Welcome to the Canmore Orienteering webpage, providing information specific to events and clinics in the Bow Valley.
Much of the orienteering in the Bow Valley is organized by the Foothills Wanderers Orienteering Club (FWOC). One of the club's goals is to provide more opportunities for Bow Valley residents who enjoy outdoor activity to discover orienteering, to develop their navigation skills, and to experience the enjoyment of running in Alberta's wonderful forests. The club will hold a number of clinics and introductory races in Canmore in 2012. In conjunction with the Canmore Nordic Center and Trail Sports, FWOC has installed permanent orienteering courses at the Nordic Center so that locals and visitors can practice orienteering - on foot or on mountain bike or on skis!
Orienteering is a sport that can be done by all ages, all fitness levels, and all levels of experience.
Latest News
| Dec 18, 2012 | Info about New Years Eve ski orienteering posted |
Upcoming Events
2013 events
| June 7 - 9 | Bow Valley | The Barebones weekend will feature the usual assortment of races suitable for experts and novices and everything in between. Full details on the event website. |
2012 events
| Dec 31 | Nordic Centre | New Years Eve ski orienteering during the day, Canmore's family-friendly Party on the Pond at night. Cap off 2012 with a day of fun orienteering in the fresh mountain air. Everyone welcome - costs are cheap! Full details on the event website. | |
| March 2012 | Nordic Centre |
Alaric Fish has designed two short courses for the Canmore Track Attack kids. The courses have been left out at the Canmore Nordic Centre and will be available for everyone at least until the end of the weekend. There is no charge to ski the courses (other than the cost of the Nordic Centre trail pass - $10 for adults, $7.50 for seniors & juniors 12-17, $6 for kids 6-11, and free for kids under 6). You can download and print the maps yourself from this link: http://www.barebones.ca/Canmore/2012%2003%2001%20Track%20Attack%20Ski%20O%20Adventure.pdf (3Mb PDF file)The first page is the master map showing all control locations. Then there are two courses:
The Blue course is a great intro for the kids, then the Red course is a good challenge for them with some challenging route choices and navigation. Another option is to use the master map and make your own course. There are flags with pin punches at each control site. If you are interested in doing a longer course, then send an email to adrian -at- barebones.ca. If there are a few requests, then I will be happy to make a longer course using a mix of these controls and the permanent controls further out. (ps: to hold the maps for the kids, what we did was this:
The best lanyards have a rotating metal end so that the lanyard doesn't get twisted when the map blows around) |
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| May 25 - 27 | Nordic Centre & Exshaw | Barebones 2012. Exact schedule is not yet finalized. But one and perhaps two events will be at the Nordic Centre and one will be on one of the orienteering maps around Exshaw | |
| all summer | Nordic Centre | Orienteering on the permanent courses. Available all summer. Courses for hikers, runners, and mountain bikers. Visit Trail Sports, across from the day lodge, to get a map |
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| all winter | Nordic Centre | Ski orienteering on the permanent courses. Available all winter. |
The schedule above includes all Canmore events currently scheduled for the Canmore Nordic Centre and Central Canmore maps, and other major events planned in the Bow Valley. Information is preliminary. In addition to those events in the schedule above, there will be other informal events advertised though the Orienteering Calgary email list (visit www.orienteeringCalgary.ca to join) or on the Canmore Orienteering Facebook group. For any questions please send email to adrian _at_ barebones.ca. Or try phoning 403.262.4457. All FWOC club events are open to everyone. For insurance purposes membership in the Calgary Orienteering club will be required (it is quite cheap).
Permanent courses at the Canmore Nordic Center
The Canmore Nordic Center has a great selection of orienteering courses permanently available. There are three courses of increasing difficulty - Green, Blue, Black for orienteering on foot, plus a training course, and also a mountain-bike orienteering course. In the winter three ski-orienteering courses are available. The courses provide increasing challenge as your map reading and navigational skills improve. The courses will be changed through the season, according to demand. To try the Permanent Courses go to the Nordic Center and check-in at Trail Sports where you can rent a timing stick and buy a map for just $5. The permanent courses are suitable for individuals or groups/teams. Special events, training, and team building events can be arranged through Trail Sports.
