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Hiking is probably an activity that has always existed, even if the practice for leisure purposes that we know in our regions is quite recent. Elsewhere, there remains an activity serving the lives and even the survival of people. It covers many different forms depending on the terrain, the distances covered and the commitment.
Hiking is ultimately going by walking from one point to another following a route to possibly pass by a summit or explore an interesting place: a valley, a lake or pond, a ledge, a plateau, an ridge, a forest etc.
Even if some routes include sections equipped to overcome difficult passages or those exposed to falls, no personal protection, safety or specific progression equipment is necessary. If this were the case, the route would switch to another type of activity, via ferrata, climbing, mountaineering or canyoning.
Finally, even if current fashion is geared towards trail running, our idea of hiking is not at all geared towards performance but rather towards a form of connection and contemplation with the nature in which we evolve. If time indications are specified alongside the difficulty or altitude difference, it is as part of the preparation in order to be able to safely embark on a route adapted to one’s resources.
Several dimensions must be considered to be able to assess the difficulty of a hiking route. We will take as a reference the proposal from the French Hiking Federation (FFRP): the practical guide to rating hiking hikes (2015). Hence the rating of the type E3 / T4 / R2
The energetic difficulty of the hike. The main factors taken into account here are distance and altitude difference.
Distance: the number of kilometres to be covered from the starting point to the finishing point.
Difference in altitude: the cumulative altitude to be climbed over the entire route. As a large proportion of hikes are loops, the positive difference in altitude (D+) is equal to the negative difference in altitude (D-). However, it is possible to find routes with a significant difference between D+ and D-, particularly on touring routes.
Another criterion should be mentioned here: altitude.
Some high-altitude routes add an extra physical difficulty: the scarcity of oxygen. While this is already the case in Europe for routes at 300m and above, it is absolutely the case in the Himalayas, for example, where the difficulty can be based almost solely on the altitude if it is very high. A ‘short hike’ of a few kilometres with little change in altitude will be exhausting if you are between 5000m and 6000m, which is common in these mountain ranges.
The technical or motor difficulty of the hike. This is determined by the presence and importance of obstacles. This difficulty may make it necessary to use a more complex progression technique, such as the use of edges (feet), the use of hands, support with poles or, in some cases, progression with the help of local equipment (chains, nails, cable, etc.).
The psychological difficulty of the hike. In the sense of the federal guide, this corresponds to the hiker’s exposure to more or less serious consequences in terms of physical injury (falling or slipping).
In our opinion, this physical risk is compounded by a mental risk linked mainly to the difficulty of finding one’s bearings along the way. Following a GR trail the whole way or combining several waymarked trails are 2 different things. Going off-path is something else entirely. It requires more advanced skills (map reading, for example) and involves the hiker much more in terms of the uncertainty to be managed.
To find out more, the FFRP published a practical guide to grading walks in 2015.
Download the guide (in french)
These 3 dimensions – physical, technical and risk – have a major impact on the amount of effort you need to put in. Not to mention the weather conditions, your own abilities and those of the day’s partners.
To embark on a hiking itinerary, you need to have anticipated all these factors to ensure that you enjoy the experience in complete safety and in a way that is suited to you and the group to which you belong.
For each topo, a technical sheet details, where possible, a number of characteristics that relate to the criteria mentioned above.