World Cup terrain description, June 7th in Munkedal, Sweden
The competition area is situated some few kilometers east of the town of Munkedal and has been used on and off for races during the last decades, but mostly only minor competitions.
The first map was made 1973 by Sven Dahlberg, the second by Matti Turpinen early nineties and in June the world cup competitors will face the third edition of the area when they reach the middle distance start point.
Major landowner of the terrain is Munkedal Skog (Forest Company) which may give you the thoughts of forest heavy affected by forestry. But it’s not the fact; most of the competition area has never faced an ax, chainsaw or a forest machine. There are of course some areas where the forest has been thinned out but clear cuts doesnt exist. At least where the courses are planned.
Topography is in some parts rather steep due to lots of drop offs, but the level difference is never more than 25-30 meters when entering the heights. Numbers of details are mostly rather high of the mapped area and marshlands can be wet if the spring gives us lots of rain. Roads and paths are few except in the area closer to the arena where also tracks for cross country skiing is situated.
In the forest you have a good visibility during at least 90 % of the course. The running speeds can be different depending to the topography and steep slopes and also heather can affect the speed. Most trees are pine and spruce.