Orienteering Schwaben – Orienteering from Schwaben and the World

Bavarian Forest 5 Days 2025

2025 was the 4th edition of the Bavarian Forest 5 Days, organised by Peter and his team. I missed 2023 but have been on all other editions. With nearly 900 competitors from 29 countries it has become a international event.
This year the first two stages took place in the Czech Republic. I struggled little with the map, as it was a little unusual style for me. The map wasn’t bad, I just needed some time to get along with it. Map was a nice hilly forest with less stones than the German part.
Next two days were in the same German forest than last year. More stones and a little more green makes it a different challenge.I was more used to the map maker and course setter, so I was more satisfied with my orienteering.
Final days was a sprint in Grafenau. Not my favorite discipline. I made a stupid ~1 min error that costs me two places at the stages and one at the overall ranking.
Except of day 2, I managed a top 10 at all days and in the overall ranking. You can find results and pictures at BF5D homepage and maps in Livelox. Next year the vent will happen from 1st to 5th August in a new area arround Bad Weissenstadt. Earlier that year (18th to 19th April 2026) you can have a weekend of City Races at the Munich-O-Fest organised by the same team.

Rats Run Kupferzell

Stronger – Faster – Harder

Last Sunday we went a little bit off topic and went together with Paul to a regional obstacle course race. The races was part of south German based series of events called Rats Run. The events normally consists of a lot of mud and trails, so are very suitable for orienteers. As our decision to start was short term, we had started in the last start group. This means there were some obstacles that were blocked with early runners, so that you had to fight to pass through. But we make it all to the finish. No one makes a individual podium but we finished 3rd with the team. For Jakob and me it was the 4th team podium, we different teammates. In Kupferzell we won 2019, finished 2nd in 2023 and 3rd this year. Last year we finished 2nd in Hintersteinenberg. You can find plenty of pictures on the series web page. But I din´t spot any of our team on it.

World Orienteering Week

World Orienteering Week is coming. Have you already prepared your event?

Taunus-Cup 2025

The 2025 Taunus-Cup was our season start. The cup consists of 3 individual races and a final sprint relay at one weekend. Start was Saturday with a middle distance. I hit my knee there mid course and was a little handicapend for the rest of the weekend.
After the middle distance the weekend changed to urban events. Saturday evening we had a night sprint on a ruined castle. 1:1000 scale makes everything coming quite fast. Sunday morning shows an individual sprint with nice route choices and some climb. Afterwards there was a 3 person sprint relay. The relay consist of a lot of forest and climb up to the castle, so it was a very demand last race. Jakob finished 2nd in m19, only beaten by New Zealand’s international Toby Scott and I finished 7th in M19.

Happy New Orienteering Year

After a lot of orienteering it will probably a little less this year. I plan to go to the WOC spectator races in Finland and if I find time also to the Bavarian Forest 5 Days. Jakob is also planing to get a Jukola team but beside that I plan more non orienteering vacation. So it my orienteering will be more in Germany and our neighbor countries.

Merry Christmas

18. Rammert Run

Mid November the 18^th edition of the now traditional training event Rammert Run took place. It´s an 3 h Score on a topographic map. Participants are mostly from outside the orienteering community. For me it was the 3^rd time at the Rammert Run. I ran it first time in 2022 were I won the race together with Jakob. Last year we hosted the race as there is now a Gentlemans agreement that the winner will host next years edition. Jakob had already run it several times before with another partner.
This year the race took place in eastern are of the Rammert. Jakob and I tried to have not too much pressure as we both said we don´t want to win this year. Even I would say we both have know that this isn’t really true. Planing is on that kind of maps isn’t always easy, so we didn’t start with complete plan. At the beginning there were two passages with hard running that slows us down. But we were still good in time at control 30 which was our first target to plan further. We then were discussing our route on the run. That part of the forest. went faster so we were able to add some controls on the go.The last part we need to go a little faster but this was OK as it was mostly downhill. We managed to take 21 controls and ensured the victory. You can find the map in our map archive.

Hungária Kupa

Hungária Kupa 2024 takes place in the Vértes hills around Csákbéreny. A area I already visited for the Hungária Kupa 2000 and the WMOC 2021. Both events I really enjoyed. It also acts as spectator race for the European Orienteering Championship.
The event started with an prologue in semi open former mining area. Lot of controls forced you to focus on your map all time. The day was super hot that means only 5 people finished the longest course. The other five days had 4 middle and one long distance race. We run in the middle qualification, the middle final, long distance area and two maps close to the middle qualification area. So you could have a good feeling for the EOC races. Only the relay forest were skipped as Hungária Kupa had it last event in the morning before the EOC relay. We had some of the hottest days in Hungary during the races, so running in the semi open areas was quite hard. Surprisingly I was able to finish in the top 10 of M40 in the overall result. You can find the results on the Hungária Kupa Homepage.

World Masters

WMOC in Turku were the my second World Masters. First have been in Hungary 2021. So far not the WMOC were the reason I chosen the competition. In 2021 it was just a competition that happend and this year it was because I never was in the Turku area.
The competition didn’t work super good. Already and the pre-WMOC open event at Thursday I had trouble with the fine details and vegetation. The WMOC itself starts with the Sprint-Q at Saturday. I didn’t expect much as I’m not a good sprinter but really underperformed. My running speed was to slow and I made some bad route choices and technical errors at the end. The final the next day went a little better but my speed is still to slow. In both races I had trouble with the traditional EMIT-punching as I’m used to have all races with touch free punching in Germany. My last sprint without touchfree punching was at the Fin5 two years ago but went quite well at that time. At the forest races I still had trouble with the contours and vegetation so I was far away from a A-final. Only at the long final I was happy with my technique. But this was the last race so it was to late. As side event there was a Indoor-O the Friday before WMOC. This was my first Indoor-O. I had a lot of fun but forgot to visit two controls. It was a nice event but I prefer all age events. So I only will went for another WMOC if I like the place were it will be. Japan 2027 could be a event that attract me. You can find results, Livelox and pictures at the WMOC homepage.

Bavarian Forest 5 Days or running in the stones

Ok first to say it wasn’t that stony than the previous editions but you still need to count the rocks. The 2024 edition took place in Philippsreut, Haidmühle and Waldenkirchen. South of the Bavarian Forest national park just at the border to the Czech Republic. With entries from 26 countries it has become a real international event.
Day 1 was a long distance in Haidmühle. A lot of route choices in the beginning and tricky rock controls in the end. I didn’t solve and execute the route choices very well but didn’t have much trouble with the rock controls.
In the Morning of day 2 you had the opportunity to compete in Trail-O. The Trail-O was organised by Trail-O relay world champion Ralph Körner. Very tricky controls along different rock and contour features. My performance was very poor but I learned a lot for the next competition days.
In the afternoon there was the sprint race in the city of Waldenkirchen. Sunday afternoon and not so good weather means that orienteers had the city mostly for themselves. This still means a lot of traffic at some controls.
Day 3 to 5 shared the same event center in Philippsreut. But used different parts of the forest with different characteristics.
I wasn’t in good running shape and made to many mistakes so I finished 7^th out of 11 in M40.
The 2025 edition will be from 23 – 27 July with two races in the Czech Republic. You’ll find official results, pictures and Route Gadget on the event website. You can find my maps in my map archive.