Discussion: Spectacular orienteering control sites...

Alison Hill Photography

This is a photo of Matthias Müller and Olle Boström punching a control during the final day of the first Gran Canaria Orienteering Meeting at the weekend.

The control is 1600m above sea-level and is metres from the edge of a 1000m drop, in the background you can see Roque Nublo the most iconic feature of Gran Canaria.

Does anyone one else have photos of spectacular control sites?

I was looking for Gordhun's pictures from the Niagara Falls Sprints last October. He had spectacular pix of a control at the top of the falls. But they don't seem to still be on his site.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faintgirl/3076778875/...

From a Lakeside training weekend in 2008. It was an amazing day with fog down in the valleys. All the rest of England was covered, but the Lake District just popped out into a beautiful frosty day.

Here is one of Biggins' from Niagara:
http://catchingfeatures.com/photos/10_10_12_niagra...

Magnus' shot from San Francisco: http://www.flickr.com/photos/magjoh/4109514829/in/...

And there's this one from the Barebones race-that-never-was on top of Whistler mountain. (maybe this summer we'll be able to hold that race).

GREAT thread!!

I like this one of kissy at the GO control on Day 2 of the 2006 US Championships in Buena Vista, CO, with the 14,000' Collegiate Peaks in the background. Photo by Rich Kelly. Note RMOC's quaint use of pin-punches (we have since upgraded to e-punches). ;-)

I also like this one from one of RMOC's mini-ROGAINEs, in the Buffalo Creek burn area.

And, too bad the typical orange-and-white flag isn't visible in this one with a huge saguaro and a blooming barrel cactus, from a 2008 TSN training meet at Arthur Pack Regional Park in Tucson, AZ. I think Eric Bone had set the course just using streamers that day (I have four photos in this same location, and a flag isn't visible in any of them...).

This thread makes me want to live somewhere with real hills. :(

This, while not a control site (yet), was the most scenic of the photos I took while mapping a couple of years ago, near the top of one of the steepest maps we have in WA. Suburban Perth in the background.

Brooke: yep, streamers only that day. I think the people wearing goofy costumes can substitute for a control flag.

Any pix from the 2006 Swiss O' Week (SOW) at Zermatt? That was spectacular, as was the event video they produced & sold.

Here are a bunch of photos of my daughter from SOW 2006. I doubt I will ever go to a race more spectacular and fun than that one.

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1005/1768/1600/...

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1005/1768/1600/...

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1005/1768/1600/...

Matterhorn is certainly a nice background (almost like Mt Assiniboine...)

A couple more from SOW 2006.

People orienteering a ridge line
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1005/1768/1600/...

PG winning (again)
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1005/1768/1600/...

the icy day
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/1005/1768/1600/...

No super spectacular shots of control sites, but a lot of spectacular shots of orienteering at sea-level from the PWT-Travel's 2008 Caribbean Tour. I think it was more the accommodation / transport / banquet facilities that were beyond belief on this 6-day festival ;-)

Different take on the concept.

From ASSOC 09

Similarly different take from Perth's Park World Tour.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottish-orienteering...
use forward and back to see other approach options

and we used some fairly large features at the qualifier too, somehow resisting the temptation to go for "on the top"..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottish-orienteering...

But I just like this one, the scale seems all wrong somehow
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottish-orienteering...

A couple of city locations - central Oxford:

http://www.ouocphotos.org.uk/gallery/Oxford-City-R...
http://www.ouocphotos.org.uk/gallery/Oxford-City-R...
http://www.ouocphotos.org.uk/gallery/Oxford-City-R...

and in the City of London - by the Gherkin
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oobrien/2931852823/in...

and St Pauls Cathedral
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oobrien/2932712670/in...

I love this sport ;-)

People who were at the North American Championships in Ohio in 2004 will remember the control in the crack in the rocks. These photos were taken the day after the event (after the control had been removed). The description was "passageway".

The approach
Control location
The exit route
View from above

Not as scenic as some of the locations above, but certainly one of the more unusual controls I've been to.

JWOC 2007 in Oz: the small coloured speck middle top of the image (below the fluffy white cloud) here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32258399@N00/54576190...

becomes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32258399@N00/54582266...

some from earlier PWT-years:
http://www.pwt.org/home/eventpage.asp?event_id=9&n...
http://www.pwt.org/download/news/389_pic11.jpg
http://www.pwt.org/download/news/593_start_445.jpg
http://www.pwt.org/download/news/459_elisabeth_joh...
http://www.pwt.org/download/news/218_baczek_290.jp...
http://www.pwt.org/download/news/908_040509PWTSRBr...
http://www.pwt.org/download/news/1043_Elin%20Skant...

These pictures are wonderful. My spectacular control picture is only in my head. My first PNWOF had a control looking across the Columbia River to Mt. Hood. I spent a minute or so just looking at the mountain, not wanting to move on. Was ultimately in forth place by less than a minute but the view was worth it!

IF my PC hadn't crashed last summer and taken with it a decade of digital photos I would be posting spectacular views of controls at 1) Hopewell Rocks - the area that spends half the day under part of the Atlantic Ocean, 2) a rise overlooking the Thompson River near Savonna, British Columbia 3) on a rise with Pike's Peak in the background 4) Kooyara State Park in Australia and 5) at a West Point lookout over the Hudson River during the 2009 sprint race.
(Also Mikeminium perched high on a precarious looking ladder over-seeing his handiwork - a Flying Pig Sprint Race near Miami, OH.)
Surely someone else could post these scenes as well.

