Quote Originally Posted by CribGoch View Post

Thats not a matter of knowing the area, its a fairly basic map reading skill which you can practice sitting at home in front of the fire. Checking contour heights to see which way the slope goes is surely the last resort of a desperate man.
CribGoch - that's a pretty unfair comment as even sitting at home in front of the fire you still need some indication of heights to know whether a slope is up or down. When I teach navigation it's one of the basic but vital things to note. Sure as you get more advanced you can look at the way streams flow but on large expanses of open land in some areas it isn't always that obvious.