How to calculate the difficulty of hike.

In this article you are going to learn how to assess the level of difficulty for a hike.
Calculating the diffucalty of an itinerary properly, will allow you to choose a hike suited to your experience and fitness level.


The difficulty of a hike depends on three main points criteria, the distance to be covered, the changes in height, and the type of land to cross.

1- the distance to be covered :
Obviously a trail is more difficult if it's longer, but it's not always easy to workout with the right distance is, you can use a software program or a map to calculate the distance, as a reminder if you use a map of the scale of 1 to 25,000, 1 centimeter on the map will represent 25,000 centimeters, or 250 meters on the trail.
The main difficulty of a flat trail is the length as a guide, a beginner can cover 2 to 4 kilometers of a flat trail in one hour.
The best way to judge your speed is by testing yourself, we suggest that you follow a trail for 6 to 8 kilometres on flat ground, so as to calculate your own speed.


2- The changes in height :
This is simply the change in altitude, do two ascents and descents over the course of the trail, the hike becomes more difficulat when there are greater changes in height, that's why in this case the trail should be shorter.
You can calculate the changes in height, by stadying the contour lines, usually found on all hiking maps.
When in the mountains the difficulaty of a hike should be calculated according to the changes in height, and not the distance.

To give you an idea, a beginner can cover 300 meters positive altitude climb uphill in about an hour, this is assuming the altitude change does not exceed to 600 meters.
We advise you to time yourself doing a hike, with a positive climb of 500 meters, so as to better understand how difficult this is, and to assess your own physical ability.

More : How to walk uphill properly when hiking.


3- The type of land :
Get informed ahead of time by asking other hikers, using online forums or by looking for photos.
As a guide a beginner should find the trail with obstacles that ankle height relatively easy, but might have difficulty climbing over fallen rocks, snow banks or crossing a river.

In short here are the three main criteria to examine, so as to evaluate the difficulty of your hike :
- The distance to be covered.
- The changes in height.
- And the type of land to cross.
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Source Sikana tv