New national champions in mountaineering orienteering

The Slovenian Mountaineering Orienteering Competition (SPOT), which took place on Rakitna and Krim on 23 and 24 May 2015, crowned new national champions on the 60th anniversary of mountaineering orienteering competitions in Slovenia. The orienteering challenge, organized under the auspices of the Orienteering Committee of the Youth Commission of the Alpine Association of Slovenia by mountaineering clubs of the Gorenjsko-Dolenjska League, featured 76 teams from all over Slovenia. The winners in individual categories were competitors from mountaineering clubs Krka Novo mesto (A), Nazarje (B), Borovnica (C and Č), Domžale (D), Ptuj (E), Polzela (F), Zabukovica (G1), Gornja Radgona (G2), Slivnica pri Celju (H), and Zagorje (I).

Over two days, around 350 orienteers from seven regional mountaineering orienteering leagues showed their orienteering knowledge: Gorenjsko-Dolenjska, Podravska, Rogaška, Zasavska, Savinjska, Primorska League, and Smrekovec League. Saturday's daytime and night races were attended only by competitors in the five most demanding categories C, Č, D, H, and I, while on the Sunday orienteering highlight on Rakitna, competitors from all other categories also gathered. Mountaineers had to demonstrate, in addition to excellent orienteering knowledge, general mountaineering knowledge, and good physical fitness, also practical knowledge of mountaineering school material and additional material on Slovenian myths and legends from the mountain world; on the course, practical tasks in orienteering, mountaineering knots, first aid, nature protection, and mountain knowledge awaited them, adapted to the difficulty level of each category.

The Slovenian Mountaineering Orienteering Competition Rakitna 2015 crowned new national champions in mountaineering orienteering on 24 May. In category A (pupils up to 6th grade of primary school), the team from PD Krka Novo mesto won, in category B (pupils from 7th to 9th grade of primary school) the team from PD Nazarje, in categories C (high school students from 1st year to 18 years) and Č (youth from 19 to 26 years) teams from PD Borovnica, in category D (members over 27 years) the team from PD Domžale, in category E (members over 40 years) the team from PD Ptuj, and in category F (families) the team from PD Polzela. In open categories, the most successful teams were: in the less demanding G1 (comparable to category A) PD Zabukovica, in the less demanding G2 (comparable to category B) PD Gornja Radgona, in the demanding category H (comparable to Č and D) PD Slivnica pri Celju, and in the medium-demanding I (comparable to C) PD Zagorje.


"This is our first year competing in orienteering and we prepared quite a lot with our mentor, both with the map on the terrain and learning knots, alpine flowers, and other things. Today's race was quite demanding, we wanted to qualify for the top ten, so the victory really surprised us," were delighted the winners in category A, Tina and Ana Kraljič, Špela Gorenc, Julija Srpčič, and Klara Žagar from PD Krka Novo mesto.

In the "royal" category D, seasoned orienteering veterans from PD Domžale (Luka Skočir, Dušan Prašnikar, Jernej Južna, Miha Vidali, and Blaž Češka) celebrated, also the absolute winners of this year's Slovenian Mountaineering Orienteering Competition, who have been competing at SPOT since 2000 and this year won the national title for the seventh time. "Due to weather conditions, the terrain was quite demanding. On Saturday, it rained during the daytime race, fog hindered visibility during the night race, on Sunday we were already a bit tired and the daytime race was the most demanding in orienteering. On all three courses, we covered around 50 kilometers and 2000 elevation meters, plus solving practical mountaineering and orienteering tasks. The competition was strong, fortunately we didn't encounter any bear," they said after the announcement of results.

Mountaineering orienteering competitions are one of the most popular methods of learning orienteering, also promoted by the Youth Commission of PZS. Under the auspices of the Orienteering Committee of MK PZS, this year's SPOT was organized by volunteers from mountaineering clubs Domžale, Trzin, Borovnica, and Krka Novo mesto; competition leader Matej Ogorevc, amid the bustle of satisfied competitors, also did not hide his satisfaction: "The weather played a little trick on us, but it didn't affect the execution of the competition, perhaps only slightly on the competitors' morale. SPOT proceeded without issues, I can praise all competitors and organizers, as well as cooperation with the Youth Climate Health Resort Rakitna. Orienteering-wise, SPOT was demanding, as befits the 60th anniversary of mountaineering orienteering competitions, the participation was also pleasing."

SPOT Rakitna 2015 coincided with the 60th anniversary of mountaineering orienteering competitions in Slovenia, as the first such competition in Slovenia took place in May 1955. The two-day competition in Zgornja Savinjska dolina, organized by PD Univerze as part of the 1st gathering of student mountaineers of Yugoslavia, was attended by 17 teams. The largest mountaineering orienteering competition was in 1979 in the Snežnik area, when Slovenia hosted the Yugoslav national championship; the greatest success in orienteering was achieved in 1982, when it became the team national champion of Yugoslavia.