Rogaining is the sport of long distance cross-country navigation; in which teams of two to five people visit as many checkpoints as they wish in a set time period using only map and compass. The traditional rogaine is on foot and 24 hours in duration, however, there are also shorter events of 4, 6, 8 and 12 hours. .Checkpoints or controls are assigned points values based on their location and difficulty to locate. The winner is the team with the most points.

The parts of the course you visit are entirely up to you and your team members. Unlike orienteering you are not expected to collect all the controls (although some teams do clean the course) or collect them in numerical order. There are no set routes and you don’t have to spend the whole time on the course. You can even return to the Hash House (base camp) at anytime for some hot food and rest around the campfire, or even a sleep, before heading out again.

More AR events are incorporating “adventuregaines” as a leg within the event. These test navigation skills more so than point to point legs and give tired minds something to concentrate on. We’ve seen adventuregaines vary from traditional rogaines by requiring teams to get all the controls in any order, get any 10 of 12 controls or return with a certain number of points based on the values assigned to each control. Adding up various routes to determine how many points they tally on zero sleep is a challenge even before you have to go out to find them.

Some competitive teams may cover 50 km in a 12 hour event and even more in an event of 24 hours duration. However, the distance you travel is entirely up to you and the terrain. A flat open course will be faster than a scrubby and hilly area no matter how fast you are on foot. The satisfaction comes in finding your way around the course according to the route that you have chosen, and navigating back to the finish within the time limit.

Between 1 and 3 hours (depending on the length of the event) before the start of the event you get a map with all the control locations marked on it. These maps are usually of excellent quality with many hours spent updating features and adding and removing trails. You also receive a description of the control points and their point’s value. After a few events you will understand the descriptions and realize that “a knoll” and “the knoll” are 2 different things. The idea is you choose your own route to get what ever controls you want. Make sure that you get back before the time limit expires as there are hefty point’s penalties for being late.

At each control there is a punch that you make a hole in your control card with at the appropriate numbered square for that control, this proves you have been to the control. A good tip is to contact this card as it can disintegrate when wet. Like AR rogaining is a team sport and the team MUST stay together at all times.

Compared to many AR events, rogaines are cheap to enter and don’t require any more equipment than say bushwalking. We recommend a pair of  MOTUS or RANTS as great way to rogaine in comfort. Only other specialist equipment required is trail runners, a compass and a good head torch.

A great series is the Sydney Summer Series (www.sydneysummerseries.com.au) where each Wednesday over summer there is a 45 min event held at a different location around Sydney. These get you up to speed with navigation quickly and give you a good workout at the same time.

Rogaining links FYI

NZ

Australia

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