2022-23 Winter League #5 – Fort Steilacoom
WINTER LEAGUE
Saturday, January 7 at Fort Steilacoom – main entrance in Tacoma, WA
- ALL runners will be called to enter the start procedure line 10 minutes prior to their assigned/picked start time. Please Be Race Ready when your name is called.
- START LIST IS HERE.
- Site Map is here.
Winter League is the Pacific Northwest’s premier competitive orienteering series for all ages.
- Elementary, Middle School, High School and College students compete under the banner of the Washington Interscholastic Orienteering League (WIOL).
- Winter League public courses offer a range of categories from a competitive long advanced category to non-competitive beginner-friendly categories at every event!
COURSES
Course designer(s): Peter Golde & Glenn Rogers
|
Course |
Controls |
Length |
Climb |
|
Beginner/Elementary |
9 |
1.6 km |
5 m |
|
Middle School |
10 |
2.3 km |
20 m |
|
Advanced Beginner/JV Rookie |
11 |
2.5 km |
30 m |
|
Intermediate/JV Female |
10 |
3.0 km |
70 m |
|
JV Male/JV IC |
10 |
3.0 km |
70 m |
|
Varsity |
14 |
3.8 km |
90 m |
|
Short Advanced |
16 |
3.9 km |
75 m |
|
Long Advanced/Intercollegiate Varsity |
18 |
5.5 km |
120 m |
How are courses measured?
Courses are measured as the crow flies, in a direct line from control to control. Unless you have wings, you will travel farther than this distance! Courses are measured in kilometers, so a good rule of thumb is to simply round up to miles to estimate how far you will go. So in a 5 kilometer race, you’ll likely travel up to 5 miles.
COURSE NOTES
Get ready for a change of pace, or more precisely, a change of scale. After 3 Winter League events at 1:4,000 or 1:5,000 scale, the Fort Steilacoom map is at 1:10,000 – a big difference. Be ready for it.
Fort Steilacoom is one of our most diverse maps: it has grass park, flat rough grassland, thick forest with dense trail network, and a few steep hills among the rest being relatively flat. Blackberry thickets dot the whole area. To top it off, the Pierce College campus adds a fun concrete and buildings area also. In the middle is a large lake, which most courses will circle. Sometimes you should stay on trails, other times going cross country will be clearly faster, so you will need to make those decisions on the fly depending on the terrain.
There is also a large out-of-bounds area marked on your map which is an off-leash dog park; stay out of that. Inside the Pierce College campus area, please don’t run across landscaped areas; they are too small to be specifically mapped.
Right before the last control, you will cross a very lightly traveled road; please look both ways just to be sure as you make your final sprint. Long Advanced/Intercollegiate will also cross the more heavily traveled entrance road once and should be careful there also. Safety bearing: going downhill from most places will lead you to the lake where you can relocate or walk around to the parking lot.
SCHEDULE
This event is Pre-Registration Only
8:45 am PreRace Training Begins
9 am – Info Tent and Newcomer Instruction Opens
9:35 am – Start process begins
9:45 am – First start
12:45 pm – Last Start
1:00 pm – Post Race training begins
2: 45 pm – Course Closure
Why is there a start window?
This event uses an interval start, which means that participants are started in waves instead of all at once. When you arrive at the start tent, find the chute for your course and follow the start volunteer’s instructions.
PRICES
PUBLIC COURSE PRE-REGISTRATION PRICES
$22 base price
– subtract $5 for CascadeOC members
– subtract $5 for using your own e-punch
Become a member here.
Participating as a group? Just $5 for each additional adult (16+) group
member, no cost for additional minors.
What’s an e-punch?
An e-punch records your race. At each control, you’ll dip the e-punch into an electronic box, which will beep and flash as confirmation. After you finish, you’ll download the e-punch at the download tent and get a receipt that show which controls you visited and how long you took between each; these are your “splits.”
Part of the fun of orienteering is comparing your splits with people who completed the same course, and discussing the routes you took!
SIGN UP
Public registration will close Wednesday 1/4/2023 at 11:59:00 PM.
There is no Day-of-event registration.
Remember to also sign up for a start time for public runners.
LOCATION
PARKING
Parking is at Ft Steilacoom Park. There are multiple parking lots at this park. The main parking lot is by the dog park. The #1 overflow lot is just north of that. See the site map here for all the options.
CARPOOL
Looking for a carpool? Join the Yahoo listserv and share your request to find a ride.
THE MAP
While Fort Steilacoom is not rugged or remote, it can be fairly challenging for a city park. There are many criss-crossing trails here, both in open grass and in forest. However, there are also many distinct features such as buildings, roads, ballfields, and a small lake, that are great navigational aids.
Part of the park is very flat, while part of the park is quite steep. How steep your course is depends on which course you choose and how nice the course designer decided to be.
Read more on the map page
SAFETY & ETIQUETTE
Return to the Finish
All participants MUST return to the finish and download their e-punch or turn in their punch card.
Even if you have not finished your course, you must still return to the the finish and confirm with event staff that you have returned safely.
Out of Bounds
Some areas may be marked out of bounds. It is imperative to respect these boundaries to maintain our relationships with land managers. Participants MUST NOT go out of bounds. Any participant caught going out of bounds will be disqualified.
Course Closure
All participants MUST return to the finish by course closure time. If a participant does not return by course closure, event volunteers will begin coordinating a search party.
If you need a long time on the course, start as early in the start window as possible, wear a watch, and be prepared to cut your course short to make it back by the course closure time.
Whistle
All participants MUST carry a whistle on the course. Complimentary whistles are available at the start tent (please only take one).
If you are injured on the course and need assistance, blow three long blasts to call for help.
If you hear a call for help, abandon your course to find the person in distress.
Voices
Part of the fun and fairness of orienteering is navigating your own course, so please be polite when you find a checkpoint and don’t holler that you’ve found it.
