Orienteering: Training Event – Hesworth and Fittleworth
I missed the club’s first big training Saturday and was glad to attend this one.
I started by helping with the first exercise in a loop round Fittleworth common (near Pulborough in Sussex). There was an uphill/downhill pacing exercise between two flags. I asked people to make a visual estimate of the distance, then pace it up the hill, then down again. This would give them some idea how accurate their estimates and pacing were and whether there was need for a significant adjustment when going upslope or down, compared with the flat.
I found it an interesting exercise to watch too. Firstly, some people had wide differences between the number of paces going up or downhill, others hardly any. This seemed to be a result of the way they ran. Some people were very cautious coming down, taking lots of little steps. Others bounded downhill, moving much faster and taking many fewer steps. I am definitely in the former category – I really do not run freely through forest at the best of times and steep slopes down make me tense up even more. I spent a few of the quiet times when I had no “customers” trying to come downhill faster – trying to relax and flow rather than tense up. At other quiet times (not that there were too many of these) I watched treecreepers … creeping up trees! I do like those little brown birds.
When I was relieved from duty, I went to try one of the longer exercises on Hesworth Common (the village has two beautiful areas of common land, about 400m apart). I chose the “brown only” map – most of the features and all of the paths were removed, leaving open ground and contours as well as “earth features” to navigate by. This was not as difficult as I feared, but it did require concentration and some care. It also led to a different style of route choice. I found myself rough orienteering in broad sweeps (along the side of the hill, then across the wide clearing and it should be the re-entrant on the opposite slope) rather than looking at lots of detail and constantly checking every feature.
You can see this if you compare the two maps. The first is an extract from the “full-featured” map, the second is the “brown only” map we used today.
If I had been using the full map, I am sure I would have been using paths and spending a lot of time cross-checking the many junctions and minor, unmapped paths as well as the vegetation changes. With the map I had, I was forced to contour round the hill, looking for the re-entrant on the steep hillside facing south-east. Instead of looking at detail, I was looking at the wider flow of the terrain. This got me close more quickly, but the more detailed map would have been great for the final approach! In fact, I drifted a bit when contouring, catching the wrong slope and being led away, but when I came into a wide flat area, I knew instantly that I was wrong and was soon headed towards the steep slope. I had a mental picture of the shape of the land and where I was in it.
What I hope to take away from the exercise is a determination to be more careful in deciding what aspects of the map to use when. Instead of looking at everything, I need to simplify. When rough orienteering, I need to look at the big features and when fine orienteering, the detail. It is almost as if the map is in “layers” – the basic shape of the land – shown in brown contours and earth features – are the foundation. Vegetation, paths and other features are overlaid on the foundation. There are times I should be looking at the foundation layer and others when the higher layers become more important.
In all, a thoroughly worthwhile morning. Very friendly and relaxed with a chance to put some more names to faces and a chance to chat and think about orienteering techniques. The beauty of the commons, with their small trees, heather and amazing views was a bonus. Tim Bartlett, who organised it, deserves a great deal of thanks.