Vancouver Sprint Camp Event Recap

March 13-15, 2026

The Vancouver Sprint Camp is a fast and furious weekend of sprint racing and training, gathering many of North America’s best orienteers in one place. Many Americans, especially those on the West Coast, make the trip over the border to British Columbia to get a heavy dose head-to-head racing with their Canadian friends and rivals.

This year’s edition included a Sprint WRE and Knockout Sprint WRE, in addition to training sessions.

Organizers: Greater Vancouver Orienteering Club (GVOC)

Event Site

All photos in this post are by Robert Rodriguez.

Results, Maps, and Photos

2026 Nationals Event Recap

March 19-22, 2026

This year’s Sprint, Middle, and Long Championships took place in Maryland in a great variety of terrain that provided orienteers with different challenges each day!

  • Host: Quantico Orienteering Club
  • Venue:
    • University of Maryland (Sprint), College Park, MD (Sprint)
    • Bowie State University, Bowie, MD (Middle)
    • Bacon Ridge Natural Area, Crownsville, MD (Long)
  • Personnel
    • Event Director: Don Fish
    • Registrar and timing: Valerie Meyer
    • Course Designers: Jon Torrance (Sprint), Mihai Sirbu (Middle), Ted Good (Long)

Event website

Results & Maps

Closing Remarks

In a world where it seems like there are many outside pressures and significant disagreement about just about everything, I truly appreciated the positive, joyful vibe of our community coming together this weekend.

The weekend was full of wonderful moments:

  • The smiles on people’s faces as they reconnected with friends from across the country and around the world.
  • The opportunity to hang around together in the arena and enjoy each other’s company.
  • The top-notch competition and event support.
  • The participation of a robust and mutually-supportive group of JWOC- and WUOC-hopeful team trialers.
  • The inspiration of so many sidebars with people taking steps to move our sport forward.

We come from many backgrounds, but our shared love of the sport makes orienteering events truly special. Thank you to QOC for hosting us and to the many volunteers that made this event possible. We appreciate you!

– OUSA President Tori Campbell

Media

All photos in this post are by Jeanette Dunlap.

Online Course Review for 2026 Nationals

As is now tradition, there will be an online course review of select legs from this past weekend’s US Sprint, Middle, and Long Championships this Wednesday evening at 9pm ET. The session will be hosted by Peter Gagarin and Caroline Sandbo, who will use Livelox and their own expertise to discuss different route choices, the difficulties runners faced, and how best to approach some of the legs that gave people trouble. This is worth attending whether or not you competed at Nationals!

Join the meeting on Google Meet at 9pm ET on Wednesday, March 25th.

If you have suggestions for particular legs you’d like to see discussed, please email caroline.sandbo@nullorienteeringusa.org.

2026 World Ski Orienteering Championships Event Recap

The US team after the Sprint Relay (credit: Takako Hirokawa)

The World Ski Orienteering Championships (WSOC) took place in Rusutsu, Japan from March 2-6. The US sent a team of four athletes to the competition, with veteran international ski-o competitor Chris Burnham (Green Mountain Orienteering Club) providing guidance to newcomers Tamra Kornfield (Arctic Orienteering Club), Lauren Wardwell (Green Mountain Orienteering Club), and Josh Yeaton (Empire Orienteering Club).  The competition was based out of the Rusutsu ski resort, which meant lots of narrow tracks going up and down extremely steep climbs and descents with a ridiculous amount of snow. It wasn’t uncommon to see snow banks 6-10 feet high on the sides of the roads!

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YMP March Map of the Month

The Youth Mapping Program March Map of the Month is Auburndale Park in Newton, MA. 

This map has been used extensively for introductory orienteering training and for youth and scout group events.

“These maps have gotten a lot of use, and I am so grateful to have them to help teach beginners and grow the sport of orienteering.”

Are you interested in having a map made of your school, camp, or youth-serving organization? Learn more about the program and apply here.

2026 World Ski-O Championships Concludes!

Photos credits: Markku Vauhkonen, Takako Hirokawa, and the WSOC organizers.

