Tutoriel sur la course d’orientation, 12 minutes :

Dear fellow Orienteers!

The time has come to book your most exciting trip of 2019!

Take a moment to imagine 10 days of competition, training and sightseeing in the Kingdom of Ice and Fire: Iceland!

When:
August 8 – 19, 2019.

What:
3 days of Orienteering competition at the Ice-O meet near Reykjavik, and then 7 days travelling the ring road visiting the best known and the most hidden  attractions, with 3 more exciting maps ran in the company of local Orienteers.

Who:
All lovers of Orienteering are welcome! Families are very welcome. Well-behaved unaccompanied teens welcome upon my approval. Book now, as places are strictly limited to the total of 30 people: we want to be cozy but not too cozy!

How:
Upon arrival, we will be renting a big bus (39-seated coach) with a toilet, which will be used as a means of transportation and a shelter at the training locations. It will also serve as a pick-up and drop-off to the airport. No additional transportation will be needed.

Map gallery:

Heiðmörk Rauðhólar Vífilstaðahlíð Rauðavant Elliðaárdalur Gálgahraun

Terrain gallery:

Tentative schedule:

Iceland 2019 itinerary

Register here

For more information, please contact me as soon as possible: anna_fichman@hotmail.com

Dear fellow Orienteers!

The time has come to book your most exciting trip of 2019!

Take a moment to imagine 10 days of competition, training and sightseeing in the Kingdom of Ice and Fire: Iceland!

When:
August 8 – 19, 2019.

What:
3 days of Orienteering competition at the Ice-O meet near Reykjavik, and then 7 days travelling the ring road visiting the best known and the most hidden  attractions, with 3 more exciting maps ran in the company of local Orienteers.

Who:
All lovers of Orienteering are welcome! Families are very welcome. Well-behaved unaccompanied teens welcome upon my approval. Book now, as places are strictly limited to the total of 30 people: we want to be cozy but not too cozy!

How:
Upon arrival, we will be renting a big bus (39-seated coach) with a toilet, which will be used as a means of transportation and a shelter at the training locations. It will also serve as a pick-up and drop-off to the airport. No additional transportation will be needed.

Map gallery:

Heiðmörk Rauðhólar Vífilstaðahlíð Rauðavant Elliðaárdalur Gálgahraun

Terrain gallery:

Tentative schedule:

Iceland 2019 itinerary

For more information, please contact me as soon as possible: anna_fichman@hotmail.com

Orienteering is my life. I fell in love with it too many years ago to count, and finally grew old enough to pass this love along to family and friends. In the summer of 2016, my son Leonid and I volunteered at the Sass Peepre Camp in Alberta, and very much inspired by its spirit and the new friendships, took on the task of hosting the 2018 camp in Morin-Heights, Quebec.

(Pic. 1 The majority of our group. The crutches belong to Daniel Holmes from Kimberley. He sprained his ankle a day before leaving for O Fest, but was able to participate in many activities, including the rope course, which he loved)

It was a year-long project which required lots of help, and help we got! Kitty Jones and Sass Peepre Committee of Orienteering Canada handled much of the logistics. Canada 150 Community Foundations granted us $5000, which helped made the camp more affordable and easier on volunteers, who did not have to cook this year.

(Pic. 2 Those beautiful T-shirts ordered by Marsha Fehr will last us one more year, thank you “Canada 150”!)

Francis Falardeau updated three maps, planned all the courses, and hung most of the controls.

(Pic. 3 Francis giving instructions for the Night-O)

Finally, with the weather at its best, the Laurentians gave us a mosquito- and tic-free environment, some much-appreciated respite for all the participants.

More than 40 kids from all over Canada, and even from the US, can now cherish memories from the three days of training, exploring and relaxing.

We started out strong: a combination of Night-O and Score-O. Juniors and trainers were given an hour to find all the controls they could. More advanced juniors went off on their own, while new recruits were closely followed by our volunteer trainers.

The next morning we started off with a Line-O. The participants had to follow the line on the map, and identify the exact spot where controls were hung.

(Pic. 7 The 1:5000 map had contours and major trails, and the forest was beautiful)

(Pic. 12 Vlad Gavrilov from Ramblers, Montreal teaching)

(Pic. 13 Etienne Jacques, 7, from Ramblers club, does everything on his own. What’s more, he finished all the races at the ECOC and COC 2017 with a medal in the M11- group. Bravo Etienne!)

The PM training session consisted in working on bearings and contour reading, on the updated map of the Morin-Heights Camping area.

After a short break, we headed to the rope course (“Acronature” activity) where our brave Orienteers had to make their way through the tree tops. It was challenging at times, but everybody loved it.

After the supper, there was a time for presentations and less formal exchanges. We learnt about Sass Peepre, High Performance Program, studied some maps and rocks from Iceland.

And then there was our last day. We started it off with a relay, a bit complicated to explain, so I am posting the picture of the rules, for future reference too.

Some beautiful moments of inter- and intra-generational exchanges and collaboration were captured by Alex Vakulenko, our wonderful Photographer.

And we’re off!

(Pic. 43 There is always enough time to catch a few frogs!)

After the last training, came the time to be picked up by parents. But not before some beach volleyball and a dip in a pool!

I am sorry I could not get in all of the pictures: there are over 900 of them in the album, but even more in our memories. Let’s keep creating memories together.

I would like to thank all of our dedicated volunteers from the bottom of my heart. Kitty Jones, Jonathan Winn, Francis Falardeau, David Campden, Marion Owen, Tomas Graham, Jen Mackeigan, Mike Minium, Denise Obriain, Leonid Fichman, Lina Gavrilova, Vlad Gavrilov, Teresa Winn, Philippe Coté-Jacques, Olga Rayda, Diane Pagé, Isabel Sigouin, Kelly Fahey, Margaret Barber, Valerie Stuckey, Jonathan Walsh, Alex Vakulenko: without all of you, this camp would not have happened.

With love,
Anna Fichman

Last July, our Montreal members hosted a group of juniors from Kootenay Orienteering Club, BC. We’ve heard nothing but rave reviews of their experiences.

This is what David Howe (16) had to say:

The trip to Montreal and Perth was amazing, it had everything I could want in a trip. My favourite things were the Sass Peepre camp and the relay race on the final day at Canadians. I really enjoyed site seeing in Montreal, seeing the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, hanging out in my hammock on a tree branch over the lake at the cottage at Upper Beverley Lake and catching fish there too.

For the future I would like to train on harder maps with less trails and descriptions just to further prepare myself for when I move up a category. The girls had a tough time with their map 8-9 move up.

Next year I have to move up.I also really enjoyed the different terrain as it added more of a challenge, but I don’t like all the poisonous plants they have or the extra swampy conditions. Overall this has been the trip of a lifetime. I cannot thank Laura, Scott and Daniel enough, along with Anna Fichman and her family and of course the KO club with which this trip would absolutely not have been possible.
Thanks,
David Howe