Month: November 2025

Stumble Weekend 2025 Event Recap

November 15-16, 2025

Stumble Weekend 2025 consisted of a Middle National Ranking Event (NRE) and
Susquehanna Stumble XXV. The Stumble is a long distance mass start event with a twist: competitors run between most controls in normal sequential order but occasionally enter a “window” where several controls can be visited in ANY order. 

Results, Maps, and Photos

Photos by Amy Louden, Paige Suhocki, Chrissy Szemere Miller, and possibly others!

Some photos from QOC on their Facebook post

Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics Event Recap

November 15-26, 2025

The US was represented by a team of five athletes at the 2025 Deaflympics, which took place in Tokyo in November, 2025. The five athletes were:

  • Keith Doane, Minnesota Orienteering Club (veteran of the 2023 World Deaf Orienteering Championships in Sweden)
  • Lisa Fisher, Quantico Orienteering Club (first international event)
  • Sachiko Flores, Minnesota Orienteering Club (veteran of the 2023 WDOC)
  • Shanna Sorrells, Quantico Orienteering Club (veteran of the 2023 WDOC)
  • Tom Wells, Quantico Orienteering Club (veteran of the Taipei 2009 Deaflympics and the 2011 (Ukraine), 2015 (Rochester, NY, USA) and 2023 WDOC)

The Deaflympics is a multi-sport event where Deaf athletes can compete at an elite level against athletes from around the world. This past year saw over 3000 athletes participating, with around 60 orienteers from 16 countries competing in the orienteering events.

Orienteering featured six different events: Sprint Distance, Sprint Relay, Super Sprint Relay, Middle Distance, Long Distance and Relay. 

From Tom Wells: “The 2025 event was a great experience for everyone involved, including the grizzled old vet, the sophomores and the wet behind the ears freshman.  We were humbled by the fact that other countries invested time and resources in making sure their new orienteering athletes were successful, including proper coaching and frequent training camps.  The difference was stark.  We held our own the best we could.The Deaflympics have now partnered with the IOF, hence standards were high for this event, including finger and wrist SIAC, updated maps and overall a high-quality operation. An aspect of partnership with IOF will require a points system as a means of qualification for future events.  The jury is still out on the precise details, but it will no longer be a matter of “hey, I think I’m good enough to attend these events”.  For some of us, it was a good run while it lasted, for others it will serve as motivational goals to reach.  Onwards and upwards!”

Results, maps, and media

YMP November Map of the Month

The Youth Mapping Program November Map of the Month is Gold Trail School in Cold Springs, CA.

This map is used to teach fifth-grade students about geography, map reading, and orienteering. Since then, the school has had a map made of a bordering property to create even larger courses. Eventually, the goal is to teach older students to use Purple Pen to plan courses for younger students. 

“The best outcome is having the ability to run my own orienteering events on my school campus. I do not have to depend on others or get permission from Admin to take a field trip. Additionally, having my own map allows me to make progressively more challenging courses as my students’ skills improve.”

Are you interested in flexing your cartography skills and joining the growing team of YMP mappers? Sign up here. 

Introductory mapping training opportunity

There are a handful of spaces available for a series of three FREE online mapping workshops from Jeff Teutsch of Navigation Sports. The workshops are designed for members of Grizzly Orienteering, but are applicable to anyone interested in learning the basics of orienteering mapping. The training will take place on Thursdays, November 20, December 4, and December 11 from 5:30pm-8:00pm Mountain Time.

Subjects covered in the three sessions will be:

  • Intro to mapping/Starting a map project
  • Using OCAD
  • Generating basic contours

If you are interested and able to commit to attending all three online sessions in real time, please contact the Mapping Committee at Mapping@nullorienteeringusa.org to get yourself on the list of candidates for the available spaces. Please tell us:

  • who you are,
  • your OUSA club affiliation,
  • about your mapping experience, if any, and
  • what mapping project(s) you would hope to work on within a year of taking the training.

To reiterate, thanks to grant funding from OUSA these workshops are being provided FREE OF CHARGE to participants. We hope to see this opportunity fully subscribed. Email applications for spaces should be submitted no later than midnight on Friday, November 7.