Rate Your Hiking Level before you book a guided trip
Your biggest hike of the last 12 months: how much elevation gain?
The day after that hike, how were the legs?
In an ordinary week, how much physical activity?
Walking several days in a row, have you done it?
The ground under your feet: how far does it go?
The pack, on a multi-day hike:
Your ideal mountain vacation looks like:
- Facts beat a feeling of fitness
- Placing yourself from 1 to 5 before booking a trek
- On a trek, how do you read your level?
- The most common mistake people make rating themselves
- Checking physically with 4 measurements
- Checking physically with 1 day on the ground
- When in doubt, take the time to call us
- Frequently asked questions
Level 1 to 2: Accessible
Your answers describe a steady practice, where the walking is there to show you something rather than to wear you down. Right now your ground is 200 to 400 m of gain (650 to 1,300 ft, the range of a well-graded national park day trail), 2 to 4 hours out and a light pack: our day-long nature outings and our family activities. Level 2 is within reach this season if the appetite is there, with a donkey-supported hike that stretches the day without you carrying anything, or a weekend in the Southern Alps. As for level 3, where most of our departures sit, it becomes a realistic target after a season of regular outings. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go back over this result with you before you book, and it often moves a notch one way or the other.
Level 2: Moderate
You can hold a full day on the trail without writing off the rest of the week. Up to 600 m of gain (2,000 ft, a little more than Angels Landing), 4 to 5 hours out, on trails that ask for no technique: a hiking weekend in the Southern Alps or a bivouac night in the Écrins is within reach this season. With the pack and several days back to back, count on 400 to 500 m a day instead, because the number drops as soon as the stages stack up. To step out of your comfort zone, level 3 is the notch to aim for, and that is where most of our departures sit. To keep some margin, or to travel with someone who trains less, a level 1 trip takes nothing away from you. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go back over this result with you before you book, and it often moves a notch one way or the other.
Level 3: Intermediate
A pass a day does not scare you and one night is enough to recover. This is the level we see most on our departures: up to 1,200 m of gain in a day (3,900 ft, a standard Colorado 14er route), 4 to 6 hours of hiking, and the legs to do it again tomorrow. The Tour du Vercors, the crossing of the Hauts-Plateaux and the 4-day trek in the Valgaudemar are cut for you. To step out of your comfort zone, our level 3 to 4 treks are worth a shot as long as you build the legs beforehand. To keep margin, or to bring a friend who trains less, a level 2 trip leaves you reserve and time to look around. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go back over this result with you before you book, and it often moves a notch one way or the other.
Level 4 to 5: Sustained
Elevation gain is no longer what limits you. From 1,200 to 1,800 m in a day (3,900 to 5,900 ft, rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon, or Whitney and back), 6 to 8 hours of hiking, with sections where the foot has to look for its place. Our level 3 to 4 treks, the 5-day Écrins traverse and the 7-day Tour du Mont-Blanc are within reach, and level 5 routes open up as soon as technical ground stops bothering you. One reminder that holds at this level as at every other: on a point-to-point route it is days 3 and 4 that judge you, not the first. Nothing forces you to aim high either, and a level 3 trip stays the right call for a comfortable vacation or for bringing someone who trains less. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go back over this result with you before you book, and it often moves a notch one way or the other.
Level 4 to 5: Intense
Scree, off-trail ground, airy ledges and long days: you come looking for commitment. Routes like that are built around you, so tell us what you have in mind and we will draw the line together. Meanwhile most of our scheduled departures run at level 4 and you will have margin there, whether it is the 5-day Écrins traverse, the 7-day Tour du Mont-Blanc or the Dolomites, whose cabled sections come closest to level 5 on our calendar. And a level 3 trip keeps all its point the day you come with someone who trains less. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go back over this result with you, and it often moves a notch one way or the other.
Tell us about your next trip to the mountains: we will say whether it fits this level, and if not, which one to aim for.
"I'm a pretty strong hiker." 2 people who say it on the same day can mean 300 m of gain for one and 1,200 m for the other, and neither of them is kidding themselves.
