Thread: Hihitahi Challenge 2016

I am very pleased to announce the date for the 2016 Hihitahi Challenge. The Challenge will be held on Saturday the 23rd of January, 2016. The 2016 event will be very similar to this year’s event with a few notable changes to improve the running of on the day. The event will still include hiking, basic navigation, shooting, distance estimation, flora & fauna identification, first aid, observation and we will see about throwing in some new activities again as well. This will be the major event on our competition calendar for 2016.

We were extremely well supported with sponsors this year (more prizes than we had competitors!). We will be approaching sponsors again for prizes for the 2016 event. If you know someone or a business that might be interested in supporting the event (or even being involved on the day) then let me know and I’ll get in touch with them.

I am not taking entries until I confirm a few more details. I expect to open up the entries in December.


This is a long video from the 2015 event but it shows the event very well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mXgdGmeOI

Couple of prize sponsors on board:
@DPT - Darren was on board this year but between Malcolm and I we managed to drop the ball with his sponsored prize. Really awesome DPT have chosen to support us again!

Swazi - yep, Swazi clothing have come back on board as supplying some prizes for competitors. Swazi receive a lot of sponsorship applications from a whole range of people and we are hugely appreciative that they have once again chosen to support out Hihitahi Challenge!

I will be announcing more prize sponsors as they come on board. Freaking awesome seeing this type of shooting and hunting industry support!

Hey Gillie - I'm keen on this event I'll drop you a PM. Was very interested in the Tarata shoot but not far enough along on the laod dev. Buga

Gillie when abouts are you opening up for registrations? Myself and a few others from Wanganui Hunters & Stalkers are keen to enter.

@chainsaw, @Reindeer I finally have some more time to give to this event and are now taking registration for entries. I have been pretty busy of late and still ahve a heap of work to put in to get the last details for this event confirmed. I'm going to use the next few posts to confirm some of the event details.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Navigation Skills:
The competitor will come across several designated navigation points while moving around the course. At each of these points the competitor will determine the navigation values indicated on their score card. The values may include a magnetic bearing to another location, a distance estimate to another location, a grid reference, or an estimate of the competitor’s arrival time to another location. The use of a GPS will not be allowed!

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Distance Estimation Skills:
At each shoot stage the competitor will have to estimate the distance to each target as their actual distances will not be given. The competitors distance estimate will be recorded on their score card. No rangefinders will be allowed. In order to score the competitor will typically be required to estimate the distance to target to within 10% (or there abouts).

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Medical First Aid Skills:
The competitor will be presented with one of three different practical medical exercises i.e. an actual patient with a fake injury. A first aid kit will be provided to them and they will be asked to treat the patient within a time limit. The competitor will also be given 10x first aid related, multi-choice questions to answer as well.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Flora and Fauna Identification:
A section of the course will have trees and or animals identified on it. The competitor shall record the tree type or animal on their score card. Tree identification books or other resources i.e. your smart phone will not be allowed!
We will be introducing a couple of significant changes to this stage in the 2016 event!

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Observation Skills:
Competitors will be challenged to locate and identify a number of object placed in front of them. They will be given an area to observe to try and find these objects. The objects will mostly be hunting and camping related.
This is a favorite stage for competitors and is much harder than it sounds!

Also we will again be placing numbers around the course at random intervals and locations. Competitors will be scored on how many of these numbers they can locate and record correctly on their course map.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Shooting Skills:
The competitor will come across several stages that require them to shoot at targets. Each shoot stage will involve multiple target to be shot under a time limit. For the 2016 event we are going to increase the amount of shooting over previous years so there will be more shots at each of the stages.

Hihitahi Challenge 2016
Basic fitness:
The course follows a farm access track, is approximately 10km in length and involves an elevation change of about 200m. Competitors will choose their own pace though and a high level of fitness is not required to be able to complete the course.
There will be no weather cancellation. If it rains then the competition will still continue, wet weather gear is advisable if it does rain. The shoot location is exposed and so competitors should plan to be out in the weather/wind all day. The course is between 800m and 1000m above sea level.

As above guys entries can now be registered with myself (just message me). We will limit the number of entries to 40 this year. Once you register all we ask is that you let us know if you can't make it along so we can open up your entry spot to someone else. We are not quite set up to take entry fees with registration yet so payment of the entry fee on the day is fine with me.

Individuals and Teams:
For the 2016 event we will have entry for both individual competitors and also two person teams. Each individual and each team will receive one score card and individuals will not compete directly against teams.
Only an individual competitor can pick up the trophy!

Entry fees:
The entry fee for the 2016 Hihitahi Challenge will be confirmed a little closer to the date. I expect it will be $40 or $50 per competitor and half that for competitors 16 years of age or under.

Prizes...:
Sponsored prizes are rolling in now and we have some really cool stuff to give away. Because of the quality of the prizes we are looking at how they will be distributed on the day. I will be identifying our prize sponsors in subsequent posts to this page. In previous years every competitor has got a prize. I expect the 2016 event will be no different.

Cheers,
Simon

Entries are filling up with only about 15 available spaces left. Get in touch with me to enter.

Individual trophy is about done...