Kainuu Orienteering Week is a whole family adventure and a relaxed holiday week
Do you have little experience in orienteering, or are you looking for a low-threshold way to enjoy the sport and the magnificent, easily runnable pine heaths of Kainuu? The Open Trail Course (Avoin-RR) category at Kainuu Orienteering Week (Kainuun Rastiviikko) offers a safe, flexible, and fun orienteering experience for all ages – especially for children and families.
Kainuu Orienteering Week is not only an event for competition and elite orienteers, but also a very diverse recreational open orienteering event where suitable open courses can be found for everyone. The open courses of the recreational orienteering week guarantee that the threshold for entering the forest is as low as possible. Participants can choose a starting time that suits them and complete the course either alone, in pairs, or in a group.
Open Trail Course (OPEN-RR): A safe guide line leads the way
The Open Trail Course (OPEN-RR, Rastireitti in Finnish) is, as the name implies, a course marked in the terrain with a highly visible guide line (siimari). The guide line guides the orienteer safely throughout the course, so very few map reading skills are needed yet. In principle, the course can be completed in the simplest way by following the guide line all the way from the start to the finish.
The Open Trail Course (OPEN-RR) is excellently suited for families or groups, as the route can be completed together with parents, siblings, or friends. A child can also complete the course independently.
The Open Trail Course is also referred to as Family Orienteering and was previously known as Family-RR (Family Trail Course).
Orienteering skills develop unnoticed
The Open Trail Course uses the same route as the competitive Trail Course (RR) category for 8-year-olds. More skilled young orienteers can challenge themselves by taking small "shortcuts" from the guide line using the map, thereby practicing minor orienteering tasks safely. The OPEN-RR is one of the recommended open courses for children and beginners alongside the C-courses. For the very youngest family members, the Kainuu Orienteering Week also offers the Rastiralli orienteering adventure course, which the whole family can complete together.
Competition Centre services ease participation for families
At Kainuu Orienteering Week, we focus on the needs of families with children, and the services at the Competition Centre are designed to support the whole family's shared activities.
Muksula – Children's day care services for parents to orienteer
Our Competition Centre features the Muksula children's day care service to make the families' holiday week easier. A child of pre-school age can be safely left at Muksula for a few hours of care and play.
Simultaneously, the parent/guardian can complete the Open Trail Course with an older child or alone if they wish to safely familiarise themselves with the sport.
The parent/guardian can, of course, also participate in the other open courses categories or the competition categories (a license is required for competition categories, but not for open courses).
Next to the Muksula facility and in its immediate vicinity, there is also a childcare tent where daily care procedures for babies can be managed smoothly and privately.
Rastiralli – An orienteering adventure course
For the youngest family members (and perhaps as a joint activity for the whole family), the Rastiralli course is organised at the Kainuu Orienteering Week Competition Centre. This adventurous, easy, and marked course offers fun activities for young orienteers.
Along the route, the control points feature various small adventurous and nature-themed tasks that make completing the course pleasantly exciting. A surprise prize awaits the participant at the Rastiralli finish line!
The Rastiralli starts close to the Competition Centre (usually next to Muksula) and runs in the immediate surroundings, making it easy to fit into the day’s schedule.
Enjoy top-level arrangements and diverse services
Whether you participate in the Open Trail Course, any other open courses category, or challenge yourself in the competitive classes, you get to enjoy the smooth arrangements of Kainuu Orienteering Week:
- Top-level terrain: Fine and firm-based pine heath terrains await near the Säynäjäsuo hiking trail area.
- High-quality courses and world-class map: Experienced Kainuu Orienteering Week course setters, supported by professionals from Mapline Oy, have designed courses that are guaranteed to be in excellent condition. The orienteering map is guaranteed to be world-class and up-to-date down to the last detail.
- Diverse services: The Competition Centre offers high-quality restaurant and cafe services with home-cooked lunch, grill food, daily soup, and delicacy spots, showers, dressing facilities, a dog park, and orienteering equipment shops, as well as an essential soft-ice stand for a summer holiday. In addition, you can buy local small businesses' products, KOW event merch, and, of course, traditional metre-long liquorice from the KOW Shop.
- Event bus serves families and individuals/pairs: For next summer's Orienteering Week, a specially affordable competition bus ticket has been introduced for families, priced at only 40 euros for the entire week. A family is defined as 2 adults and 2–3 children. The ticket can be purchased in advance from our online KOW webshop. The competition bus runs every competition day from the Suomussalmi KOW Event Centre (Jalonniemi), via the KOW camping area (Ruukinkangas) and KOW dormitory accommodation (Karhulanvaara), to the heart of the Competition Centre and back.
- Competition Centre parking close by: Next summer in Suomussalmi, the Competition Centre parking lots are located in hard-based gravel pit areas, from which the walking distance to the Competition Centre is only 200–600 metres. By purchasing a VIP ticket, the walking distance is only 200–300 metres.
The 58th Kainuu Orienteering Week will be held in the Säynäjä terrains in Suomussalmi from June 28 to July 3, 2026. The 6th Kainuu MTBO Week will also be held during the event week on the same dates, June 28–July 3. You can participate in both open courses and competition classes during the Kainuu MTBO Week.
The event week will start with the 6th Kainuu Trail – Trail Running event on the magnificent trails of Hossa National Park on Saturday, June 27, with running distances of 10, 21, 38, 55, and 78 kilometres. The 10-kilometre distance has a dedicated category for girls and boys aged 12–17.
Register for Kainuu Orienteering Week at the most affordable price by November 30, 2025, and you can save up to over 40% on participation fees compared to on-site prices.
