2025-26 Winter League Celebration Weekend Relay – Bellevue College

COURSE NOTES:

Welcome to the Bellevue College Celebration Weekend Relay! We have some fun courses planned for you. New this year, we are including an all-beginner relay! This is an opportunity for elementary age students and parents who haven’t orienteered before to team up to compete on a course that is appropriate for their skill level. The other relay is the same format we have used for several years – two advanced legs and one intermediate leg. The advanced legs include forking so don’t assume that you can just blindly follow the person I front of you!

At first glance, Bellevue College seems like many of the other community colleges that we have mapped, like North Seattle College, South Seattle College, Edmonds College, and Shoreline College. The area is generally pretty flat, buildings and sidewalks are generally aligned on a grid, there are huge parking lots, and there is some green space and sports fields around the edges.

All of this holds true at Bellevue College, except the heart of campus features a complex of six large buildings, interconnected with 2nd-level skybridges, balconies, breezeways, open-air interior corridors and staircases. In total, there’s over 1 kilometer of 2nd-level pathways here, with another 1 kilometer of pathways underneath. But don’t assume that the upper level is a duplicate of the lower level. Some passageways only go through on the upper level, some only go through on the lower level, and some go through both. And dead-end hallways oftentimes don’t have the same lengths on the upper level vs. lower level.

The latest mapping standard for “sprint” orienteering has three symbols to make mapping this complex area possible.

· White diagonal crosshatching. If you see this pattern, that means that there are two levels here. The colored part of the pattern shows what is on the upper level (usually a canopy, but it can also be under-the-sky concrete or a solid building). The white part of the pattern just shows that there’s another level underneath, which is almost always runnable concrete. (512.3 – Area runnable at lower level, see p. 23 here for a visual representation.)

· A line of black “sharkteeth.” If you see this, it means two very different things: it’s passable if you’re on the lower level, and it’s not passable if you’re on the upper level. This is used extensively on the map because of all of the skybridges and balconies (you can run on them and under them). If you’re approaching a line of sharkteeth from the “pointy” side of the teeth, then you can go under. If you’re approaching a line of sharkteeth from the “top” side of the teeth, there’s a wall or railing preventing you from getting down. Note: there are many locations where

there is olive green adjacent to the open side of the lower-level passageways. The “sharkteeth” are shown to indicate that the sides are open, but you cannot enter the passageway through the olive green. (512.1 – Bridge or tunnel entrance, see p. 22 here for a visual representation.)

· A line of black square dots. This shows you where building walls and passageways are on the lower level only, and you will only see this symbol in conjunction with the white diagonal crosshatching. (512.2 Underpass or tunnel, see p. 22 here for a visual representation.)

Thankfully, everything in this area of campus is just on two levels, which makes for an unambiguous map. The beginner relay and Leg 2 of the other relay stay only on the lower level. Runners on legs 1 and 3 of the relay will be challenged a few times with detailed multi-level map reading! Use the resources above to make sure you understand what you’ll encounter!

Complex? Yes. Ambiguous? No. If you ever find that you’re on the wrong level, just find some stairs. There are 17 staircases that connect the upper and lower levels of this area! You will also need to know how to read all the columns of your control descriptions! Columns C and G will be particularly helpful in the campus area. Pages 6 and 14-16 here explain all the options for Columns C and G.

Speaking of stairways, many of their shapes (and the immediate building geometries surrounding them) are simplified a little bit to aid in map legibility. Also on the subject of map legibility: there’s a lot of urban stuff on a campus, things like picnic tables, benches, light poles, garbage cans, fire hydrants, signposts, and power lines. If these were all mapped, it would be a bunch of clutter, so they’ve all been omitted. Very large utility boxes and air conditioners have been mapped as buildings (at their minimum size). Smoking shelters are mapped as buildings.

Also, again to aid in legibility in tight spaces, many “tags” have been removed from passable fences, railings, and retaining walls. If it’s a thick black line, it’s uncrossable, but if it’s a medium black line, it is ok to cross.

Since the last time we ran on the Bellevue College map, the college has done some extensive landscaping work. Many of the landscaped areas that were previously mapped as rough open areas are now mapped as out of bounds using olive green (520 – Area that shall not be entered). Do not enter or even step/jump across olive green areas! It is grounds for disqualification. The adjacent neighborhood is mapped as olive green, but you can run on the streets there. The sports fields, the 5-story parking garage, and a large construction area are also out-of-bounds.