I think the most important thing is to measure the route along the shortest sensible route rather than straight line or [worse still except in Swiss Alps] minimum climb route.

There used to be a BOF guideline which was to only add in climb that everyone would do, but JB is right I hadn't thought of measuring that for comparing with 4% - I've typically used the straight line distance for checking %age.

Cheers

JK (5.1km and 300m climb at JK day 3 – that'll teach me to run M50S[teep] – it must have been a 7.5km course on the shortest sensible route)

From: mdoc-manager@simplelists.com [mailto:mdoc-manager@simplelists.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Gregory
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2015 5:38 PM
To: John Britton
Cc: MDOC members
Subject: [MDOC] Re: Course height gain

Thanks John - I didn't know that!

Is there an IOF definition of 'sensible'?

However if the shortest sensible route is 25% longer than the straight line route, (e.g. 12.5k instead of 10k), then 4% of 12.5k is the same as 5% of 10k,

so in practise it probably makes little difference.

Andrew

_______________________________________________________________________________

A little test for y'all.  How many of you knew all this ? (Not me, as it happens, but I do now)
John


My understanding WAS that the definition of orienteering had the limit of climb vs course length as 5%. HOWEVER ... the IOF web site, Resources ... rules for Foot Orienteering ...

section 16
16.3
The course lengths shall be given as the length of the straight line from the start via the controls to the finish deviating for, and only for, physically impassable obstructions (high fences, lakes, impassable cliffs etc.), prohibited areas and marked routes.
16.4
The total climb shall be given as the climb in metres along the shortest sensible route.

Appendix 2
3.11.6 Courses that are not too physically demanding.
Courses should be set so that normally fit competitors can run over most of the course set for their level of ability.
The total climb of a course should normally not exceed 4% of the length of the shortest sensible route.

Suggests that you should measure courses two ways - one for the length figure, and another, probably longer (and not actually published!), for the climb limit.