Orienteering is an outdoor sport that involves navigating through unfamiliar terrain using a map and compass. It originated in Scandinavia in the late 1800s and came to the US in the 1940s. The goal is to navigate between control points of varying distances, from less than a mile to over 4 miles. Key skills include reading topographic maps, using a compass, pacing distances, navigating with techniques like using beelines or contour lines, and identifying one's location using a grid coordinate system.