10 typical mistakes navigators keep making
#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.