Visit the Trail Sports website for more information and for up-to-the minute results for the current season.
Wednesday evenings in Calgary
Events are held in Calgary every Wednesday evening starting late April. These are informal events in city parks, and they are a great way to develop your navigation skills and get more orienteering experience. To see the full schedule of events hosted by Orienteering Calgary, visit their website at www.orienteeringCalgary.ca.
Weekend events
Larger events are held around Alberta & BC most weekends. All event include courses for all levels from beginner to elite, and everyone is very welcome to attend. Often weekend events include multiple races or some additional training opportunities.
About the Permanent Courses
The Canmore Nordic Center in partnership with Trail Sports and the Foothills Wanderers Orienteering Club have installed a set of permanent orienteering courses.
There are two types of orienteering course at the Nordic Center: �point-to-point� courses in which you visit all the check-points in the specified order, and a �score� course where you visit as many check-points as you want in any order. The point-to-point courses are great for racing, while the score course is good for exploring at your own pace and developing basic navigation and map reading skills.
For runners and hikers there are three point-to-point courses of increasing difficulty (Green, Blue,
and Black) in which check-points are visited in the specified sequence.
New in 2010 is the Score course � points are earned for each check-point
visited, and you choose how many of them to visit and in which order. Of course,
competitive types will want to score maximum points by visiting all controls in the
least amount of time.
For mountain bikers there is a special longer course using trails only.
All courses are changed up mid-season � to give people new challenges and to take participants into different parts of the park. Timing is done using electronic chips, and fastest times are posted to the Trail Sports website.
The permanent courses are available to individuals or groups to use at their convenience. For a small fee anyone can get a map, a �how to� brochure, and a rental SI punch at Trail Sports. At the end of their course, participants will get a print out of their splits, and their splits will be uploaded to the Trail Sports website. The Permanent Courses are popular with adventure racers, hiking groups, school groups, birthday parties, corporate groups, summer camp groups, scouts, cadets, and all park visitors.
Course descriptions
| Black Course |
Technically challenging. with lots of off-trail navigation. Fastest time expected: 45 minutes. |
| Blue Course |
Controls close to trails, short-cuts through the forest possible,
some
complex navigation. Fastest time expected: 35 minutes. |
| Green Course |
All on trails, with simple navigation and limited route choices. Expected time: 30 - 45 minutes. |
| Score Course |
Variety of control sites. Visit as many as you like in any order. Expected time: as long as you like. Can you visit all controls in 60 minutes? |
Results & Fastest times
Results are available at the Trail Sports website (click logo below). These results will be continuously updated as more people try the courses, so keep an eye out for new fastest times!
Ski orienteering on the permanent courses
Green, Blue, and Black courses of increasing challenge from short and mild (Green), to long, hilly, and adventurous (Black) - the ski orienteering courses will take you onto some of the Nordic Centre's less well know and less travelled tracks. Great fun and very challenging, these courses can be skied over and over again - it will be very difficult to pick the optimal route in the Nordic Centre's complex trail network.For more information about ski orienteering:
- ski orienteering at the Canmore Nordic Centre
- how to make rudimentary map-holder: visit the Ottawa Orienteering club's website.
- youTube video about ski-orienteering
- the ski orienteering World Champs take place every two years. In 2011 they are in Sweden in late March (with public races at the same time)
- the Junior World Champs take place every year. In 2011 they are in Lillehammer, Norway in early January.
- the Masters World Champs is an open competition that also takes place every winter. In 2011 they are held in conjunction with the Junior World Champs in Norway.
Past Events
| Sept 2011 | Barebones Festival | ||||||||||
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| Results |
Thanks everyone for such a fun and memorable weekend of great socializing & racing. Congratulations to all the new Alberta Champs. (Sept 20th - WinSplits corrected for Middle Distance event)
Note - the Sport class results are not yet correct for the Long distance race. |
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| Photos |
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| May 9, 2009 | Canmore Nordic Center - Permanent Courses, Spring Grand Opening | ||||||||||
| Results |
Many thanks to everyone that helped make the Grand Opening a success.
