Discussion: Winter-O map: snow=undergrowth?

At this time of year all of the trails around the neighborhoods get really well packed from the walkers, etc. I had the idea to make a winter-O map. There is a foot to 18" of snow on the ground, but the lakes are frozen, and due to all the snowmachine traffic, are pretty runnable in winter.

So, my idea was put the narrow-green line (undergrowth: difficult to run) over all the map because you can go in the woods, but it is a slog. Then on lakes I put yellow plus wide-green lines (undergrowth: slow running) because the lakes are pretty good to run across.

This started a heated debate with my colleague. He claimed it was not legitimate to use those "undergrowth" symbols to represent snow.

Here is a link to the map: https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DZbrK22HlR-H... (this was the 2011 Western Canadian O-Champ Middle map)

thoughts?!

Your colleague is rather literal isn't he? What alternative would he suggest for good visibility slow/difficult to run?

Your colleague shouldn't ever come orienteering in Finland, because usually the green line is representing heavy forest tillage and bad runnability due to it.

But on the map itself, while there is snow everywhere; using the green lines on the whole map seems reduntant. Because it doesn't give any new information (everybody running on the map can see that there is snow everywhere). Or am I missing something?

Wait until it thaws and try again.

All I can think about now is The Legend of Zelda and trying to stop your character from sliding into a spike when you've run across ice.

If there were a lot of variability in the runnability then it might make sense to map it, but if it is as you describe (slog in woods, trails runnable, lakes runnable) then just tell people that.

That green cover is very pleasant for the eye. After a discussion on Attack Point about simplifying bike-O maps I used the same shade of green to represent all non-grass vegetation on the bike-O map I produced here in Florida. In this case the green had nothing to do with run-ability but it did represent an area they couldn't ride their bikes.
In the Whitehorse case I imagine those steep slopes could be pretty treacherous. Did you consider a symbol to signify dangerous condition?
From different corners of the continent and everywhere in between one of the great things about producing maps for non-A meets is that we get to experiment with the map symbol set and produce the right symbol for the local condition.

For MTBO the only thing that matters is tracks. Any other colour on the map is just annoying (except open yellow), unless you are allowed to ride through the bush in which case it is useful.

Unless there is a sewage lagoon on the map, you likely aren't using blue for anything else, so why not devise your own "legitimate" blue symbol set for "Sn-O" similar to green Ski-O tracks. Areas (like lakes) that ARE runnable can be shown with light or medium blue and white is just deep snow. I'll even make up an OCAD symbol set for you.

And if there happens to be a lagoon, just color it green ;-)

@gordhun - ice is not an issue. If anything, steep slopes are easier to descend in the winter 'cause you can bound down in the snow. And the lakes are snow / wind-drift covered, so sliding into spikes is not a problem.