Quote Originally Posted by Mofro261 View Post
IMO, reading the terrain and conditions is the MOST important skill to develop and is fundamentally at the heart of the "basics". It's precisely the point of these route finding exercises- to develop the instincts of safe mountain travel that should be translatable to any slope regardless of familiarity. Topo maps are great for trip planning and general navigation, especially for travel over distances, but direct visualization always trumps the map for me when it comes to ascending and descending- where are the drainage/terrain traps, rollers, cliff outs, convex features, run out zones, etc.

It's true that our instincts are most accurate best when combined with the greatest amount of additional information- current snowpack conditions, wind, weather, temps, etc. It would be cool if this info was able to be added to the pics in those exercises to present different travel scenarios through the same terrain, giving multiple routes based off of changing conditions within a particular setting.
Totally agree. Maps and pano shots are great for macro route finding but the micro stuff has to come from personal observation and experience in similar conditions. There's a quote (can't recall who) "it takes a lifetime to learn to read terrain well. Sometimes two lifetimes."

With GIS technology these days, incorporating your ideas is only a matter of budget constraints. Would be cool to have closer scale photos at various spots along the potential routes too.