PreO in 20 degrees below zero

 Ari - map creator,
course setter,
 race director,
 organizer etc.

PreO is not only a summer sport. January 6th Ari Tertsunen organized Aurora Borealis PreO at Vuosaari golf course right outside Helsinki. Aurora Borealis PreO has become a winter tradition in Finland, a competition where Ari is both mapper, course setter, race director, organizer etc.

The first Friday in 2017 was a cold day in Helsinki with a temperature between -21  and -23 degrees Celsius, but fortunately it was very little wind. The wind is bad in those temperatures.
- Some snow (15 cm) made the contour reading a little more difficult. I also had to remove some snow from the paths with my own hands the evening before at 2100 hours, Ari says.

Almost 30 people participated this cold day in January, a number Ari are satisfied with
- Naturally many people informed that it is too cold for them. Especially people with wheelchairs do not like that cold weather. Next year we maybe take Aurora Borealis to Canary Islands – or so.

In Aurora Borealis there is no participation fee, but that doesn't mean that the competition is a basic event. Ari made the map from scratch, using LIDAR data, ortophoto and some municipal street geometry. Even with good basic data, you need to use some hours at the terrain and a few hour beside the computer to make a good preo map. When the map is ready the next step is course setting both in the terrain and in OCAD.

The main course consisted of 22 controls and one time control with three tasks. Two participants had all controls correct, Antti Rusanen and Marko Määttälä. Antti was fasted at the time controls and brought the victory home.

Podium from left: Marko Määttälä (2.), Antti Rusanen (1.), Pinja Mäkinen (3.), Petteri Suominen (4.), Esko Junttila (5.), Ari Uotila (6.), Eero Hakanen (7.) and Juha Villikka (8.)

Ari have done a very impressive job with this competition. You can take a look at the maps and results in our archive. Next year maybe some competitors from outside Finland will come to Aurora Borealis PreO.