Discussion: Controls on crags
in: Psuba; Psuba > 2016-03-27
Mar 29, 2016 10:14 PM
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awk:
Interested in your comments about thepositioning of controls on crags. We were careful to ensure that all controls on crags whose position was unqualified on the descriptions were placed at the centre of the foot of the crag, and that they could be seen by anybody at that position - per the rules. If you were looking from the top, then, you might have got lucky, but I agree, we were certainly not trying to make them visible from there! I'd disagree though that we were hiding them; rather that we were positioning them carefully so they could be seen by anybody in the right place, but not necessarily by anybody in the wrong place. Hope that didn't spoil your run too much, but that is very common in the north of England and Scotland, where crags tend to proliferate!
Mar 30, 2016 3:46 PM
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No problem - you live and learn. BTW my comment wasn't about the intention of the organisers, rather my impression/feeling. I may only have had this feeling due to my lack of experience in orienteering in this type of terrain - which is fine, part of the reason I am doing this sport is that there is always something new to learn and improve upon.
On control 2 I was definitely on top of the crag/control and looking down, expecting to see the control just to verify I was in the right place before climbing down, just in case I needed to relocate myself. Which is what I tried to do, as I wasn't seeing the control. Problem was - relocating didn't make sense as everything told me I was in the right place, but I reminded myself that one tends to be biased and "makes the environment fit" where one expects oneself to be, so I climbed down and ran up/down to check the surroundings. Once I did that and returned to the crag, I saw the control tight right next to the crag.
In fact, control 4 was similar - I did not check that one from straight above as I got to it at the side, but on that one I did have to climb down before I could see the control.
Control 5 was similar to 2 in the sense that I did look straight down from the top, could not see the control, took some time to look around, the difference to 2 was that this time I was expecting that I might simply not see the flag, climbed down once I reassured myself that I was in the right place, and the flag was there. So as you can see, I am adapting even within one race :)
In fact control 5 is visible on this picture:
http://www.activnorth.com/-/galleries/orienteering...
From this angle it can be confirmed that the control is tight to the crag (correctly), what is not possible to see is that from above visibility is limited.
On control 2 I was definitely on top of the crag/control and looking down, expecting to see the control just to verify I was in the right place before climbing down, just in case I needed to relocate myself. Which is what I tried to do, as I wasn't seeing the control. Problem was - relocating didn't make sense as everything told me I was in the right place, but I reminded myself that one tends to be biased and "makes the environment fit" where one expects oneself to be, so I climbed down and ran up/down to check the surroundings. Once I did that and returned to the crag, I saw the control tight right next to the crag.
In fact, control 4 was similar - I did not check that one from straight above as I got to it at the side, but on that one I did have to climb down before I could see the control.
Control 5 was similar to 2 in the sense that I did look straight down from the top, could not see the control, took some time to look around, the difference to 2 was that this time I was expecting that I might simply not see the flag, climbed down once I reassured myself that I was in the right place, and the flag was there. So as you can see, I am adapting even within one race :)
In fact control 5 is visible on this picture:
http://www.activnorth.com/-/galleries/orienteering...
From this angle it can be confirmed that the control is tight to the crag (correctly), what is not possible to see is that from above visibility is limited.
This discussion thread is closed.