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University of California

Event #3 of 6 in the BAOC 2022 Summer Series

Date: (Sat.) Jul. 2, 2022
Location: Berkeley, CA
Event Director: - 510.681.6181
Course Setter: Matej Šebo
Type: C; This is the third event of the 2022 Summer Series. Beginners are welcome!


Course Setter's Notes

By Matej Šebo

UC Berkeley campus is a Bay Area orienteering classic, full of picturesque streams and woods, excellent views of the Golden Gate, and some of the most intricate multilevel structures seen on a Bay Area orienteering map. The campus is located on a sloping hillside, and elevation will definitely play a part in some route choices. Ongoing construction has changed how some parts of campus look, and a new mapping specification has made it possible to map some areas more accurately. This year's courses will take advantage of both.

The Map

The UC Berkeley map has now been converted to use the ISSprOM 2019-2 standard (see here [PDF/1.2MB] for the full specification), which differs from ISSOM 2017 (and even ISSprOM 2019) in a few subtle ways. Most notably, for this particular map:

There is a blog post here (https://ocad.com/blog/2019/05/issprom-2019/) with a visualization of some of the differences. (More information about the ISSprOM 2019-2 standard is available on the BAOC website here.)

See below for some additional notes on the ISSprOM 2019-2 mapping standards for multilevel areas. These are applicable to only the Short and Long courses.

The map will be printed at 1:3,750 scale for all the courses. It has a contour interval of 2.5 meters. The Beginner and Short courses will use letter-size paper (8-1/2 x 11); the Long course will use legal-size (8-1/2 x 14). Map cases will be provided.

Note: This map has the magnetic-north lines not parallel to the edges of the paper. That is an unusual (standard-violating) situation, which has caused some confusion in the past.

The Courses

The final course statistics (subject to slight variation) are as follows:

    Course          Distance   Climb  Controls
    Beginner         1.8 km     40 m      17  
    Short Advanced   2.7 km     75 m      28  
    Long Advanced    5.6 km    125 m      30

Beginners should be aware that the course distances shown are the cumulative straight-line distances between controls. Your actual distance will be significantly longer. For a rough estimate of how far you might actually go, mentally change "km" to "mi" (e.g., for the "1.8 km" course, you might travel up to 1.8 miles). The climb numbers represent the amount of ascending that would be done on the "optimum route" (in the Course Setter's opinion), without regard for any descending.
Advanced orienteers should be aware that the course distances are "straight-line", not "best-route" (which is normally given for Sprint courses). The actual distance is significantly longer.

The Short Advanced and Long Advanced courses will be the ranking courses for the respective Summer Series.

Keep in mind that you can earn Series points from the first course you run at the event, and only if it's one of the ranking courses. That is, you will not earn points if you run the Beginner course first and then run one of the ranking courses.

All the courses will start at the same location. The Start is about a 1-minute walk away from the assembly area. The Finish for all the courses is next to the assembly area, in front of the Social Sciences Building (formerly known as Barrows Hall) courtyard.

The Short Advanced course is set to M-21E Sprint standards (i.e., if this were a nationally-ranked event, the expected winning time for the M-21E category would be 12–15 minutes).

Most control locations will be at a Yellow/Orange level​—​technical difficulty is not the primary challenge you will experience. There will be many changes in direction, with an emphasis on quick map reading and route choice. Due to the short length of the courses, no water will be offered at controls.

Any competitor spotted crossing impassable barriers as defined in ISSprOM 2019-2 (i.e., buildings, olive green, dark green, as well as any walls, fences, or hedges that are mapped as "impassable"), will be immediately disqualified. Marshals might be stationed throughout the courses to ensure fair play.

Here are some map symbols for features you are not allowed to cross:

"Impassable" Map Features

I would also like to remind all runners to carefully read the map when approaching a control. Remember that not all of the controls you see will be on your course, so remember to check each control code before punching.

Advanced Course Notes: Multilevel Mapping

ISSprOM 2019-2 introduces a set of new symbols for multilevel mapping. The IOF has a useful "guide to mapping multilevel structures" (PDF [2.6MB]) that gives an overview for how these symbols are meant to be used. Here are a few examples of how these symbols are used on the new UC Berkeley map, in the Lower Sproul area. (You can click on each image to see a larger copy.)

First, here's a map segment showing the whole area of interest.

Map Segment

The following are ground-level views and the corresponding map segments (which are sometimes rotated to match the view). In each case, the camera was located at the tip of the purple "V", and the "V" indicates the camera's field of view.

Map Segment

Map Segment

Map Segment

Map Segment

Map Segment

Map Segment

Map Segment