Orienteering
Merit Badge

An orienteering competition is a great way to test your map-and-compass skills. #1: What is Orienteering? Orienteering is a race in which participants use a highly detailed map and a compass to navigate their way between checkpoints along an unfamiliar course. The Greater Cincinnati Scout-O Camporee is a weekend of orienteering competitions in Loveland, Ohio, hosted each fall by the Blue Jacket District of the Dan Beard Council. Troops and crews from the surrounding area come together to test their skills on a course that has been designed by Orienteering Cincinnati, a local club. #2: Cross-Country Orienteering In orienteering competitions, checkpoints — called “controls” — are placed in an area of 1 to 2 kilometers. In cross-country orienteering, every competitor must visit the same controls in numerical order as quickly as possible. In other formats, they can get to the checkpoints in any order. Regardless, it’s a challenge in route choice and stamina. At the Blue Jacket District Scout-O, competitors use electronic punching devices at each checkpoint and at the start and finish line to record their times. “It’s a lot of running,” says Andrew Wolfzorn, a 17-year-old from Troop 55 in Loveland, Ohio, who earned first place in a Scout-O solo race. “You have to get in the right mindset … clear your mind out and get in that race mentality.” #3: Choosing Your Course Cross-country courses are graded by age and skill, and can vary in length. Course levels, indicated by color, progress from novice to expert: white (beginner); yellow (intermediate); orange (advanced); and brown, green, red and blue (expert). The winner in each age and course level is the fastest competitor who has all the correct control punches. “On the easier ones, the checkpoints might be right on the trail,” says Parker Moyer, 13, from Troop 850 in Cincinnati. “On some of the harder ones, they might be in the middle of the forest.” Parker recorded the fastest time (by one second!) in one race on the yellow course. #4: Taking a Bearing Taking a bearing is measuring a direction from one point on the ground to another. Hold the compass in one hand, centered on your body. Rotate your body and the compass until the direction-of-travel arrow points in the direction you want to go. Rotate the bezel of the compass until the north end of the orienting arrow lines up with the north end of the magnetic arrow (usually red). Determine the bearing by reading the number on the bezel directly opposite the bearing index. #5: Using a Topographic Map A topographic map tries to show the form and shape of the land by the use of contour lines. If you walk all the way around the base of a mountain and always stay at the exact same elevation, you are contouring around it. The line you follow is called a contour line. Now do it again — but walk a line 20 feet higher in elevation. You have walked a second contour line. Symbols on the map represent features on the ground. A topographic map will show things like gullies, pits, boulders, rocky ground and impassable cliffs. “You have to be smart about where you’re going,” Parker says. “If you’re heading through a darker green place on the map, it means the forest is thicker. “It might be faster to take what you thought was the long way around.” #6: Orienting a Map With a Compass Orienting a map means aligning it with the terrain. The most accurate way of aligning the map and terrain is to use a compass. First, rotate the compass bezel until “N” or 360 degrees is lined up with the direction-of-travel arrow. Next, set the compass down on the map, with the compass edge along one of the north-south magnetic lines and the direction-of-travel arrow pointing north. Rotate the map and the compass together until the compass needle matches the direction-of-travel arrow. The map is now oriented. #7: Measuring Distance on a Map You can measure distance on a map by using a compass scale, a ruled compass edge or any straight edge. Most maps include a scale relating distance on the map to distances on the actual terrain. On a 1:15,000 scale, 1 inch on a map is approximately 1,300 feet or ¼ mile on the ground; on a 1:24,000 scale, 1 inch on a map is equal to 2,000 feet on the ground; and on a map with a scale of 1:62,500, 1 inch on the map is equal to 5,208 feet or about 1 mile on the ground. “You have to pace yourself,” Andrew says. “Use the key on the map to figure out how far you have to go.” #8: Judging Distance on the Ground For some people, judging distance is the hardest part of orienteering. But you can make it easier with some preparation. One way of judging distance is by pace-counting or counting every time your right (or left) foot touches the ground over a given distance. For example, if you lay out a 100-meter course, the number of paces and the amount of time it takes you to walk from one end to the other is your walking pace per 100 meters. Do this multiple times to get a more accurate measurement. #9: What About Running? Or Going Uphill or Downhill? As your stride lengthens, the distance you cover increases and the number of paces per 100 meters will decrease, as will the time it takes you to cover that distance. Measuring your running pace and time is exactly the same as measuring your walking pace. Because this is much more active, it is even more important that you run the course several times to get a true measure. Your stride will shorten as you move uphill, so the number of paces and the time to cover 100 meters will be more than it would be on level terrain. You can get downhill measurements on the same course you use for the uphill by traveling in the opposite direction. Gravity wants to pull the downhill walker or runner along at a faster clip. Your stride will lengthen and the number of paces and time per 100 meters will decrease. “At the end of one course, we were all sprinting trying to find the last one,” says Jonathan James, 13, from Troop 114 in Cincinnati. “No one else had found it. Then we found it and we felt a nice sense of accomplishment. Then we just sprinted to the finish line.”

