Although it isn't O', the Ecochallenge can be sort of interesting to follow (I guess it'd be closer to a Rogaine). The race apparently starts today. As far as I know there are no well-known orienteers competing this year. But in the past, Rich Ruid (SLOC)and Bill (?) Algaire (OK) have competed. There are a couple of web pages with coverage (there are probably even more, but I know of two): www.ecochallenge.com (so far not very good) and www.quokka.com (more interesting, but a graphically dense site). Here is a snip of text from today's coverage at Quokka...

You hear a lot of stories about John Howard's navigation skills, and how he needs neither a compass nor maps. Which is nonsense. His success lies not in superhuman senses, rather in his meticulous attention to detail, his methodical manner of plotting the course once he has the coordinants. He is only human like the rest of the racers.

The first thing Howard points out is the date on the maps: 1943. "That's good, isn't it?" he asks sarcastically. Which means that not only will some landmarks have changed, but even the declination of the maps, the degrees off north one must factor in to correct for global position in relation to magnetic north, will have shifted.

"These maps are absolute crap, basically," Howard says matter-of-factly. Then he says, "They're nice maps, all of them. I mean, the mountains and things are still there..."

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), December 01, 1999

Answers

As far as I know there are no well-known orienteers competing this year.

I just checked the Quokka site and found a well-known Finnish orienteer -- Petri Forsman. Apparently, his team has annoyed the organizers by complaining about the course. Forsman has been a Finnish O' team member and is a very strong orienteer. I remember seeing him run UP a cliff when I was manning a control during an event in Stockholm. The control was at the base of a little cliff and all the competitors rounded the cliff after punching, except Forsman. He just lept up, put a foot on a little crack in the cliff, and ran right up the control. It was impressive.

-- Michael (meglin@juno.com), December 02, 1999.