Mountain hikers: how do you estimate the physical demand of a tour ahead of time?I’m not talking about technical difficulty, just the level of physical exertion.I’ve been using a simple rule of thumb for myself:If a route averages around 100 m of elevation gain per kilometer, I consider it easy. A hard route to me is roughly 200 m/km.I don’t factor in total distance much, since most of my hikes fall between 9 and 14 km anyway.Do you use a similar metric?
>>2851267for physical effort i mostly look at total elevation gain pretty much. i don't see how the slope is very important, if it's very uphill just go slower
>>2851267I live in the Sierra Nevadas. Heat, elevation gain, and terrain are what I use if I'm going to guide someone or go on a rescue call. Heat is the one that'll get you, more than anything else. Doing late night calls in the dead of summer where it's still 80F degrees at 9pm and you've been hiking for the last four hours straight in that weather... it'll start to take a toll. Terrain here can be really easy, really strenuous, or anywhere in between. I've come to learn that I like rock staircases more than endless switchbacks, but I've also done a 3000' ascent of rock staircases and scrambling and that starts to strain the knees after awhile.If you're bringing people that aren't used to hiking then you also need to factor in:DistanceTime without a major rest period
There's a trail with 1300 m elevation gain over 10.7 km in Slovakia so theoretically it should be rather easy but last 0,7 km has 300 m elevation gain, therefore a trail that averages at 120 m/km is considered quite scary
>>2851267Bro just look at the graph in the alltrails app
>>2851298imagine not compulsively checking the alltrails graph to see what rough % of the hill you are done with
>>2851267I don't and then by day 2 I'm exhausted or my muscles are sore and I have to do a rest day and by day three I can go back for some casual stuff and by day 4 i'm fine again
>>2851300>imagine not compulsively checking the alltrails graph to see what rough % of the hill you are done withYou caught me..
>>2851277Oh right. Heat isn't normally and issue here, I didn't even think of this. Of course that can get a really big issue in deserts. Probably the most dangerous factor to underestimate.
>>2851298No
>>2851298>he's on a trail listed in alltrails
Where I'm from some guys organized and created a categorized chart of all of the near by routes its very useful, with this thing you can plan ahead your hike and also measure your endurance and stuff like that, sorry for the pic but its in español. You get the idea anyway.
>>2851411I will find your trailI will list it on alltrails
>>2851425>It is important to note that elevation gain and horizontal distance should be proportional.They should define that. That's why I mentioned the gain over distance in the OP. It makes a difference.
>>2851267>estimate the physical demand of a tour ahead of timeI don't>level of physical exertionmumbo jumbo>Do you use a similar metric?no
