Discussion: Map study

I noticed on 12 most went to the north side of the hill and through the saddle.

By the way, usually middle distance courses aren't so much about route choice as navigating. Make sure and study the map trying to see fast routes that are also good attacks into the control. Having the best route is all for naught if you waste time trying to find the control.

Also, think about your tactic---are you going primarily by compass with some map reading or primarily map reading with some compass verification. On 4-5 I think I would go primarily on compass and looking for that marsh.

Not a bad idea of think about what you would do if you have trouble. For example, on 5 you could head north and look for that big dot boulder. If you don't see it, the big reentrant with intermittent stream/marshes are there so you could relocate quickly. I know the idea is not to have this issue but if you think about it from time to time, you will be better prepared when you do run into trouble.

I did most of those things, not so much the last one. One thing I do consider, though, is what features I'll be able to see from a ways away. If the boulders are large enough or the visibility good enough, I might tell myself to run in such and such a direction, keeping my eye out to the left or right for a given feature that's far enough away I would lose time running to it, but distinct enough it could still be used for navigation. This mostly applies to big cliffs, marshes, vegetation, distinct hills, and large point features.