Racing in Japan at the World Ski Orienteering Championships has concluded! 6” of fresh snow on the rest day contributed to a major change in skiing conditions. What had previously been fast and easily shortcutted was now extremely slow and soft. Comparing it to the mountainous Pursuit, veteran team member Chris Burnham described Thursday’s Middle distance as a more traditional Ski-O race, complete with a complex maze and plenty of challenging narrow track navigation.

In Friday’s mixed Sprint Relay, the US fielded two relay teams, with team member Lauren Wardwell making her international racing debut. This was the flattest course of all four days of racing, but with the mass-start format and six legs per team, complexity was high and the racing fast.  A maze section where shortcutting was not allowed also made for excellent spectating.

We’d like to extend a big thank you to the organizers for putting on an excellent set of races! For the majority of the team, this was their first exposure to international Ski-O competition, and they all left hungry for more and looking forward to next year’s championships in Lillehammer. Arigatou gozaimashita, Japan!

2026 Ski Orienteering World Championships Underway!

Races at the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Rusutsu, Japan are underway! The US team has competed in both the Sprint and the Pursuit. Conditions have been fast and hard in the mornings, making shortcutting easy in both races. The US athletes especially enjoyed the Pursuit, which was on challenging mountainous terrain (~1000m climb). Athlete Tamra Kornfield described the off-trail descending as ‘exhilarating and edge of your seat’; we saw plenty of broken skis, boots, and poles to confirm this.

Following today’s rest day, the team will compete in the middle distance followed by the team sprints on the final day of racing. There is new snow on the ground, so conditions and strategies are expected to change dramatically!

US SkiO Team Arrives in Japan for the 2026 World Ski Orienteering Championships!

The US team of four athletes arrived at Rusutsu Resort in Hokkaido, Japan last week for the World Ski Orienteering Championships. Racing kicks off on 3/2 with the Sprint, but the team has been busy preparing with training and some public races. 

Some highlights from the preparation period:

  • A warm, sunny training day with the impressive Mount Yotei in the background
  • Two public races in a snowed-in amusement park on the slopes of the ski resort: roller-coaster descents underneath roller coasters!
  • A model event with very easy shortcutting. Cold nights and warm days mean a solid crust layer which could make for some interesting racing.

Photos, numbered clockwise from top left, by Josh Yeaton (3) Takako Hirokawa (1, 2, 4), and Lauren Wardwell (5)

March O Forum

The next OUSA Forum will be on Tuesday, March 3rd at 9:00 pm ET and focus on ski orienteering. 

In this session we will connect live with the US SkiO Team, racing at the World Ski Orienteering Championships in Japan, and hear about their experiences. We will learn some basics of ski orienteering, including tips for making good route choices, as well tips to take your ski orienteering to the next level. We will also explore how a club can develop a skiO program, drawing on the successful example of Grizzly Orienteering, and how that can help a club to recruit skiers to try foot orienteering. We will end the session by learning about tips to help your club organize a skiO race.  The session will be lead by Carl Fey, Coach, US Ski-O Team with input from several other US ski orienteers.  

Join us on Google Meet on Tuesday, March 3rd at 9:00pm ET.

Add to your Google Calendar.

2026 European Youth and World Junior Orienteering Championships Recap

February 4-8, 2026

This year the US sent six young athletes to the 2026 European Youth Ski Orienteering Championships and Junior World Ski Orienteering Championships, which took place February 4 – 8, 2026, in Luleå, Sweden.

US Team for the 2026 Junior World Ski-Orienteering Championships
Liam Browne, Grizzly Orienteering Club
Erik Fey, Rochester Orienteering Club and NSK

US Team for the 2026 European Youth Ski-Orienteering Championships
Boys Team
Euell Browne, Grizzly Orienteering Club
Espen Chitty, Grizzly Orienteering Club
Mark Fey, Rochester Orienteering Club and Nydalens SK

Girls Team
Caroline Chitty, Grizzly Orienteering Club

Read the team announcement here.

The team was accompanied by Kara Browne, who not only took all the photos featured in this post but also shared an inside look at the athlete experience throughout the competition.

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