I've spent a long time searching before asking so forgive me if this is an obvious question:

What's the best way to plan a route through mountainous terrain? EG: from Lausanne to somewhere in Northern Italy?

Obviously I can't simply climb high and fly direct so how do I plot a route given a FL or altitude or height that gets me through the various routes that exist without actually knowing what those routes are?

Say for example I was happy to fly at 10000ft with a lateral clearance of 2 miles to obstacles and a vertical clearance of 500ft.

Thanks in advance

SkyDemon will never attempt to create a suitable VFR route for you. You'll need to do this yourself, or use another piece of software, I'm afraid.

Thanks for a refreshingly succinct reply, it make my decision making a lot easier.

Stick.

I would not want to trust any route through mountains that had been generated by a piece of software - I just don't trust software that much.

I would let SD draw a straight line route - then I would rubber band it to fly through the valleys and avoid the mountains.

I believe that the SD team is doing some work on suggesting IFR routes - but that is only 0.001% as complex as trying to pick route around mountains. That is where the human brain - and our innate sense of self preservation comes into its own.

I would not want to trust any route through mountains that had been generated by a piece of software - I just don't trust software that much.

I would let SD draw a straight line route - then I would rubber band it to fly through the valleys and avoid the mountains.

I believe that the SD team is doing some work on suggesting IFR routes - but that is only 0.001% as complex as trying to pick route around mountains. That is where the human brain - and our innate sense of self preservation comes into its own.