Want to win your next orienteering challenge? Get prepared by studying basic map-and-compass skills such as taking a bearing. Then move on to more advanced techniques such as aiming off and factoring in declination as you navigate your way through the course. HOW TO TAKE A COMPASS BEARING Let’s say you know roughly where you are on a map, for example Campsite 22, and you want to get to Campsite 23. You could always just start walking in that general direction. But there’s a more accurate way to figure out which way to go. It’s called taking a bearing. Learn how in the following video: 1. Put your compass down on a flat surface and align one edge of the compass with your starting point — in this case, Camp 22. Align the forward edge of the compass with your destination, Camp 23. 2. Turn the compass housing until north on the dial is aligned with north on your map. The direction you need to go — in this case, 60 degrees — can now be read on the compass base where it’s aligned with the direction arrow. 3. Now stand up and hold the compass in front of you near your midsection with the direction arrow pointing away from you at a 90-degree angle. Rotate your body — and the compass with it — until the magnetic compass needle is aligned with the “N” on the dial. You should now be pointing in the right direction, in this case 60 degrees toward Campsite 23. 4. Follow the arrow on the compass to your destination. As you’re walking, stop and take your bearings again to make sure you don’t drift off course. AIMING OFF IN ORIENTEERING In some cases, going from Point A to Point B isn’t as easy as it might seem. Let’s say the terrain between your current location and your intended destination consists of rolling hills, streams too deep to wade across and vegetation so thick that you have to go around. Face it: You aren’t going to be able to maintain a straight course. A veteran of orienteering will instead aim off to the left or right of their destination as it appears on the map to hit some permanent landmark, such as a road or stream. Then, even if you don’t make it straight to your target, you’ve purposefully aimed off to one side, so you know you have a relatively short walk down the stream or road to get where you need to go. For example: Let’s say you don’t want to risk hiking through some water and thick underbrush that lies between Points A and B on the map. Instead, purposefully aim off to the right, around Point C. Even if you miss Point C by a good bit, you know you’re going to walk southwest on the road until you get to your destination. Tip: It’s important to keep track of where you are all the time, especially when the distance between Point A and Point B (or C) is significant. Use attack points at which you stop and compute your bearings. Choose easily identifiable spots on the map as attack points — the edge of a pond, the end of a road, etc. Remember to add about a minute to your travel time for each time you check your compass. WHAT ABOUT DECLINATION? Taking a bearing with a map and compass will show you the relative direction from Point A to Point B. The actual direction, as related to true north and south, is different. The north magnetic pole is actually about 1,200 miles southwest of the true North Pole. Therefore, magnetic north — the spot to which your compass points — is not the same as true north. The difference is called declination. In some cases, the difference between magnetic north and true north is so slim that it isn’t going to greatly affect your course. But, depending on where you are and how far you’re going, factoring in declination can save you some major headaches down the road. Declination varies depending on where you are. Every topographic map should include a declination diagram. On this map, magnetic north is 4 degrees east of true north. To factor declination into your bearings, you would subtract 4 degrees from your bearing. declination.jpgThe declination diagram here also indicates grid north: the direction of the grid lines on the map, which don’t point to true north either. In this case, grid north is 2 degrees west of true north. So if you take a bearing from your map using grid lines, convert it to a magnetic bearing by adding 6 degrees — 2 degrees to true north and then 4 more to magnetic north. Tip: Declination diagrams aren’t always drawn to scale, so don’t use them to adjust your bearing. You have to do it the old-fashioned way — with math. Tip two: Some orienteering veterans draw their own lines on their map that run parallel to the north magnetic pole and use them instead of the grid lines that are already on the map. But the bigger the map, the harder it is to accurately draw a straight line, which means it’s best to use — you guessed it — math.

Orienteering is a high-energy sport in which the map is more important than the compass and your brain is more valuable than your brawn. It’s also the subject of one of Scouting’s more popular merit badges (ranked 36th of 136 merit badges in 2015). To learn more about the badge, Scouting caught up with John Vierow, a merit badge counselor from Herndon, Va. An orienteering enthusiast since his college days, Vierow offered five tips for teaching the badge. Connect With Clubs The best way to complete requirement 7 (take part in three orienteering events) is to connect with a local orienteering group. Vierow’s club, the Quantico Orienteering Club, typically hosts a couple dozen meets per year, and all are open to beginners. “Every meet has a beginners’ course; there’s always instruction available,” he says. You may even be able to borrow compasses at club meets. (To find a club near you, visit the Orienteering USA website at orienteeringusa.org) Mix and Match Scouts don’t need to complete requirements in order, so Vierow recommends mixing book learning with fieldwork. The best time to learn to read a map (requirement 4) is when you’re standing on the terrain the map represents; the best time to understand orienteering clue sheets and techniques (requirement 5) is when you’re participating in a meet. Vierow also likes to take advantage of travel time on the way to and from meets. “There are a few requirements and even beginner’s instruction that can be done in the car: familiarity with map symbols, things like that,” he says. Save a Buck Vierow says a Scout doesn’t need an expensive compass to complete the badge, although he does need a baseplate model like the Silva Polaris. “Some people show up with different kinds of weird compasses,” he says. “If I see anything else, I just give them a baseplate compass.” You can also save money on supplies for the orienteering courses Scouts must set up for requirement 8. A set of 10 control markers, along with the punches that prove someone found them in the field, could set you back $250. But you can accomplish the same thing with a roll of flagging tape and a felt-tip marker. The Scout setting up the course simply writes code words on pieces of tape and hangs them at control points. Buyer Beware Many city and state parks offer permanent orienteering courses, but Vierow says not all courses are created equally. “You go there and it’s really a compass course or they have a really bad photocopied map,” he says. “I think as a counselor it’s important to vet whatever event you want to take Scouts to.” Read the Book This tip might be obvious, but Vierow thinks counselors and Scouts alike should study the merit badge pamphlet. “The merit badge pamphlet is good,” he says. “It’s consistent with what I, as someone who’s been doing orienteering for 30 years, would expect.”