Thank you to all of our participants who took part in our High Sierra NAV-X Challenge!  People came from near and far for the 2016 North American Rogaining Championships and Nav-X High Sierra 4/8 hr. We all enjoyed the perfect weather, great camaraderie, and hot food at the hash house; most also relished their adventure in this beautiful, wild and tough terrain. It was great to see familiar faces and welcome new people to the crazy world of map trekking/rogaining.

Please find the full posted results below (click on the results you would like to view).  Please let us know if you find any discrepancies of problems at info@navxchallenge.org.

24 hr championship results

8 hr results

4 hr results

UPLOAD & compare your gps tracks - route gadget

I believe all involved were delighted by the map quality, which was the product of fantastic and hard work by Bill Cusworth. Concerns that the forest service had moved one of our meadow controls proved unfounded; if they did move one, it must not have gone very far. Everything seemed to be in the right place, with the possible exception of control 81 which may actually be in the lower clearing 100m SW of the circle. My apologies for that error.

This event, like most orienteering and map trek/rogaining events, came about as a result of significant volunteer efforts. The Nav-X team of Mats Jansson, Rex Winterbottom, Bill Cusworth, Heidi Cusworth, Andrew Peterson, and yours truly were happy and proud to bring this event about. We had help from a number of other volunteers. Jay Hann of Western Race Services offered his time and the use of his gear for free. He did an enormous amount of work buying food, bringing gear, setting up and taking down, and running the hash house. He also processed the results. Consider Western Race Services for your next event! Dave Edwards, Jonathan Campbell, Mats Jansson, Rex Winterbottom, and Jeff Lanam went above and beyond not only to staff the hash house during the small hours Sunday morning, but also to pick up controls and water after the event. Dave also lent me his truck to drive way out on an awful road and fix controls 37 and 103.  Afsheen Mostofi and Bud Laird are, as I write, each getting ready for an exciting control pickup adventure, as they plan to spend a day out there getting the remote north and eastern controls. Thank you to Heidi Cusworth, Vicki Woolworth, Eric Robinson, and Ginny Laforme and the rest of the Nav-X team for help setting up on Saturday morning, and finally to Rex Winterbottom for awards and prizes.

As for the race, your course setter imagined a stampede towards the fast, southern area of the map, particularly by the 8h and 24h teams. In reality, the concentration of points in the tougher northern area was enough to pull most teams in that direction, at least initially. The wild, mostly roadless Tamarack Creek canyon proved a tough challenge, but many 24h and even some 8h teams continued through this area to the high lakes of the far northeast. Those that went south were treated to travel over mostly open rock and sand, scenic granite domes, with open forest mixed in. Several 24h teams even got out to the far east, which is very Western with cows grazing in meadows under dramatic rocky slopes and even a (working?) mine. Four hour teams were constrained by time to stay in the central area of the map, although many of the fastest managed to get to at least one high value control, such as 96, 100 or 112.

Congratulations to everyone who competed in this event! Map trek/rogaine is one of the tougher combinations of mental and physical exertion out there. Division top three were announced at the awards ceremonies, and kudos again to you! I have some of the 24h certificates at my house; please send me an email with your address and I will get that to you.

In the end, the overall winning teams combined excellent route planning with good execution. Peteris Ledins and Nikolay Nachev ended with an impressive 3840 points in the 24h division. They started to the north and largely cleared it out, then went east and cleared out the Dinkey Creek canyon area, and finally headed south for many controls on the granite. In the 8h division, the overall winners were Steven Douglas and Mark Hartell at 1470. They went south first, picking up all but the two southernmost controls, then looped back through the center and had time to pick up 94 and 84 at the end. Matej Sebo won the overall 4h with a ridiculous 1020 points, managing to reach control 112 in the Tamarack canyon via 84 and 94 and still loop back to get 88 and many other central points.

Special mention goes to those families and younger groups who participated: Victoria and Anna Campbell in the 24h, who stayed out all night (!); Jonathan and Peter Campbell, and Mark and Sarah Petersen in the 8h; Alison and Mareese Keane, the Clovis High AF JROTC, and Jodi, Doug, Dillon, and Lucie Hall in the 4h.

As a reminder, podium finishers for each division of the 24h event receive qualification for the World Rogaining Championships for several years starting in 2017. Check the website of the IRF, International Rogaining Federation, for details.

For more rogaining events in North America, check the OUSA rogaining calendar.

Along with some other orienteering clubs in the western part of North America, we at BAOC and Nav-X are attempting to initiate a yearly 24h Western NA rogaining series. We will be initiating and maintaining a lifetime standings table. Look for that in the near future.

Finally, the 2016 NAV-X Challenge Map Trekking (aka Rogaining) Series continues with event #4 on Saturday October 1st, in the wild and expansive Pacheco State Park, an hour South of San Jose, CA.  Mark Prior is designing 3 and 6 hr courses on an excellent BAOC map, yours for the taking!  Check out more information here.

Thanks again for coming and hope to see you another time!