: Day 10 2013


Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is from a Night sprint at Bergen Sprint Camp in February 2013 in Bergen, Norway. This course had quite a few tricky legs, but we have chosen leg 3 for the analysis with leg 5 as a bonus leg. Thanks to Niklas Profors for the tip (I’ve got some more tips in my queue, but still room for more). The leg is

Route to Christmas: Day 11 2013


Todays we travel to Norway for the Night Hawk relay – looking at leg number 8. A long leg in tough Norwegian forest – at night. Do you master the orienteering well enough to go straight? Note that you may choose to look at this challenge as a day leg if you want to – add a comment about it in that case… The leg is as usuall

Route to Christmas: Day 12 2013


We are back in Finland at the World Championships – but instead of looking at the finals which most have probably taken a good, long look at, we look at the long distance qualification. Here we had a long leg with interesting route choice options. Todays leg in Route to Christmas is leg 5 in the M21 course from Heat 3 at July 7th. The leg i

Route to Christmas: Day 13 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is a very fresh one – from a long distance night orienteering race just two days ago. It is a long leg – more than 1.5 km long – and the choice you have to make is a typical one for night orienteering: Straight with higher risk or around on a road. This might not be the most interesting leg in itse

Route to Christmas: Day 14 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Poland – the longest leg in the Polish Championships night orienteering organized at September 27th 2013. Thanks to Rafal Podzinski for both suggesting the leg and preparing a map with routes. Rafal writes the following in his introduction to the leg: - I suggest the 5th leg from Polish Champs in night

Route to Christmas: Day 15 2013


Today we have got another recent night orienteering race on the program in Route to Christmas – from Höias Trimtex Night Cup race 2 November 15th 2013 – a race run with chasing start. The leg is as usually first provided without routes – you may take a look at it and think about how you would attack this leg (if the image is to

Route to Christmas: Day 16 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is from Latvia – the Latvian Championships middle distance at September 7th 2013. The chosen leg is leg number 10 in the men elite course. To get an indication of the terrain – the winner Lauri Sild said the following about the terrain: “The forest was green and marshy and required quite an aggress

Route to Christmas: Day 17 2013


Todays leg in Route to Christmas is another “exotic” leg – today we travel to Belarus to a Belarussian Cup event at August 31st 2013. The chosen leg is leg number 14 in the M21E course. This leg and terrain is just as exotic and unknown for World of O as it probably is for you – just stumbled over it in 2DRerun while browsi

Route to Christmas: Day 18 2013


Today we are traveling out of Europe – to the USA! The leg in Route to Christmas is leg 11 in the M21 course from the US Champs long distance organized at May 12th 2013. The leg is not chosen based on a tip – but because the terrain looks very interesting. I was very unsure which leg to choose – so I took two (scroll down for the

Route to Christmas: Day 19 2013


In today’s leg in Route to Christmas we are travelling to yet another country: Scotland. The chosen leg is leg number 5 from the M21E course from the Euromeeting long distance race at August 3rd 2013. This race was part of the Scottish 6 Days – and also a preparation race for the World Champs 2015. The leg might not have the most intrig

Route to Christmas: Day 20 2013


Another day – another country! Today we travel to Australia to the Victoria Championships long distance. The chosen leg in Route to Christmas is leg 10 in the M21 course from Victoria Championships long at September 1st 2013. This looks like very interesting terrain where the route choices are based on understanding the quite complex contour

Route to Christmas: Day 21 2013


Todays we have got a monster-leg in Route to Christmas! We return to Latvia – this one is leg 16 in the M21E course from Kurzemes Pavasaris which was organized at April 7th 2013. Thanks a lot to Janis Tamuzs for the tip! Here is what Janis writes about the leg: The competition is Kurzemes Pavasaris long distance in 8th of April. The condition

Route to Christmas: Day 22 2013


The legs from Czech sandstone terrain are always highlights in Route to Christmas! Todays leg in Route to Christmas is leg 5 in the M21 course from Czech National Cup number 6 at September 14th 2013 – a very nice leg!. You are faced with the usual question in this kind of terrain: Running around on paths or take the climb direct!? The leg i

Route to Christmas: Day 23 2013


For today’s leg in Route to Christmas we travel to “Julenisse-land” – to the north of Finland. is leg 1 in the M21E course from the “Finnish champions for swedish speaking people” (FSOM Long) at August 10th 2013. Thanks a lot to Anders Backstrom for the tip! Anders writes the following about the course this day:

Route to Christmas: Day 24 2013


This leg in Route to Christmas is the first leg in the M21E course from the Baltic Championships at May 18th 2013. Thanks a lot to Lauri Sild for the suggestion! Today we return to Latvia – we got many good suggestions from Latvia this year! The race was organized in Estonia (Thanks for the comment, J!). Here is what Lauri writes about the

Route to Christmas: Day 25 2013


Woops! There is usually no day 25 in the Christmas calendar – but I could not throw away this tip from Marcel Schiess about Bern By Night – so here you are with an extra bonus! Todays bonus leg in Route to Christmas is leg 1 in the Long course from Bern By Night at December 6th 2013. Here is what Marcel writes in his introduction: I org

Route to Christmas: Day 26 2013


Woops! We even got to 26 this year! Today’s leg is not based on a tip – but based on browsing the still unfinished events.worldofo.com (which might some day turn into something great – for now it is just “under construction” and only for hardcore fans). Today’s leg in Route to Christmas is a really long leg ̵