Timing

Timing is important for navigating in the mountains as it can tell you how long you will be walking for, or how long you should expect to walk before you arrive at a feature, such as a hill top or lake. Especially useful in bad weather.

The average hill walker walks at 5 kilometres per hour.

When broken down that is:
5km per 60 mins
1km per 12 mins
500 metres per 6 mins
100 metres per 1 min + 12 seconds (call it just over one min)

If you are walking for 2km it should take you 24 mins.
If you are walking for 300 metres it should take you just over 3 mins.

When walking uphill, count how many uphill contour lines you are climbing and add one extra min for every uphill contour line you climb.

If you are climbing fifteen uphill contour lines that is fifteen extra mins you need to add to your time.

When walking on flat ground or downhill, don’t count any contour lines.

Example:
If you are walking 1km, that will take you 12 mins; plus if you are climbing ten uphill contour lines, that is ten extra mins you need to add to your time – Total Time 22 mins.