news and offers Walking Time Calculations
In 1892 Scottish climber William W. Naismith created a basic calculation for approximating the time required to complete a walk.
Allow 1 hour for every 3 miles (5km) forward, plus 30 minutes for every 1,000 feet (300m) of ascent.
The basic rule makes no specific allowance for steep ascents, gentle descents or for extended breaks (for rest or sight-seeing). It can be argued that to some extent the effects of ascents and descents will cancel each other out, and it is easy enough to add rest time. In practice the original rule is generally considered to work fairly well for calculating a minimum walking time for walks of up to 3 or 4 hours with good weather conditions and decent paths. Naismith's Rule is viewed as being more accurate for stronger walkers, and many walkers prefer to use 2.5 miles per hour as the walking speed.
A number of variations to Naismith's rule have arisen over the years which attempt to include other specific factors.
A popular variation to Naismith's rule, Tranter's Corrections are designed to include fitness and fatigue in the overall walking time calculation. Fitness is assessed by the time it takes to climb 1,000 feet over a distance of half a mile (800m).
| Fitness (mins) | Time taken in hours (estimated using Naismith's Rule) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 24 | ||
| 15 (very fit) | 1 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.75 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 6.75 | 7.75 | 10 | 12.5 | 14.5 | 17 | 19.5 | 22 | 24 | |
| 20 | 1.25 | 2.25 | 3.25 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 6.5 | 7.75 | 8.75 | 10 | 12.5 | 15 | 17.5 | 20 | 23 | |||
| 25 | 1.5 | 3 | 4.25 | 5.5 | 7 | 8.5 | 10 | 11.5 | 13.25 | 15 | 17.5 | ||||||
| 30 | 2 | 3.5 | 5 | 6.75 | 8.5 | 10.5 | 12.5 | 14.5 | |||||||||
| 40 | 2.75 | 4.25 | 5.75 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 11.5 | Too much to be attempted | ||||||||||
| 50 (unfit) | 3.25 | 4.75 | 6.5 | 8.5 | |||||||||||||
The following adjustments are commonly used:
- Drop one fitness level if carrying a load of 20kg.
- Drop one or more fitness levels for difficult conditions underfoot.
- Drop one fitness level for a night journey.
- Drop one fitness level if the wind is against you.
Map Software & Walking Time Calculations
Digital Mapping software such as Anquet utilises digital maps and height data to supply a whole range of walk statistics. You can view spot height data as you plot and save waypoints and paths, associated gradient profiles and adjustable Naismith's Rule walk statistics.
