Winter Orienteering + Overnight

Event 100: Winter Orienteering at the Ochsenkopf

On the weekend of the 16/17th December we celebrated our 100th Mountain Club event! We prepared a snow filled weekend for the 14 participants. Saturday morning the happy hikers arrived to Bischofsgrün by bus, under the lead of Sara. Here Mirna and I (Teejo) picked everyone up to lead them around and over the Ochsenkopf Mountain to Fleckl, on the south side. What was supposed to be a nice hiked ended with the great snowball fight of the weekend. At first one innocent ball flew through the air, then a second followed. Not long after that snowballs were flying through the air, battles between multiple groups occurred. Some people where looking for cover while others climbed up to get the high point advantage.

After the first wave of energy was spend we arrived to the Mountain Rescue hut in Fleckl. Quickly everyone found a bed to sleep on and then came back down to prepare the lunch. Food of choice was wraps. Tasty, nutritious and healthy. After everyone loaded up on new energy for the Orienteering Game we headed back up the mountain for the game to start.

This Orienteering was a special one for two reason. Firstly, this was the first game in snowy conditions and secondly, no paper maps, each team got the coordinates on their phone and this way was able to digitally navigate the fastest route to the hidden boxes. The time limit was set to 2h 15m.

After a little over 1,5 hours the first team of Andrew and Yanick made their way back into the hut. They slapped their card onto the last box and to my surprise had collected all 15 boxes. A first in all our 8 orienteering games! The thought, that orienteering with phone navigation was maybe too easy crossed my mind.

After 2,5 hours all 6 teams managed to find back to the hut, the sun had already set and most teams used their headlights to find the last few boxes (night-mode had not been activated on the boxes). Most teams had found 12 or 13 boxes, so it seemed the game was well balanced.

After congratulating the winners and handing them their well deserved chocolate price we sat down for a typical german "Brotzeit" and games afterwards. The group split up into an "Uno"-table and a "Dobble"-table. It wasn't until too long though that the sleepiness started to set in and everyone headed upstairs for a well deserved night of rest.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast and then headed back out onto the mountain for a nice hike and to collect the orienteering boxes that had been lying in the snow for two nights. We enjoyed the sunny hike up and down and scavenged for the boxes that some teams were not able to find the evening before, despite the frantic search for them while the sun was setting.

Once back in the hut we had a nice hot chili sin carne to warm up. We packed our backpacks and sleeping gear and headed out once more for a last game. Eight brave souls were left to battle it out against each other in two teams of four in a game of Base Capture. While we had a dramatic sunset in the background the two teams tried to steal each others bases to emerge the victor after two short, but intense 10 minute rounds. And then it was already time to head back down to catch the bus back to Bayreuth after an active snow weekend on the mountain.

I want to thank everyone who joined this weekend for celebrating the 100th event with us. I'm very grateful for each and everyone of you and all your help with the cooking, cleaning, organizing, managing and all the other tasks that you guys jumped on this weekend. Together we made it very manageable. Thanks a million for all your help, I very much appreciate it!
A special thanks goes out to Sara for guiding everyone from Bayreuth to the Ochsenkopf and back home. And of course Mirna, who helped in organizing, the food shopping, preparing the hut and all other things that made this an unforgettable weekend!

It has now been almost 6 years of Bayreuth Mountain Club, 100 event, many thousands of kilometers hiked and many fun trips together. I cherish each and every event and all the new, diverse and extraordinary people I get to meet. On to the next 100 events! And until then, enjoy the photos of the weekend!

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