New 2003-12-20 Our 2 months trip to Japan ended in mid October. We are back in the Czech Republic. We mapped in Japan (Ales, Vendy) for the World Orienteering Championships 2005. The majority of time we spend in Tsukude - that is the WOC 2005 event center. Tsukude is a rural village in Aichi prefecture close to Nagoya. Read Ales's article "Patronage of Stone Lions..." about future WOC 2005 surroundings in the 8th issue of the O-sport magazine (only printed version). We also mapped for the Japanese University Championships 2004 in Nikko (NW from Tokyo). Map Comission gathers opinions on WOC2003 sprint maps (from federations and competitors). Is a definite version of ISSOM in sight? "Contours Drawn in Purple, Roads in Red" - read insight reportage from the 10th Mapping conference. Written by Ales. Winter in the Czech Republic can be severe but also mild. Hopefully the weather in January, February and March will allow us to map in Michalovy hory. Michalovo hory is the second smallest Czech town (est. 1853) situated close to Marienbad in western Bohemia. It has less than 100 inhabitants. Its fame ended after the close-down of silver, cobalt and tin mines at the beginning of the 20th century. These remnants are the biggest surpluses of this terrain. Our probable next project for the spring and summer 2004 - mapping for the World Masters Orienteering Champs 2005 and the Canadian Champs 2004 in Alberta and Yukon. New 2003-09-12 The most discussed topics during the Mapping conference in Rapperswil (August 2003) were Ocad, GPS and ISSOM. Map Comission said: "ISSOM is not perfect," and asked national federations for cooperation (so far only rhetoreticaly). The most innovative suggestions for sprint maps has Czech Federation. Read more (by Ales) about the Mapping conference in some of coming O-sport magazines. Mapping for the World University Championships 2004 is done. The terrain was interesting and embargoed. High altitude training on orienteering maps is possible also in Europe, for example in Spain. The highest peak of the spanish orienteering map Lles in Pyrenees is 2240 meters high. In Lles mapped Ales together with Ivos Haban, Honza Drbal and Ondra Kotecky. The terrain was splendid. Design of the MBO World Cup o-maps (4th, 5th and 6th event in Plzen) was created by Ales. Ales finally finished his studies at the University of Economics in Prague and earned master's degree ( Ing. ). Vendula is master of economics already from June. And what is next? Zen-mapping in Japan from mid September to November. New 2003-08-01 Great Lakes Challenge - read reportage by Ales about orienteering in Michigan (published in O-sport 1/2003). Czech Map Council made clear that the new specification for sprint maps (ISSOM) need improvements. Ales is going to argue in support of some changes in ISSOM during the conference on mapping in Switzerland. Mapping for the World University Championships 2004 should be complete until the end of August 2003. In Spain Pyrenees (2000 meters high) - Ales will spend first half of August. Guess doing what. Ales and Vendy are going in September 2003 to Japan to practice zen-mapping . MBO World Cup will be held in Plzen during the second weekend of September 2003. Martin mapped headquarters of his scouting camp Violent Arrow 51 in Cesky les. Olles co-organized a team building for the Czech Coca-Cola Company.