VIDEO: "How fast do you go?"

Walking speed - that's how fast you go

• In general, speeds are always given as the distance covered per time required for this. When hiking, the route is usually given in kilometers and the time in hours.
• As a rough guide, on a normal hike you can assume that you can cover 3-4 km in an hour. Of course, it is not a steep uphill climb, you have no dawdling toddlers with you (who you have to motivate) and you do not take any longer breaks.
• You can use this rough value as a measure when planning a day hike. However, you need to plan adequate breaks. Basically, as a beginner hiker, you should plan a shorter route in order not to get into a difficult time situation.
• In the (alpine) mountains it is not the distance that is decisive, but the ascent height. Here you calculate about 1 hour ascent time for 300 meters in altitude; a trained person goes faster, of course (but they know what they can do anyway). The times that are given on signs and signposts are usually a little too short - just for the experienced!

Determine your hiking speed - that's how fast you are

You can determine your individual hiking speed with a very simple method:

1. Select a route with a known length on a hiking map (possibly Use a yardstick!) Or you can take a suggestion from a hiking book that specifies the length of the route. Alternatively, you can use a pedometer. In that case, however, you should measure your average stride length for normal hiking beforehand. The walking distance is obtained by multiplying the number of steps with this step length.
2. Run the envisaged hiking route and stop the time required for it with a clock.
3. Now divide the hiking distance (in kilometers, also as a decimal number) by the time required for it (in hours). Calculate for 1/2 hour = 0.5 hours and for 1/4 hour = 0.25 hours etc.
4. Do not rush to attempt this, after all, this is not about recorede. After all, you want to find out how fast you are when hiking (rather than running).