Terms, concepts, and gear
Orienteering maps
An orienteering map is a kind of topographic map made specially
for orienteering. “Topographic” means that it shows
the shape of the land–hills, valleys, and so forth. An orienteering
map also shows many other features relevant to an orienteer–streams,
trails, fences, fields, thick brush, and so on.
Although many types of orienteering maps exist, most orienteering
maps are made to a common set of standards used around the world.
Standard orienteering maps are printed in five colors, with each
color used for a different class of features:
Black
Manmade features, such as roads, trails, buildings and fences,
plus rock features, such as cliffs and boulders.
Brown
Topographic features, such as hills, valleys, ridges, earth banks
and ditches.
Blue
Water features, such as lakes, ponds, swamps and streams.
White
Normal forest. (This is different from some government maps,
which may show fields with white and forest with green.)
Yellow
Clearings and fields.
Green
Thick brush, such as bushes or thorns.
Compasses
Orienteering compasses are different from most other types
of compasses, such as boating, surveying or military compasses.
In a pinch, any type of compass in which you can see the needle
can be used, but orienteering compasses have some advantages.
The most common type of orienteering compass is the baseplate
variety. The compass needle sits in a housing in the center,
which is set on a clear plastic baseplate. With this compass
you can set bearings from where you are to where you are going,
which is useful for finding places that have few nearby features
to guide you.
Another type of orienteering compass is the thumb compass,
which straps to your thumb. The thumb compass allows for quick
reference since it is held against the map as you go. Some like
it for its simplicity, others for speed of reference in competition.
The thumb compass lets you orient the map with ease (see the
Skills section), but
does not let you set bearings.
Special terms
Control
This is the point, circled on the map, which you are looking
for. The (usually) orange and white marker there is called a
control marker.
Course
The orienteering course is the set of controls you are looking
for. Click here to see a
course.
Leg
A leg is the portion of a course between two consecutive controls.
Knoll
A small hill.
Spur
A small ridge or protrusion on a hillside.
Reentrant
A small valley or draw running down a hillside.
Contour
A brown line used to show topographic features. The books listed
in the Resources section
provide good explanations of contours, Contours are usually taught
to children after they have mastered map reading and basic navigational
skills. Simply stated, a contour is a line tracing land of a
given elevation. Using contours, the shape of most landforms
-- hills, valleys, slopes, knobs, even kettleholes and sand dunes
-- can be shown.
Linear feature
A trail, stream, fence, stone wall, or other feaure that is basically
linear. Contrast this with point features, like boulders, wells
and springs, and area features, like fields and lakes.
Catching features
A large feature which is not easy to miss in the direction you
are going. You might use a catching feature, such as a lake beyond
a control, to "catch" you if you miss the control.