Map Handling Techniques

• Fold the map to show where you are and just beyond where you are going.
• Orient the map using land features. Use the compass to orient the map when it cannot be oriented by land features.
• Keep track of where you are on the map by placing your thumb on the map where you are located.

Control Placement

Control sites must be precise locations that are found on the ground and clearly indicated on the map. Generally, if controls are within 50 meters of each other, they must be on different types of features to avoid confusion of the participants. Starting points must be at precise locations just like controls. It is common to use streamers to guide participants from the last control to the actual finish line.

Places where control sites are commonly located:

• Point features (small, distinct objects) such as boulders, knolls, pits, depressions, rootstocks (root systems of uprooted trees), wells, cairns (rock piles), individual trees.
• Corners of larger features: buildings, lakes, fields, swamps, paved areas, building ruins.
• Junctions of 2 or more similar or dissimilar features such as trails, streams, fences, roads, stonewalls, and power lines.
• Bends in a feature such as trails, streams, fences, roads, stonewalls, and power lines.
• Top or bottom ("foot") of features such as cliffs, earth banks, and small knolls.
• Distinct land forms such as reentrants, ditches, and spurs.

Control Description Cards

Control description cards provide information about the control site and control marker (flag). For beginners, this is done in plain English (or whatever prevailing language). For more experienced orienteers, a set of internationally-recognized symbols are used so that a common language is not required in order to compete fairly against each other.

A beginner's control description card will have three columns. Column 1 contains the Control Number, column 2 the Control Code, and column 3 the description of the associated control feature (and details about the placement of the control flag in relationship to the feature if required).
* M = meter. The standard in Orienteering is to use metric units.

Sample control descriptions:

Start: Trail junction
1	345	NW CORNER OF BUILDING
2	541	JUNCTION OF STREAM AND TRAIL
3	246	EVERGREEN TREE - NORTH SIDE
4	675	SOUTHEAST CORNER OF FIELD
5	888	NORTHEAST FOOT OF 5 M CLIFF
6	443	N. SIDE OF 2.5 M BOULDER
7	431	TOP OF KNOLL
8	234	BEND IN DITCH
9	212	SW TIP OF MARSH
Follow streamers 100 meters to finish

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Making Route Choices

Factors to keep in mind when making route choices:

• 7.6 meters of climb is equivalent in energy usage to 100 meters of distance on flat land.
• a person can run ¼ mile:
  - on a trail in 2 minutes
  - in a field in 3 minutes
  - in open woods in 6 minutes
  - in thick vegetation in 10 minutes

Course Printing

When hand-drawn, control points and start and finish locations are best drawn with a fine-point red or purple pen. Staedtler Lumocolor (permanent type) pens are great since you can see the map features though the ink. For higher-level competitions, courses are pre-printed using a special device, or placed on the map during the original printing.

Start location: A triangle with 6mm legs is used to indicate the start point. The start point should be in the exact center of the triangle. One of the points of the triangle must point toward the first control.

Control locations: Red or purple 6 mm diameter circles are drawn around each control feature/site. The location of the control feature should be in the exact center of the circle. For example, if the control site is a building, the center of the circle should be at the corner of the building where the control flag is located. Circles should be broken if they will cover up a feature. The control number is written on the map just outside the control circle. The top of the number should point to north on the map. This allows the competitor to know which way is north on the map without unfolding the map.

Finish location: The finish location is drawn on the map in one of two ways:

Connecting lines: Lines are used to connect control points if a participant is to take the controls in numerical sequence (typical). For example, cross country and motala courses are designed so participants must take controls in a specified order. Score orienteering permits the participant to go to controls in any sequence. Therefore, Score "O" controls do not have lines connecting the control points. This line does not necessarily indicate the fastest route to the control site. Lines are drawn on the map from the start triangle to the first control, then from control to control. A line also connects the last control to the finish location. Break the line if it covers up important navigational features.

Map Handling Techniques

• Fold the map to show where you are and just beyond where you are going.
• Orient the map using land features. Use the compass to orient the map when it cannot be oriented by land features.
• Keep track of where you are on the map by placing your thumb on the map where you are located.

Orienteering Course Levels (US system)

White (Beginner or map hiker):
- Average length of course: up to 3 km
- Average number of controls: up to 8
- Difficulty of control placement: easy, obvious locations along roads, paths and other major linear features
- Orienteering skills necessary to complete course: basic map reading, ability to take a safety bearing with a compass
- Approximate winning time: 30 minutes

Yellow (Advanced Beginner):
- Average length of course: 2.5 to 3.5 km
- Average number of controls: up to 10
- Difficulty of control placement: near large map features, less obvious than white course features
- Orienteering skills necessary to complete course: more precise map reading and simple compass use
-Approximate winning time: 40 minutes

Orange (Intermediate level):
- Average length of course: 4 to 5 km
- Average number of controls: up to 10
- Difficulty of control placement: varied difficulty, difficult controls are introduced with large collecting features
- Orienteering skills necessary to complete course: good map reading, basic pace counting, beginning rough and precision compass skills
- Approximate winning time: 50 minutes

Advanced level courses (Brown, Green, Red and Blue) These are all elite- or expert-level courses . Controls are placed in difficult locations on small features. There are often several route choices to a control. Courses combine all orienteering skills.

Brown: 3.5 to 4.5 km; up to 10 controls; winning time 50 minutes

Green: 4 to 5 km; up to 12 controls; winning time 50 minutes

Red: 5 to 7 km; up to 15 controls; winning time 60 minutes

Blue: 3.5 to 4.5 km; up to 20 controls; winning time 60 to 80 minutes