Nominees Sought for Mapping Class Scholarships!

Orienteering USA is planning to offer partial (80%) scholarships to cover the costs of a series of four upcoming introductory mapping classes offered by Navigation Sports in January and February 2026.

Interested mappers must be nominated by their clubs by December 15th, and each club may nominate a maximum of two people. Interested? Read on.

Interested mappers must be nominated by their clubs by December 15th. Each club may nominate a maximum of two people.

Nominees must:

  • Have at least three years orienteering experience
  • Be able to attend all four classes in a series
  • Be members of OUSA at the time of the classes to receive the benefit.

Priority will be given to nominees who:

  • Come from smaller clubs or those without in-house mapping expertise
  • Can complete an advanced orienteering course
  • Have a specific project in mind.

Those selected for the scholarships are responsible for 20% of the course cost, though clubs are encouraged to reimburse members for this portion. The final 80% will be paid by OUSA. Total cost for the series of four classes is $270CAD.

The series includes four introductory level classes using either Open Orienteering Mapper (runs on Windows and MacOS) or OCAD (only runs on Windows). See entire course calendar.

Open Orienteering Mapper classes will be held on Tuesdays (January 20th, 27th, February 3rd, 10th) at 6:30pm ET.

OCAD classes will be held on Thursdays (January 22nd, 29th, February 5th, 12th) at 6:30pm ET.
Subjects covered in the four sessions will be:

  • Intro to mapping
  • Using Open Orienteering Mapper or Using OCAD
  • Base material
  • Laying Out Your Map

Reach out to your club president or mapping coordinator to be nominated.

For questions please contact mapping@nullorienteeringusa.org.

December Forum: Introduction to Trail-O

The December forum will take place on Thursday, December 18th at 8:30pm ET.

Did you know that OUSA is hosting the World Trail Orienteering Championships in November 2027? It’s true! This means there’s no better time to dive into the world of Trail Orienteering than right now! If you’ve been curious about adding Trail-O to your club’s programs, this is the perfect time to try it out.

Join us on December 18 for an introduction to Trail Orienteering. We’ll talk about the core formats, walk through real examples using the TempO Simulator, and help you get a feel for what makes Trail-O both challenging and fun. The simulator is currently running its festive Christmas Cup (December 1–24), so consider logging in ahead of time to try a few problems before the forum.

Join us on Google Meet on Thursday, December 18th at 8:30pm ET.

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

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.

WCOC Brooksvale Park NRE Event Recap

Oct 26, 2026

Host: Western Connecticut Orienteering Club (WCOC)

Venue: Brooksvale Park, Hamden, CT

Meet Directors: Susan DeWitt and Ellen Morse

Course Setter: Niels Lyng-Olsen

The basemap for this event was created by former OUSA Communications Manager Clinton Morse and field checked by Clinton Morse and J-J Cote.

Results, Maps, and Photos

Photos by Evalin Brautigam and Mike Minium

The US Ski Orienteering Team Starts Program Accelerate 2033 and a fundraiser as the first step!

Coach Carl Fey, Euell Browne, Erik Fey, Liam Browne, and Mark Fey at European, Youth Ski Orienteering Championships Posio, Finland March 2025


Orienteering USA’s vision is to create a single, unified orienteering community. A community committed to filling the forests, the woods, the parks, and the fields with enthusiastic orienteers. We are on a mission to enhance that vision on the snow! Program Accelerate 2033 has launched. This is a step by step plan to develop elite US ski orienteers. The goal is to have at least two American athletes in the top 10 at the World Ski Orienteering
Championships by 2033.

Honestly, it has been a while since the US garnered much attention in the world of SkiO. In 2011 Alison Crocker earned 8th place World Ski Orienteering Championships: the best ever American result! Our initial step to connect with those days was in March 2025. The youth team competed in Posio, Finland. Under the knowledge and enthusiasm of Coach Carl Fey two sets of American brothers represented the USA: Erik & Mark Fey with Liam & Euell Browne. Erik led the way with historic results, placing 5th in the long, 6th in the sprint, 6th in the middle, and anchoring the US boys to 6th in the relay—marking the best-ever individual finish by a non-European male in a major international SkiO event!

The USA’s 2025-2026 Junior SkiO team has grown from four to six athletes. They are fundraising for their upcoming travel to Luleå, Sweden where they will compete at Junior World and European Youth Ski Orienteering Championships. Donations will be used to help the team to take part in the races in Sweden and Program Accelerate 2033.

Our six athletes are seeking pledges for each training kilometer (km) covered by ski, roller ski, or foot during the month of December, 2025. Individual athletes receive pledges and all money raised goes to the overall team fund. Pledges and donations can be made at 99pledges.com. Donate $25 or more and we will send you an “Orienteering USA Junior SkiO Supporter” sticker! Very generously, Larry and Sara Mae Berman are matching donations for our first $2000!! We are very thankful for them helping make each donation make a greater impact.

Donate

Learn more about Orienteering USA SkiO.

We look forward to an amazing season!

For more information please contact: Coach Carl Fey at carlffey@nullgmail.com or Kara Browne at binear@nullyahoo.com, PO Box 8041, Kalispell, MT 59904.

US Ski Orienteering Team to the 2026 World SkiO Champs Selected

Orienteering USA is pleased to announce that the US Ski Orienteering Team
Executive Steering Committee has completed selection of the US Team to the 2026 World
Championships in Rusutsu, Hokkaido, Japan, March 1–7, 2026. The following
people have been selected:


Men
Chris Burnham, Green Mountain Orienteering Club
Josh Eaton, Empire Orienteering Club

Women
Tamra Kornfield, Arctic Orienteering Club

For more information about the US Ski-Orienteering Team please contact US Team
Coach Carl Fey at carlffey@nullgmail.com.