Night Navigation is Deceptively Hard

Once teams were over the pass through Smuggler’s Notch, they arrived at Transition area 6: a small camp at the end of a very rocky access road. Beyond the gate was a trekking section that during the daylight hours may have been much, much easier. As teams arrived, the task at hand was made more and more difficult by the enclosing darkness.

Here teams were faced with a choice: There were 9 checkpoints set in the woods, divided into 3 sections: A, B, and C. Each section had its own map and its own passport. In order to clear this section, teams would need to visit each checkpoint with the appropriate passport, get the punch, and return to the transition area. For this section teams had the option to split up. In theory, each section was only a few kilometers long and should take someone around 30 to 35 minutes to finish. Many adventure racing teams are not comprised of all navigators, and this became an interesting decision point. Teams could stay together and visit all 9 checkpoints together, but that would definitely take longer than the 35 minute estimate given if each section were completed individually. Going together would mean a definite increase of 30-45 minutes on their total journey, but splitting up meant that the less confident navigators may get lost while alone. Knowing this, most teams chose to gamble and split up, hoping to clear the section quickly and move on.

Here’s the course flyover from the section they were tackling: