Timing Your Hike and how to avoid being Benighted on the mountainside

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Timing Your Hike and how to avoid being Benighted on the mountainside

Consider timing your hike if you have experienced the trauma of walking the final few miles in the dark because you under-estimated the time needed to complete your hike?

NEW FREE TOOL TO DOWNLOAD -
See this section for our 'Hiking Timetable' to help you plan and time your hike.

Or have you been stuck on the mountainside all night because it was unsafe to proceed in the dark? If so see our Benighted page covering survival bags.

Do you worry about tackling mountain hikes in the short winter days?

If so you need to take control of your hiking timetable by putting into practise the following hints and tips:

Choose a walk that is within the capabilities of yourself and the people accompanying you. Do not expect inexperienced and less fit hikers to be able to walk all day at the same speed as hikers who are seasoned and "mountain fit".
At home when timing your hike check the distance of your selected route. You can measure distance using a measuring tool which can be mechanical or electronic. But a simple device is just to use a length of string laying it on the map so that it follows every twist and turn of your route and then measure the resulting length using the scale on the side of the map. Alternatively use a large piece of paper and a pen and mark on the edges of the paper the distances between all the twists and turns etc. and again measure the resulting distance using the map scale.
When you know the distance - estimate your average walking speed. Over easy flat paths your speed might typically be 3 miles per hour (mph). So 1 mile would take you 20 minutes to complete. This is more or less equivalent to 5 kilometres per hour (kph) or 12 minutes to cover 1 kilometre. With experience you will gain a feel for the speed you should apply to yourself if you keep a record of starting and finishing times for your hikes. You can also read off your speed from your GPS if you hold it in front of you as you walk over easy flat ground. Please do not try this on difficult and exposed terrain!
Divide the known distance by your expected average walking speed. For example if the walk is 12 miles long and your typical walking speed is 3 mph the initial time required is 4 hours. Some of you will want to use a calculator or a computer spread sheet to deal with a variety of distances and speeds especially if you wish to be as accurate as possible eg, the distance might be 14.5 miles and your speed 2.5 mph. In which case the initial time required would be 5.8 hours which you would convert to 5 hours and 48 minutes.

Going Up!

Hiking up the mountain will reduce your speed. The traditional method of calculating additional climbing times was devised by a Scot called Naismith and his rule was to add 30 minutes (in addition to the walking time) in respect of every 1000 feet climbed. This equates to 30 minutes for every 300 metres climbed (1 minute for every 10 metres). This is an important part of the process of timing your hike.

And Going Down!

Walking downhill also needs to be considered. Walking down gentle slopes will generally compensate for time lost walking up similar slopes. However for individual steep downhill sections add 10 minutes for every 1000 feet or 300 metres of descent.

Other Factors

Other factors that may affect your speed are rough terrain especially if there is not a path to follow. Also the speeds above refer to day walks with a rucksack of 12 or 15 lbs (approx 5 to 7 kg). When timing your hike further allowance will be needed if you are carrying a heavier load on a camping expedition. Adverse weather conditions can also slow you down.

Total Times

Your final timings may therefore be a total of

Distance say 20 km @ 5kph = 4.00 hours

Ascent 900m = 1.50 hours

Downhill = 0.50 hours

Stops including lunch = 1.00 hours

Contingency = 0.50 hours

Total = 7.50 hours

Divide the walk into sections

The above total time assumes reasonable paths, terrain and weather conditions which in practise will all vary. Therefore to fine tune timing your hike and to help the navigation during the day it is helpful to study your map and divide the walk into several distinct sections that conveniently take you from one point on the map to another. For example if you start at a car park and walk to a bridge over a river that would be the first section to evaluate a time for. The next leg of the walk might be 2 miles on a path to the edge of a forest. Again you can calculate the time you will need to reach the forest using the timings and speeds discussed above and taking into account the nature of the terrain.

Prepare a summary

Summarise each leg of the walk on a summary sheet similar to the one below and you will not only have a good estimate of the length of time your walk will take but you will also become familiar with the walk from studying the map in detail. You will be less likely to get lost and/or arrive back late perhaps in the dark!

Download our Hiking Timetable to plan out your hikes

Use our FREE 'Hiking Timetable' to jot down the waypoints and landmarks along your trek to help with timing your hike.

It will help you check your walk speed, progress times and to stay on route.

Click here to download our free 'Hiking Timetable' spreadsheet (Windows Zipped Format ~ 4KB)

Please note, this is a Microsoft Excel 2003 spreadsheet we have created. It doesn't contain any Macros and has been virus-checked before being adding to the site. Please feel free to download for your own use and share with others, however in return all we ask is that the reference to our site is kept in.

Once downloaded, right click the zipped file and select 'Extract All' to unpack the Hiking Timetable to a location of your choice.

Happy (and safe) Hiking from John and David at Ideal Hiking Equipment!

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