New 2004-12-14 The "Map Council of the Czech Orienteering Federation" comments the ISSOM 2004 Draft. Czech maps crossroads is on the same site maps.orientacnibeh.cz. It includes remarks on the general content, suggestions how to solve "barriers versus communications" problem and graphical implementation of these suggestions in Ocad format. New All our efforts in High Tatras are in vein. Strong gale (100 km/h) damaged most of the existing orienteering terrains. Most of the spruce forest vanished. New 2004-10-18 We returned (04-10-16) from our mapping and hiking trip to High Tatras in Slovakia (Ales, Vendy & Pepa). Three days of sun, three days of clouds and three days of foggy drizzle. The montane forest in height of 1300 metres above the sea level was full of moraine features, high blueberry bushes, big boulders and mossy lakes. Strbske Pleso in High Tatras is the venue of the Grand Prix Slovakia 2005. New Ales & Vendy returned (04-09-27) from our 5 months mapping trip to Canada on the 27th of September. We spend spring in the Yukon, summer and autumn in Alberta. We mapped in 8 different terrains. ! Severe winds blew in April in Downtown Whitehorse where we mapped first. Chunks of ice trimmed the Yukon river. ! Soon after the snow melted, and we could enter the boreal forest around Whitehorse. Mapping in very intricate glacial sandy terrain around Long Lake was fun. It was one of the nicest terrains I have ever experienced. ! At the end of May finally leaves started to sprout. Banks of the river were covered with blue crocus blossoms. We moved with our mapping boards to Chadburn Lake. A bit further from Whitehorse where bear poo was not scarce, but scary. ! On all these three terrains were already held the Canadian Championships 2004. That were the first Canadian Champs held north of the 60th parallel of latitude. Besides mapping we made many trips in the great Yukon wilderness. Kluane, Skagway, Dawson, Tombstone Mountains - there is so much to do and see! New In June we moved to Alberta. In the ravines of Edmonton river system we made our first map. The World Masters are going to fork their way through these parks next year during the World Masters Games. ! We mapped on all the World Masters Orienteering Championships maps. Information on all these terrains is embargoed until the Championships. So I can only tell you some fair facts. ! If you like mushrooms there are planty of them in Medicine Hills. In Tiger Lily the only creatures that manage forest are beavers. You can't miss their dams and clearings. In Wildland on the northern bank of the Athabasca river aspen leaves in September tremble in vivid yellow colors. New During our Canadian holidays we traveled in British Columbia. Our first trip led to desolate Northern BC and the second to Vancouver via Rockies. We spend together one month on the road. After being some time in remote areas of Northern BC I felt very lucky to hear the noise of highways again. We made a lot of photos. New Some of our adventures are described in the online magazine of independent travelling - Treknet. New My writing career for O-Sport reached sixth issue. Main topics have covered sprint maps, GPS, photogrammetry, animal encounters during mapping, Mtbo maps, colorblind perception of o-maps. I have interviewed 5 mappers - Perola Olsson, Alexander Shirinian, Dan Chissick, Eric Andrews, Zdenek Lenhart. I would like to publish them on this website. [Ales] New Martin finished his Secondary School studies and now attends the Faculty of Electrotechnics of the University of West Bohemia. New Ales and Vendy got married on the 20th of March 2004. New 2004-01-23 I became a new reporter of the O-sport magazine. I should write about orienteering maps. Two pages per each issue. I would like to divide it into three main sections - Trend, Mapper's profile, Famous place on an o-map. First deadline end of February. Wish me luck in this new challenge. [Ales] New Country covered with fresh powder snow has a magic atmosphere. I experienced it on the 20th-21st of January in Michalovy hory (with Honza Drbal). 30-40 cms of new innocent snow had complicated our mapping so much we had to stop our fieldwork. But it was nice. [Ales] New 2004-01-15 You can download Ocad symbol sets for rogaining and mountain bike orienteering. They were used for the World Rogaining Champs 2002 and the MBO World Cup 2003.