10 typical mistakes navigators keep making

Whroo rush

#1  IGNORE CONTOUR INTERVALS.

Seems like an obvious thing, but quite often we take a map and focus on route planning without paying enough attention to the legend of the  map. Mountainous areas might have 20 (even 50) meter contour intervals which makes it a whole different story, as steep climbing as well as steep descending slows you down dramatically and ultimately leads to a different route choice strategy.
 

#2 FORGETTING  MAGNETIC DECLINATION.

How far are you going to be from where you were aiming at if your direction is 10-20-30 degrees off what you thought you were following? Lets just say that for a distance of about 1 km with 10 degrees declination you will be off approximately 200 meters.  If we’re talking about 30 degrees it’s already 350 meters or so.

 

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