Over 90 people took part on an overcast Saturday morning. The event was
a big success, with lots of first-time orienteers enjoying their run and
the more experienced runners enjoying some technical challenges and
everyone enjoying the bbq that followed. There were a few organizational
hiccups that I apologize for � the biggest problem was the use of
temporary control posts at three locations that did not have the proper
code � I know this caused confusion, especially for beginners. The
results are online on the Trail Sport website (www.trailsports.com)
Top times were:
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| Photos |
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| March 15, 2009 | Ski orienteering event | ||||||||||
| RResults |
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| Photos/td> |
More photos |
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| Jan 1, 2009 | Kid's fun event | ||||||||||
| Results |
We put our new electronic timing equipment to good use for the first
time in the 2009 Inaugural Kids International Invitational fun event. A
great big load of fun for our four athletes and their parents. We plan
to have many more informal events like this for the kids - and for the
rest of us too. |
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| Photos |
 Great
control-pickup help! |
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| October 4, 2008 | Mountain Bike orienteering at the Canmore Nordic Centre | ||||||||||
| Results |
In mountain-bike orienteering competitors stay on tracks and paths. So it is important that the course offers good route-choices. And it is good to remember the shortest route is not always the fastest. For example - one track goes straight over the big hill, but another much longer one goes around it and could be much faster. Which route to take depends on the rider's abilities: if you are in good physical condition, maybe you can go easily over the hill, but if you are not in so good shape, it is better to save your energy and go around. Another example - the shortest route choice in one leg goes through the very dense network area, but there is also a little bit longer route choice along the continuous road, which goes around this tricky network. So, if you are not the best navigator maybe it is better for you to go around this area on the safer way, otherwise you can waste extra time in the complex trails if you get lost. In Saturday's race Jonathan Winn rode steadily and accurately to narrowly beat Tom Maier of Canmore and Tomas Navratil of Calgary who both had some very fast sections and were in the lead at various points during the race but lost time to navigational mistakes (see the SplitAnalyzer). In the women's race Sarah Brandreth of Calgary finished ahead of Magali Robert also of Calgary in an exciting race in which the lead changed back and forth several times - in the end Sarah's consistency won out. In the team competition Megan Dalrymple's team rode fast with some small time losses to take first place, while Karen Martino's team rode a consistent race to take second. In the youth category Lina Brandreth & Daria Sepandj both from Calgary both rode well. It was a very fun day of racing. Thank you to everyone that took part. Thank you to our sponsors, Trail Sports & Axis Gear. And thanks to the Canmore Nordic Center, and especially Magi Scalion, for making it so easy to hold events there. |
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| Photos |
Photo album
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| Event website |
Click here: event details |
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| August 30, 2008 | "Canmore Pursuit" at the Canmore Nordic Centre | ||||||||||
| Results |
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| Photos from the Barebones Weekend |
     Click here for more photos |
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| Event website |
This event was part of
the
2008 Barebones weekend |
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| May 3, 2008 | "Try Orienteering" at the Canmore Nordic Centre | ||||||||||
| Results |
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| Notes |
Part of
National Orienteering Week |
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| Photos |
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| Event website | Click here: event details |
Canmore Orienteering Maps
Canmore Nordic Centre
A new orienteering map was made in 2007 after all the new trail construction at the Nordic Centre. The foot orienteering map covers the area from the Day lodge to the Mine Meadow. In addition the map has been extended to the National Park boundary for Ski and Mountain Bike orienteering (the trails are accurately mapped, but the vegetation thickness and contours are not accurate enough for foot orienteering west of the Mine Meadow). Click the image below to see Canmore resident and national team member Charlotte MacNaughton's thoughts on the Nordic Centre map
Last year in 2007 two races were held on the CNC map. You can see the map, the courses, and the routes of some of the competitors by clicking on the links below. These links surf into the national "Route Gadget" database where you can see maps and courses from many events across Canada (tip: to see courses and routes, when the map opens in your browser choose a course from the "Choose competitors" box).