From Box Canyon today - the final control on the easier courses:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faintgirl/5462688014/...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/faintgirl/5462687572/...

5) at a West Point lookout over the Hudson River during the 2009 sprint race.

This one? (photo by Eddie Bergeron)
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1502016&l=02...

Here's my whole gallery from that event: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furlong47/sets/721576...

There were lots of great control locations on that one.

(Also Mikeminium perched high on a precarious looking ladder over-seeing his handiwork - a Flying Pig Sprint Race near Miami, OH.)
Surely someone else could post these scenes as well.


Mike in a tree: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furlong47/2408241271/...

Closeup: http://www.flickr.com/photos/furlong47/2409073302/...

Mike in a tree

Wow! That is a tough route choice!

If it was MVOC's annual "Commando-O", the control would be at the TOP of the ladder!

MNOC Prez Ian Harding and Mike Carlson locate one control at the top of Africa
https://picasaweb.google.com/mcarl99/Africa?feat=d...

Surprisingly nobody has posted anything from this place yet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5acgIpjZG8 I think I have some good photos of control sites from a day when the weather was better, but I can't find anything on the internet right now. EDIT: Wasn't looking hard enough, here is a nice one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/magjoh/2857605279/in/...

And as a teaser, I recorded this shaky movie from a training/testrun a few months ago: http://occidentering.blogspot.com/2010/12/orienter... The finish is probably the only really spectacular and easily recognizable part. An orienteering map of the area will hopefully be finished quite soon, but if there will ever be any events there remains to be seen.

Orienteering in Finland, 1983.
A classic-type O photo taken when jogging with Steve Pearson, HKF, COF.

Bob, I have that exact same photo in my office here in my house. a present from Steve many many years ago.

Is Steve still around the orienteering scene? I´ve seen Jack Lee´s name somewhere lately and the two of them were some of the first people I got to know in Canada in the old days...

Mike, the small world coincidence. It was a nice hour or so between the days' events.

Steve has not been involved in the sport for the better part of 15 years now.

I had two controls this weekend with the following descriptions on an MTBO sprint race.

Harrier Jump jet, under left wing
Wessex Helecopter west side
30ft satelite dish south side.

Yes is was on an army base
www.walton-chasers.co.uk

We had some nice scenery at our Oregon meet way back when. The thing about scenery for me is that I never notice it during the race.

It's kind of a shame that most of us don't notice the scenery at all during a race. (Although once I asked a fellow competitor about her route choice, and she gave better scenery as the reason.)

Anyone thought about making a calendar? OUSA could solicit contributions each year, hold a contest to select the best 12, and sell a calendar as a fund-raiser.

Nice idea!

Nice, indeed! Kind of like those golf calendars.

...but no Photoshopping!

'11 Alpine Expedition Race

Don't have a picture of it but I remember at the French o festival this year on day 4 there was a control on top of a massive cliff right on the edge of the map that had great views :)

Is that barbed wire wrapped around the sign pole?

mikeyA >> Le Croix du Nivolet
Didn´t have that control myself but we went there a couple of days later on a hike.

Here is one in the US
http://www.flickr.com/photos/magjoh/4110281808/in/...

and another one in Canada

http://www.flickr.com/photos/magjoh/2857605279/in/...

And the Beautiful City of Boston

Here's one taken by Trish Strat at the 2011 Canadian Orienteering Champs in the Carcross Desert in the Yukon, Canada. In the background is Lake Bennett, gateway to the Klondike.


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=6755413375...

Apparently not viewable by public.

Viewable by me

Here is one from Greenland. It is not too often that icebergs are visible from a course.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlahlswede/17923156...

Now viewable by me...

Wow, really nice! And KSwede's: N ice!

Indeed. A link to or view of the Greenland map?

Check Michal Besta's DOMA archive for Greenland maps. Here's an example:

http://www.bestik.cz/mapy/show_map.php?user=bestik...

And here is a 3d Rerun with headcam video from the terrain around Nuuk:

http://3drerun.worldofo.com/?saved=1&videoname=htt...

The terrain around the 30 minute mark is especially nice.

Here is a map from the unofficial Greenland Championship course in 2005. The control featured above is #11

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlahlswede/13313340...

The following photo is an eskimo grave:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlahlswede/32331315...

Which is just south of the control #38 on this score O map:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/karlahlswede/13313395...

Why do the the Greenland maps depict tree-less terrain as white (forest)?

Probably because:
a) it's easier to read the contour lines with brown on white instead of brown on rough open or bare rock.
b) less ink for the printer
c) you're not going to confuse there being open woods in Greenland

The Anza Borrego map is the same way. As mapped, the desert should be filled with white woods.

From the 2009 US Champs in Wisconsin. More pictures here. Not sure if the photographer is on AP?

The web site banner for NSW Orienteering, Australia has a shot that shows the best of inner harbour maps. The first summer o of 2011/12 was held near here yesterday.http://www.nsw.orienteering.asn.au/