eTempO

Training from the Couch

Trail-O or Virtual Orienteering (also known as eTempO)

Geoff Mead, July 2021

When Covid-19 first impacted our ability to hold physical orienteering events, competition in terrain came to a standstill in many countries around the world. For technical training many orienteers have turned to electronic alternatives; eTempO, a virtual version of the speed-format in Trail Orienteering, in particular is proving a great hit. Since March, virtual TempO events have been organised in several nations and have attracted big participation numbers. The biggest of these has been the TORUS Cup – more about that below.
Virtual Trail orienteering is also a great option for Winter training, from the comfort of your own home…..

But what happens in virtual TempO? In each event there are several ‘control stations’, usually six but can be up to eight. Each station has a photo of some terrain seen from a fixed point – often parkland, or areas of paths and buildings are used – with 6 computer-generated O-flags superimposed on the photo at specific points. The area is mapped in detail at small scale, e.g. 1:4000.

When you key ‘Start’ and the first station has loaded, time starts ticking away. You see the photo with the flags for less than 5 seconds, then the first task is shown. There is a photo with the 6 flags, a segment of map with one circle on it and a pictorial control description, and buttons A, B, C, D, E, F and Z. You have to decide which flag, if any, is at the centre of the circle on the map. And as quickly as you can!

The flags are A to F from left to right, and you key Z if you decide there is no flag at this point on the map; that can occur quite often. Speed is of the essence, but beware – a mistake costs 30 seconds in time, and the eventual winner is the competitor with the lowest overall time taken – decision time plus mistakes.

No let-up!
You’ve made your first decision, but there’s no let-up: as soon as you’ve keyed your answer, Task 2 comes up on screen – a new map segment with circle. You try to get in the ‘flow’ – quick decision, but not too quick – trying to avoid a mistake. Each station has 5 or 6 tasks; once you have completed these, time stops and you can take a few deep breaths before embarking on Station 2 – a new venue with new photo and new map segments.

eTempO, like real TempO, is great for improving your map-reading skills, relating map to terrain and vice-versa, and developing an eye for the most important details on the map. When you start on a station, sometimes it’s quite hard to work out where you are, on the photo and map, and where the flags are. TempO planners are very clever and imaginative! Like in real orienteering, quite a lot of training and experience is needed to get really good. The top stars in eTempO are lightning fast.

A link to the Torus Cup can be found here.

Here are 2 samples: In each task, decide which flag, if any, is at the centre of the circle. Answers are at the bottom.

Answer # 1: B The camera position is on the island.( Article sourced from IOF website).

Answer # 2: Control 18 – answer is flag C. Try to identify all the trees on the map (you are looking south-eastwards).

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