Orienteering 1:10:00 [1]
Walking/waddling/jogging around Monte Meletta, the middle model map.
Holy moly that's a change in terrain! Eep! Boulders and cliffs and trenches, oh my! And some denser vegetation, reducing visibility even more than just the jumbled rockiness. But I've orienteered ok on such complicated terrain before, the name of the game is to stay in contact. At least, that's how I survived the crazy start to the middle qual last year.
Things discovered:
1) Mere contours can sometimes indicate limestone rock edge drops, which might be considered a cliff by another mapper. Even reentrants can be essentially cliffs, without a hint of black.
2) Hard to relocate in rock-detailed areas. Will be best to be careful and not lose contact. Because in full contact, things did make sense.
3) Trails can look like cliffs!
4) Vegetation can be denser than on the long, making for reduced visibility, even without any light green indicated.
5) Scattered tree yellow seems to indicate recently felled, but mostly clean areas.
6) Big boulders are 2m+
7) Trenches require an effortful jump to clear. Where mapped as a ditch is easier.
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Details.
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Basically, the W side of the ridge made sense. The boulder at #42 was right at the end of the cliff, the reentrant at #41, was straight up the hill from it, passed right by the depression and a brown pit on the way, which also made sense. The reentrant at #41 was a little cut into a rock or some such, but no indication on the map that it should be rocky, so something to watch out for tomorrow.
#40 - I passed by too high the first time. I should have thought more actively about contours in order to hit the trail below it that was my attack point.
Then over the top, and decent into chaos. The E side of the ridge is more jumbled rock, I thought. My plan to #39 totally worked. "From trail, find gap in cliffs, defend, bearing straight E over another cliff, head N to first boulder." But there were Russians noisily arguing if the controlled boulder were actually the correct one. (They explained this to me, I haven't magically learned Russian.) It seemed to not fit actually that well with things around, but was very hard to ID which other boulders around were actually mapped. Not the most confidence-boosting.
#37, I sent through reentrant, then climbed to the top of the facing cliffs, I think safer would have been to stay low and be swept around by the steepness, climbing when the steepness was oriented N-S. From the top of the nose, I found it extremely difficult to place anything. It is just tons of broken limestone rock, cliffy in many unmapped places. And denser trees to add to it all. A bearing eventually got me out to the control and once there I could figure out what was what. I was on top of a cliff that was only indicated with a contour line, with two trench-like ingresses which were just marked as reentrants. Ok, now know that mapping style may be used - contours really can be cliffy/rocky!
#38, Picked my way slowly across the top, noting what was mapped as a cliff and what not. If you are in contact, things make sense. If you aren't, it's very hard to pick out what might be mapped and what not. So during the race, will have to stay in contact through zones like this, or have very, very clear catching features. (Preferably contour-based, not rock!)
#34, Back over the ridge, visiting the pit of doom along the way, and noting a totally unmarked cliff right off the trail at one point. Made the mistake of thinking a trail was a set of cliffs upon decent, something to look out for tomorrow as well. #34 itself was nestled in the 3rd little nook in a cliffy contour.
#33 - Followed flat out for awhile, then descending alongside a nose untilI could see a open area below, out to that and bearing to control across a broad shallow reentrant. Things making sense again on this side!
#43 - Down on a bearing, using trails from terraces when they were helpful. Stopped slightly too early, should have pace counted from the trail to give myself confidence.
#44 - Again, stopped to early, but had a good plan of following the forest out, which did in fact work.