Kimberley Nordic Biathlon Orienteering! TNT

Organizers: Karen Martino (Course Planner), Rich Pettit (Event Director), Lois Pettit (Event Director)

Map: Kimberley Nordic Centre Trails

This week we are teaming up with the Kimberley Nordic Biathlon group to hold the 2nd ever, Biathlon Orienteering event in Canada! (We were just beat out by a club in Ontario who hosted the first of this kind of orienteering event on May 16!) What is Biathlon Orienteering you might ask? Well it is the combination of orienteering and shooting. The Biathlon Club has just received two new Optical Rifles so there will be no bullets flying out there. The nice thing is that we can set up a shooting range anywhere as it is all optical. We will be meeting at Ikers Landing at the Nordic Centre and we need participants to be at Ikers landing by 6 pm to learn how to use the optical rifles. It will take about 20 min. to walk from the Nordic Centre Parking lot to Ikers Landing using the Spruce winter ski trail. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time! (Exact directions and Map will be added soon so check back.)

There will be 3 shortish orienteering loops starting from the Ikers Landing area. Participants will head out on the first orienteering loop then come back past the Finish Control (touch the finish control flag but do not punch the Finish until the end of your 3rd and final orienteering loop) into Ikers Landing to the "shooting range" that we will be set up there. You will do a round of shooting and then return to the start triangle, pick up the second loop map (Leg 2 and 3 maps will be in clearly marked baskets on the ground next to the start punch) and off you go again! The second loop will bring you back past the finish punch (Remember just touch the flag of the finish punch, do not punch until the very end!) and on to the shooting range again for your second round of shooting before picking up the third map at the start area for your final orienteering loop challenge. At the end of your 3rd orienteering loop, you must PUNCH the Finish to record your total time!

Now, just like in real ski biathlon, there will be a penalty for missed shots.....this will be a surprise, but will be some kind of orienteering challenge. This will be explained at the introduction to the shooting, so don't be late! Cleaner shooting will get you back out on the next loop faster! Sloppy shooting will add more to your time!

The orienteering will be intermediate in difficulty with controls not far from paths. There are options for some overland route choices which might indeed be shorter/faster, but taking the longer route along paths is certainly an option. There will be a green X symbol in many locations on this map. These are unique to this map and indicate a 6-8 foot tall old tree stump that is a remnant from long ago when this area was logged. They are very distinct and 2 controls will be on a green X feature.

As this is the first time we have ever set up this type of orienteering event please bear with us....there may be some waiting for your turn to shoot! We can only give it a try and make improvements for our next Biathlon-O event. It will be a new challenge for many or us, and it should be a ton of fun!

Location