Quote Originally Posted by Mark G View Post
I think there's more to it than maths, especially on a long run or MM. Over or round is the classic problem. I tell people on FRA nav courses it depends on more than time or distance. Do you need to eat? Easier while you climb than sprinting around. Likewise for checking the map and planning the next leg. Do you need a water source? How easy is the feature you are aiming for to find? Might be on a track that makes it easy if you are running round, might be 500' down a featureless slope in thick mist if you go over. In good conditions is there advantage in going high to perhaps get a view of the ground ahead? Its more of a nav/route choice issue than what's maybe the fastest/shortest on paper. .
Huge example of this came on the first South Wales Mountain trial... a leg of 2-3 miles across to the other side of Fan Fawr.

Everyone except for myself contoured round. But i took the steep 500ft climb straight over the summit...

My thoughts were not so much distance saved (i don't think it saved any distance at all), but then having the vast majority of the leg running downhill, approaching the checkpoint from above, and hopefully avoiding the abundant tussocky and marshy ground.

Your own relative strengths/weaknesses also play into it.


Leg 1-2 on the map below...

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L-C...Z8qWyOaY_/view