Discussion: Night O Tips?

Hello!

I'd like to make a Night-O Tips video this Friday at a local park in the Seattle area. What tips do you have to share?

Yes, I know bright lights are good. And don't blind yourself on the map. I'm looking more for NAVIGATION tips when orienteering with limited visibility. Also, what to do when you get disoriented in the dark??

Thanks!

www.runbosco.com

Use trails more often than you normally do. Pay particular attention to catching feature ahead (i never paid much attention to trail bends as much as in a night-O).

A specific reentrant among many parallel reentrants is easier to find (count) from the bottom (as a side creek from a major creek) than from the top of a ridge (where it is flat and featureless and clueless in the dark).

You said you didn't want tips on lights, but here is one anyway: wear a small headlamp (like a Tikka) for just map reading, just bright enough for map reading and whose light doesn't blind you when reflected from the map, and carry a hand-held strong light for scanning the surroundings. I prefer carrying on my hand the strong light, because if i had it on my head, I would be turning my neck everytime I wanted to scan the light around me.

First time i did a Night-O, i realized i wasn't running much for fear of tripping and hitting a small branch with my face. The second time i did a Night-O, i chose to wear shoes that protected my feet, and clothing that protected my legs from vegetation. The third time I purposely slowed down and concentrated more on navigation and observing features into memory as i saw them, features that were to be seen again later.

Techniques can vary according to the terrain. Around me locale, the hills aren't too high, so the tops are generally a good choice for attack points.

In general, just be more deliberate. Break the leg into small, easy-to-execute bits. Look for bits that are risky, and either do something easier, or be really careful there. Look for features you can check off that are within the beam of your headlamp. When running a bearing, use the "two trees" method, unless you can find a fixed light off in the distance. I've used stars, the moon, and lights on buildings and towers. (They don't have to be directly in front of you.)

You also need to know when to speed up. As your going a bit slower generaly when you get to an easy bit where you don't need to be quite so precise you should be able to up your speed considerably. You of course have to be able to recover quickly from your effort for then next tricky bit where you slow down again.

A bright headlamp is helpful for navigation and makes the whole endeavor safer.

Always carry an additional light weight back up light to use in case of technical problems with your main light.

Simple routes: What you can see around you at night shrinks down to a small sphere of light. Relocating is much harder at night than during the day. Therefore, always take the safest routes, especially if you're just beginning.

Always know where you are: Sometimes in the daytime I can get away with running along on a rough compass bearing and figuring out where I am along the way. Not so easy as night. You have fewer features to use to help relocate along the way, since you can't see too far away. Similar to what cedarcreek said, break the route into smaller bits and move from one large feature to another. If you suddenly feel lost, slow down or stop to really think about it. Don't lost contact!

Point features, such as boulders, are much harder to see at night, since you have to be closer to them to spot them. Don't rely on them as much.

I'm still fairly new to night-o, but I never think about my speed when running at night. I focus on picking safe routes with large, obvious features - hilltops are a personal favorite. Then I execute my route slowly enough so that I can stay in constant contact. There is nothing harder than relocating at night in the Uppsala forests! :)

There appear to be some very useful tips for night-O in this thread. :-)

One of the first tips I learned in the Army was that it would seem to take longer to cover a given distance at night compared to daytime navigation. This seems to carry over to O as well - I've found I have a tendency to stop short at night rather than to overshoot. From rogaining, I have found I need to add about 10% to my daytime pace count, both walking and running, to get an accurate nighttime pace count.

On a family note, kids seem to really get into night O. I don't know if it's the flashlights, the headlamps, or the sense that they're up past their bedtime and outside when they should be in, but the little ones always seem to like this event.

There are some great navigation tips in here- thanks!! I'll share my post about it here within the week.

I think your compass is probably the most vital part of Night-O. At day, you can get away without it if you have a good sense of direction, or even are just a good navigator, but not at night. You need to know which way you are going exactly because picking off features is much harder. Trivial little things like, checking the direction of a path when you hit it become majorly important, because otherwise they can lead to big mistakes as relocation is also much harder at night.

The funny thing about these night-o tips is that every one of them are equally good day-time orienteering tips.

Night-o is good in that it forces you to orienteer better because it's less forgiving. Technique for it is generally the same as for day orienteering though.

I would even go a step further and say that if you did all your orienteering training during night, youd become a better day-time orienteer than had you done your o-training in any other way. (although that might not be practically possible...)

Cant believe night isnt a woc disiplin, or even being considered.

Where's Eddie?

In addition to the tips above, pay attention to your other senses. For example, you may hear frogs calling on a pond, cars on a nearby road or a stream rushing by. The breeze may feel stronger as you approach the top of a hill. It can be helpful to turn out your light at times and use your night vision to check out silhouettes of landforms.

What it comes to head lamps, HIDs and LEDs are so last decade. Tomtebloss headlamp - that's what you need for making cool night O videos. Here is example video (3:00 ->) , not exactly orienteering, but head light video anyway.

Has Night O ever been a WOC or Cup Event?

Thank you Jagge. Time to go to bed after that most enjoyable clip and I bought myself Led Zeps remastered Mothership today if I had known I would have waited to play that!

When I do a night-o i prepare my routes as early as possible, and as said before i slow down the pace and pay close attention to the catching features and things i see. It's very easy to get disoriented in the dark. I think!

Get a big light with wide beam. If you are turning your head left and right because there's not enough light for your perriferal vision , you don't have big light :)
Run fast on the trails when you take them.

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