At Altimood, we ask these questions on a call before you sign up: your last big day out, what it left in the legs the next morning, what you do with an ordinary week. The test picks them up and translates them into our scale of 1 to 5, the one printed on every trip we run.
What follows explains what these questions measure, how to read the level you got, how to check it in 3 minutes on your own body, and what moves it a notch.
Facts beat a feeling of fitness
The picture you carry of your own condition is a poor measuring instrument. The facts of a season of walking can be counted.
So the test looks at facts: your last big day counted in elevation gain, the state of the legs the next morning, the nature of your weekly activity, your habit of stacking days, your ease on ground that gives way, and the weight you accept on your back. The next-morning question counts double: that is your recovery, and recovery is what makes the difference on day 3 of a point-to-point route. The last question is about appetite, because the same body does not aim at the same trip depending on whether it comes to rest or to push.
2 things are folded in here, learned on the ground rather than from a table. The type of sport weighs as much as its frequency: someone who hits the gym 3 times a week starts fast and stalls on day 3, where a regular walker holds the same pace from trailhead to trailhead. And carrying changes the level you can hold without changing the hiker: the same legs take 200 to 300 m more per day when the bags travel by road or on a donkey.
Placing yourself from 1 to 5 before booking a trek
| Level | Elevation gain in a day | Time on the trail | What it assumes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Accessible | 200 to 400 m (650 to 1,300 ft) | 2 to 4 h | Good health, nothing more |
| 2. Moderate | up to 600 m (2,000 ft) | 2 to 6 h | Occasional physical activity |
| 3. Intermediate | up to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) | 4 to 6 h | A weekly activity |
| 4. Sustained | 1,200 to 1,800 m (3,900 to 5,900 ft) | 6 to 8 h | 2 sessions a week and mountain days on the clock |
| 5. Intense | often beyond 1,500 m (4,900 ft), off-trail | 7 h and up | Regular practice and ease on technical ground |
These numbers hold for a single day taken on its own, with a light pack. That is the reading to keep when you are choosing a day hike or a weekend.
On a trek, how do you read your level?
As soon as the days stack up with a pack, the daily budget falls well below the ceiling of the level. A level 3 who climbs 1,200 m on a one-off day settles around 600 to 700 m a day on a 4-day route, and that is exactly as it should be: fatigue adds up, it no longer wipes off in one night.
2 numbers do the work on a multi-day plan. The first is that daily figure, which sits well under the single-day ceiling: 400 to 500 m a day at level 2, 600 to 700 m at level 3. The second is time, because the same 6 hours do not buy the same ground on a built trail and on scree, and it is elevation gain rather than distance that sets the pace. Use the first to size a trip, the second to plan a day.
The most common mistake people make rating themselves
Nobody underrates themselves. Across several seasons of sign-ups, the gaps between the level announced and the level observed run one way only, and they come down to 3 recurring blind spots.
The first day proves nothing. With fresh legs and the pull of the start, almost everyone gets through 800 m. The verdict lands on the third morning, thighs stiff and pack already heavy, when a new climb shows up.
The descent does not announce itself. It asks nothing of the lungs, so it never enters the mental arithmetic you run before signing up. It builds most of the soreness: a stage at -900 m usually leaves more marks than a stage at +900 m.
The ground changes everything. 1,000 meters on a built, wide trail almost climb themselves. The same 1,000 on a sliding scree slope in the Écrins, where the foot has to find its place at every step, ask for twice the attention and twice the legs.
Hence a simple rule if your result leaves you between 2 levels: take the one below. Finishing a day with something left has never ruined a vacation, and nothing stops you adding a variant along the way if the form is there. The other way around gets paid for in tendinitis, or in giving up halfway down a route.
Checking physically with 4 measurements
The test at the top of the page rests entirely on what you declare: an outing you remember, legs you remember. That is reliable when the season is fresh, much less so when the last big climb goes back a few years, or when the fitness was built somewhere other than the mountains.
4 measurements settle it. They are done at home, with no equipment, and take 3 minutes. Plan for a wall, a staircase and something to count seconds with.
The wall sit: back against a wall, no chair, thighs horizontal and knees at a right angle. How long before it burns too much?