- Barebones 2007 Prolog ("Sprint distance" event)
- Barebones 2007 Pursuit ("Middle distance" event)
Central Canmore
This map was made in 2007 and covers part of the Canmore downtown and parks
mostly north and east of the river. This map will be used for clinics and for
informal introductory events.
Rocky Mountain YMCA
This map was updated in 2007. At Barebones 2007 several races were held on this map including the Night Orienteering event, the 3-legged race, and the Relay.
Barrier Lake / Rafter 6
Updated in 2006 this map adjoins the Rocky Mountain YMCA map. The map is known for its nice forest and complex contour detail. This map was used for the 2006 Alberta Championships won by Canmore orienteers Alaric Fish in the men's division and Charlotte MacNaughton in the women's.
Mount Laurie
Known locally as Mt Yamnuska, the base of this famous rock wall is home to one of Canada's very best orienteering maps. What makes this map so good? It has a great variety of terrain, amazingly complex contour detail, very open forest for good running, and it is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Many major events have been hosted in this terrain including several Canadian Championships and the 2002 Asia-Pacific Championships that attracted almost 1,000 competitors from 35 countries. In 2007 the map was used for the Barebones long distance race (click on the link to see the map).
FAQ
Q. I've got a question - who can I ask?
A. Send email to adrian _at_ barebones.ca. Or try phoning 403.262.4457.
Q. Where do I get more information about events?
A. This website will, closer to the event date, have full information. You can
of course always email adrian _at_ barebones.ca. But the best way is to join the
Facebook group (see below).
Q. How do I start? Can I do this?
A. It is pretty easy to get started orienteering, a brief introduction to
the map and the race format is enough to get you successfully around your first
course. And then a life-time of refinement of technique and strategy awaits! The
Canadian Orienteering Federation has a good
introduction to orienteering that you can review before coming to your first
event. New in 2009 - you can learn to orienteer on the Canmore Nordic Center
permanent orienteering courses. Visit Trail Sports to get the course maps and
timing sticks.
Q. What do I wear?
A. Sturdy running shoes or light hiking boots. They will get dirty, so not your
favorite new shoes. Tights or long running pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Keep in mind that
during the race your clothes might get snagged or torn - so
wear old stuff. Bring a change of clothes (including socks!) to switch into after the
race.
Q. Why doesn't Canmore have its own orienteering club?
A. Maybe one day it will, when there is enough interest to justify the
administration. But for now its great being part of the Calgary club & using
their equipment, infrastructure, and maps - not to mention their expertise and
officials.
Q. Those orienteering maps are really detailed. How do I learn to read them?
A. It does take time and experience to become comfortable with orienteering
maps. When you start you can concentrate on the black features (rocks, boulders, and
man-made features such as buildings, trails, and fences) and the various colors that indicate
thickness of the forest (from yellow (open fields) to white (nice open forest),
to green (thick forest)). Next you should learn to interpret the brown lines
(contour features). Finally you as you get more experienced you can check out
the
International Standard for Orienteering Maps to learn all the small nuances
of orienteering maps.
Q. There's got to be some good YouTube videos to help beginners right?
A. Of course - they vary a lot in quality, but check out this one created by the
Calgary
Juniors
Q. Can my kids join the Calgary Junior development program?
A. Yes, they can join the JDP 2009. Even if they can't make it too (m)any Wed. evening
events in Calgary, they would still be eligible for all other JDP benefits, like shirts,
compass, binder, whistle, Barebones funding, (likely) also reimbursement for
registration for the WCOCs. Click here for more information about the
Junior Development Program.
Q. Any other places we can go for tips / tricks about orienteering?
A. Here is a good webpage from
the Ottawa club. And another from the
Canadian
Orienteering Federation
Links
Facebook group - Canmore Orienteering news and discussions
Orienteering Calgary - the Calgary orienteering club. They often host races and clinics in the Bow Valley.
Barebones - greatest event in all Canada! Held in Canmore August 30 - September 1, 2008
Alberta Orienteering - news and schedule of events in Alberta & neighboring areas
Canadian Orienteering Federation - many Orienteering resources and links