MAP QUEST

Orienteering clubs turn Mount Royal into a thrilling geographical playground

by ERIK LEIJON

Taking a leisurely stroll through Mount Royal is enjoyable for most, but it’s unlikely the experience will provide a vigorous workout for the mind and body. This past November 5, the Ramblers’ Orienteering Club held their last event of the season, turning the mountain into an athletic scavenger hunt for both finely tuned and laid-back adventurers. They’ll begin their new season early next year.

The sport of orienteering is a blend of strategic planning and physical activity, and was invented in Sweden in the late 19th century as a military training exercise. It’s a sport typically done on foot, where participants will navigate the treacherous brush, armed with only a highly detailed topographic map and compass. Located on the map are a series of controls, which are little stations strewn across the territory. The point is to reach every control as fast as possible and return to the finish line in the allotted time.

Montreal-native John Charlow, head of the Ramblers, holds events on foot, snowshoe and cross-country ski. They’ve also done street orienteering in the West Island (where participants take to the streets), and the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) also promotes mountain biking contests.

The actual time it takes to complete a course will pale in comparison to how many hours will be spent on map making. Charlow says the ideal way to make a new map is to take stereo (3-D) pictures from a plane, and to draw a base map using stereo plotting equipment. A standard computer cartography program, OCAD, is used by the orienteering community. Charlow himself also does field checks. “Every time I come to the mountain, I make some small, minor adjustments to it, but I live close to the mountain and I spend a lot of time here.”

TACTICS AND TOPOGRAPHICS

What separates an orienteering expert from a mere simpleton is their ability to quickly read the complex maps and devise the quickest route to each control on the fly. The maps are kept under wraps, and only a few moments before the race starts are competitors given their copies. Racers also have to return during a certain time window, and failure to get back on time will result in point violations. Considering this Mount Royal course stretched from the main chalet lookout to the cemetery, poor planning could result in being kilometres away from the finish line with no time remaining.

Charlow, 78, was already keen on hiking and skiing when he was introduced to orienteering 38 years ago. “I was the director of the Canadian Youth Hostel Association at the time, which was really an organization in the Montreal area that found adventurous things to do on weekends, rather than provide facilities for cross-country travellers,” he explains. “So a friend from Norway told me about this great sport that was a lot like what I was doing already, but made more interesting.”

Another type of orienteering is the ROGAINE events, which is an acronym for Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance (and has nothing to do with hair growth products). Francis Falardeau, who organizes a yearly ROGAINE in Morin Heights (this year’s was held in September), also participates in local contests.

“I do a lot of armchair orienteering,” he says. “I read old courses and I try to figure what was good and what went wrong, and try to improve on my mistakes. I’ll try to slice some time in the process, because the aim is to minimize the time in the course.” Falardeau says he’s been in over 2,000 tournaments.

There are racers like Falardeau who take orienteering seriously, but the sport can be tailored for beginners as well. Courses will often have paths of varying difficulty; the easier paths usually have controls situated near the trails or identifiable landmarks.

“What is unusual is at the same big event, and it could be the national championship,” Charlow says, “you’re there as a first timer playing a beginner course, and standing not far away, about to start at the same time as you, is the national champion. There are very few sports events where that happens—of course he’ll be racing a much different course than you.”

Montreal has two orienteering clubs: the Ramblers and Viking. For more information, check out www.orienteringquebec.ca