4 flights of stairs climbed in one go, at a good pace. At the top:
Your pulse right after those stairs, then 2 minutes later. How many beats per minute has it dropped? (count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4)
Walking 1 hour straight at a good clip, around 3 mph, in town or on a flat path:
The body is behind the experience
Your measurements come in below what your mountain history suggests. This is the classic case of the hiker with a good past in the legs and 1 or 2 thin seasons behind him: the level you got at the top of the page describes what you were, not what you are this year. Take a notch off for this season, then go back and find your real level in a few weeks of outings at 400 and then 600 m of gain, as described just below. If the test at the top already gave you a level 1, there is nothing to correct: it was simply right.
The body keeps up
Your measurements and your history tell the same story, and this is the most frequent case. Take the level from the top of the page as it stands: that is the one to book on. When memory and body agree there is no reason to look further, and the rest gets settled on the ground with the guide.
The body is ahead of the experience
Your fitness runs ahead of what your mountain history says. This is the profile of the regular runner, cyclist or swimmer who has not walked much at altitude yet: the engine is there, the terrain is not. Add a notch to the level from the top of the page, but only one. What you are missing does not come from training: scree sliding under the foot, or 5 hours of descent on the knees, is only learned in the mountains.
This second result corrects the first. When the two contradict each other, believe the body: memory usually dates back several seasons. Tell us at sign-up, it is the kind of gap Alice or Robin settle in 2 minutes on the phone.
Checking physically with 1 day on the ground
The best test before booking fits into a single outing: a day hike with 600 to 700 m of gain and 6 to 8 kg (13 to 18 lb) on your back. If you come home tired but happy, the level above is open to you. If you come home wrecked, repeat outings at 400 and then 600 m for a few weeks, and nothing else.
Between 2 outings, brisk walking and taking the stairs every single time already add up to training that pays. Hiking rewards regularity far more than intensity, and a half marathon in the legs guarantees nothing about your 3rd day of trekking. Lightening the pack produces the same effect as a month of training for much less pain: our bivouac gear list shows where the pounds are won.
When in doubt, take the time to call us
Vertigo, a fragile joint, a recent operation, the highest altitude you have been to, heat that cuts your legs in summer: none of that fits into 7 questions, and all of it moves the cursor.
The group escapes them too. On a scheduled departure you walk with people who do not all have the same lungs, and it is the mountain guide's job to adjust the pace, place the breaks before fatigue sets in, offer a variant to those who want more, and give up a pass when it has to be given up. On a guided trip, half a level of gap is absorbed without drama. 2 levels is trickier.
That is also why Alice or Robin go back over these questions when you sign up: the test result gives a basis for discussion, not a decision. You can look at our guided trips with this level in mind, and if yours falls between 2 of them, a tailor-made route settles the question. And if what is still open is the format rather than the level, guided or self-guided lays the 4 ways to go side by side, with a quiz at the top.
Frequently asked questions
Does the test level match the one shown on your trips?
Yes, it is the same scale of 1 to 5, the one detailed on our hiking difficulty page. A trip advertised as level 3 to 4 therefore asks for a result of 3 minimum, with margin for the longest stages.
I fall between 2 levels, which one do I choose?
The lower one, unless you are explicitly looking to step out of your comfort zone. A day finished with something left leaves a far better memory than a day endured, and the guide offers variants to whoever asks for more.
Is my level the same on snowshoes as on a summer hike?
No. In snow, speeds drop and depend on the snowpack: count on 200 to 300 m less elevation gain for the same feeling, plus the extra fatigue of breaking trail. Our winter trips carry their own level, to be read as it stands.
And for kids?
The classic marker is about 100 m of gain per year of age on a day outing, so 600 m for a fit 6-year-old. Over several days, cut that back sharply and bet on motivation: friends along, a night in a tipi or a donkey often do better than a speech.
Can I aim a level higher if the trip is guided?
One notch, yes, as long as you are honest about the margin. The guide sets the pace on the group and can shorten a stage, but he will not carry your pack every day. Beyond one notch, the trip turns into an ordeal instead of a vacation.
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