A English title derives from either Swedish orientering, "orientation".

Participants have the map, unremarkably of an locality by having which it is unfamiliar, & a compass. It attempt to visit, inside sequence, control points that come indicated on the map, when quickly when conceivable.

History
Orienteering originated around Scandinavia, as a military exercise, in the 19th century. A competitory sport form began inside Norway where the number 1 competition was held touching Oslo in 1897. It gained popularity by owning a development of further dependable compasses in the 1930s. Orienteering began to spread to countries outside Scandinavia in the 1960s. A International Orienteering Federation (IOF) was established inside 1961 & a foremost globe championships were held in 1966.

On top Lx different national orienteering federations come registered by owning a IOF now. Globe championships come held annually (bi-annually prior to 2002), & orienteering occurs as sport in the World Games. A sport has been dominated per Nordic nations & Switzerl&, however other and extra countries come making their mark on the sport, including France, Great Britain and several Eastern European countries.

Basic play
An orienteering course is marked in a map utilizing the red triangle to imply the run & a double circle to retain the finish. Red circles come utilized to show a control points. The staggered run is typically utilized by owning rival starting at microscopic intervals. Resolutions come according to a period taken to complete a course, camping all the controls in the correct sequentially.

High levels of fitness & running off speed come needed to compete with success at an elect level. Profits is likewise heavy contingent finding a fastest route between controls. When controls come a equivalent for a challenger in any particular category, the routes it order can be super different. Challenger come typically compulsory to cross rough out undeveloped terrain in which exact navigation is necessary. Orienteering clubs commonly offer the wide range of courses by having varying physical & technical indicator difficulty to appeal to competition of differing abilities.

Map and control details
s and come occasionally at scales of 1:10,000 or even 1:15,000. Map symbols come standardized per IOF, & designed to exist as decipherable by any contender disregardless their background or even native tongue.

Control points come situated in distinct features, & clarified in the "control description sheet". It is marked in the terrain by white & orange (or even white & red) flags. The contender registers his or even her visit by punching the "control card" utilizing the needle punch, or even using an electronic chip.

Equipment and clothing
the basic devices needed for orienteering is ordinarily enrolled as a compass, appropriate outdoor wearable &, inside a select few countries, a whistle. A whistle is for utilize within emergency situations. Competitory orienteers ordinarily have specialised versions of this devices, like the "thumb compass".

Purpose-purpose-built lightweight nylon or lycra suits provide full immune system handle for racing around areas by using undergrowth. Gaiters are also typically worn. Lightweight studded, & typically cleated, orienteering shoes come normally utilized.

GPS and other electronic navigation hardware are non unremarkably allowed.

Variations
Championship distances come Long (winning period of 70 - 80 transactions for women & 90 - 100 mins for men), Middle (30-35 mins), Dash (10-12 mins) & Relay.

Relay
Teams of challenger apiece begin a course & a effect is according to the team's aggregate instance. Relays ordinarily use the mass begin instead of the staggered run. To reduce competitiin as a consequence both more, parallel courses come utilized in which runners on both leg of the race may use different course combinations. To assure fairness, a number of all a course combinations is universally the equivalent for every team.

Score
Challenger visit when several controls when imaginable in the period set boundaries. There exists commonly the mass run (like than staggered), using the instance set boundaries. Controls could keep around different point values based in difficulty & there is a point penalty for every microscopic late. A challenger by using a greatest point value is the winner.

the prominent-shell, endurance-style version of the Score-O is referred to as a ROGAINE, competed by teams in cases lasting (typically) Xxiv hours. a super big metropolitan area is utilized for competition, & the map shell is little. A format originated inside Australia. the term ROGAINE is typically said to have for Rugged Outdoor Class action Activity Involving Navigation & Endurance; this is basically a backronym, as a title actually originates from either a list of Rod Gail & Neil Phillips, world health organization were among Australian Rogaining's number 1 participants.

Sprint
Shorter cases typically within city parks and supplementary more urban settings. Map scales commonly 1:5,000 or even 1:4,000.

Night
Rival utilize the headlight to navigate in the dark. Reflective control markers come typically utilized.

Bike-O
Orienteering in mountain bike. When bikes are non permitted to leave a path patterns, a major focus becomes route guide when navigating at bike speed. Favorite devices called upon occurs as map holder bonded to the front of the bike. Map shell is typically little than standard orienteering maps.

Ski-O
Orienteering in cross-country skis. Standard orienteering maps come utilized, however sustaining favorite green overprinting of trails & tracks to show their navigability within snow; more symbols suggest whether any roads come snow-snowy or even clear. Standard cross-united states ski devices is utilized, along by using the map holder connected to the chest.

Trail-O
An orienteering form accessible to disabled competitors where a object is accuracy, non period. It involves determining, along the placed accessible course, which of various controls inside the little locality is the of these indicated on the map. An additional form involves determining the positiin on the map of the control viewed from either a placed point 30-40 metres away. Maps come commonly 1:5,000 shell.

Mounted-O
Competitive Mounted Orienteering (CMO) is performed in horseback.