Newsletter Highlights

The President's Report ~ May 2002

The inaugural Ecogaine was held 23/24 March in beautiful weather with a great Hash House site. A swim in the dam finished of a thoroughly enjoyable event for me. Paul Batten and Bronwyn Lawton successfully challenged Rogainers to talk to, and share information with other teams in a friendly social atmosphere. The '15 in 24 hour' format proved popular, allowing a wide range of choice in day / night navigation, and good opportunities to socialise at the Hash House.

My verdict: definitely worth repeating.

The ARA Championships, held in Namadgi National Park in the ACT was a memorable event in many ways. Well attended (192 teams), a great course and a thoroughly well organised event. The weather was superb - frosts overnight and warm days. The only downbeat note to the whole event - the NSW bus suffered mechanical failure, delaying arrival until 3.45am! Competition was intense with "Former world champ beats current world champ by 10 points" - Nigel Aylott (Vic) and Kevin Humphry (Vic) seizing first place from Rob Vincent (NSW) and David Rowlands (Vic) by the smallest of margins, but taking an extra 25 minutes to do it. Mike Hotchkis (NSW) and Richard Robinson (WA) were 3rd overall. Mike has now been in the top 3 teams in each of the last 3 ARA

Champs. Other significant NSW results were Nicole and Andrew Haigh - 3rd in the mixed category. The NZ supervets Bill Kennedy, Peter Squires and Anne Kennedy again performed strongly, winning the XV and XSV categories. NSW was 3rd in the Interstate Challenge, with ACT winning and Victoria second. Sydney Uni were overall winners in the Australian Universities Championships, with 50 students entering from 6 eastern universities. Few sports allow open entry for competitors of all standards on a course challenging to elite competitors and enjoyable for novices. The lack of segregation between competitors of differing standards is one of the great joys of these events.

Check out all the results on the ACTRA website:

<http://act.rogaine.asn.au/>.

At the last committee meeting Andy Mein raised the idea of a 'Volunteer Encouragement Scheme'. The basic idea being proposed was a reward scheme to encourage more volunteers to help out with events. Organisers and helpers who contribute significantly to an event could be given free entry to another event, or other encouragement. The idea was considered worthy of further debate. What is your view? Would a reward scheme, or other encouragement motivate you more? Let us know.

The new combined Entry/Membership form (have you noticed?) was again under review. Your comments would be appreciated.

Members of the committee involved in the 2002 Paddy Pallin event have been preparing a written ‘Recovery Plan’. The Paddy is our largest event, and probably has more novice competitors than any other. The Recovery Plan describes procedures and responses for the most likely 'gone wrong' situations (eg a team not returning). It will be dynamic and will be modified for individual events. The Association has a fine record when it comes to event safety. However we must not only plan events to avoid accidents, but be actively prepared for 'foreseeable' incidents.

The Paddy Pallin in June is our next event. See you all there!

Richard Sage

Best & Worst Maps of all time!

At a Committee get-together earlier this year aspiring members were invited to enter the "rogaine test". Crossing a very narrow pole stretched across a ‘creek’ (swimming pool). We are pleased to report that all passed with flying colours although some on second attempt and some seemed more balanced after a few drinks.

On the same occasion billed as a "Map Party" guests were invited to bring along their best and worst maps. Some of the entrants were as follows:

Best:

Blue Mountains and Burragorang 1937, 2 miles: 1 inch, huge and hand drawn, showing a now long closed road from Wentworth Falls to Warragamba River (no dam in those days).
Graeme Cooper.

Middle Earth,The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkein, Watch out for Mirkwood and Mordor.
Mike Hotchkis.

Cross Your Rubicon’ 50 Hour Endurogaine Cathedral SF/Goulburn Valley/Mt Torbreck, Victoria. Featured bonus points for being first up remote peaks on the far corners of the map. Not too many participants!
Mike Hotchkis.

Dudh Kosi, down stream from Namche Bazaar and the Solu Khumbu region of Nepal. 1:50,000, 40m contours, beautifully produced and shaded by Erwin Shneider. Shows every dwelling. One of a series of the Everest region.
Alan Mansfield.

Stirling Range National Park, WA, 1st ed 1966, 3rd 1972, GA Dean, 1:63,360 (1 inch:1 mile). The first map of the Stirling Range, finely drafted with selected contours and information for bushwalkers.
Julian Ledger.

Worst:

Amadeus, Central Australia, 1:250,000, in one part of the map, comfortably large enough to hold a 24 hour rogaine, there are absolutely no details, no contours and nothing but grid lines.
Greame Cooper.

Murrumbo, Hunter Valley, 24 hr rogaine in 1989, 1:37,500, map was a colour photocopy of a copy and some detail dropped out. Alignment problems with map pieces and one hill not marked at all on base map.
Trevor Gollan.

Solomon's Throne, 4th World Rogaine Championships, New Zealand, Jan 2000. 1:50,000, Heavy shading on the map made reading tricky, area too steep! Setting could have been done to allow for more route choice.
Richard Sage

Beechworth, 1st World Rogaining Championships, 1992, 1:50,000, massive map with approx 500sq.km, large distances between controls, mostly tracks. Not to mention rain, blackberries and mine shafts!
Julian Ledger.

Kangaroo Flat on Hastings River near Port Macquarie. Got lost due to significant topographical features not shown. Returned later to use new edition and had not been corrected.
Andrew Pope.

Quilty's Mountain, Australian Rogaining Championships, 1995 in Morton National Park. 1:25,000. Very thick vegetation and then monsoon conditions. Only contacted map on one side and eventually it disintegrated leaving map features transposed onto the contact.
Julian Ledger.

Compiled by Julian Ledger