Re: average walking speed

On 13/6/05 20:24, in article [email hidden],

Quoted post said:

What is surprising is how few walking authors and publishers simply give
an overall time but no timings along the route. More walkers wear
watches than carry compasses and time points are a positive navigational
aid. Walkers with compasses, everybody here it seems, generally have a
simple device so there is little point including direction to the
nearest degree, but NE, NNW, S, etc are useful for walkers to orientate
themselves at decision points such as path junctions and for crossing
open ground.

A good point and one which I have come to appreciate in areas like the
Pyrenees. By far the best time guides to have are those that gives times
from point to point and not just for the whole walk. This gives you the
ability to size-up the nature of a whole day's walking quite early on.

Walking speeds can be effected by a lot of things. A very hot day might
slow you down; a cold one certainly does. And there's a bit of a difference
walking with a light day pack in the summer and walking with a fully loaded
pack!

But even allowing for different paces I have been convinced - at various
times - that some authors have never actually walked the stretch that they
have written about!

For example, last year in the Pyrenees I was dropping to to Gavarnie on the
HRP/GR10 variante. I had begun to be suspicious of timings but when I got
near the end of the walk I became convinced. A timing was given for the
last stretch - all along road. Given that this was road and I was walking
quickly I am convinced that this writer had not walked this way themselves!

I have a friend who is very friendly with a well respected walk writer who
spends a great deal of time in the Pyrenees. She warned me against getting
hold of a certain guide because her mate had just become convinced that the
author could never have actually walked some of the sections! This guy is
himself finishing off a book of that area and reckons he has had to walk
each walk at least twice.

For those of you wondering this, supposedly, dodgy book is no longer in
print (and hasn't been for some time now). So your OK with any current
Pyrennean guides!

--
Andy Howell
Birmingham, UK

To mail simply put back the dots ...

Quoted message said:

What is important in a guide book is both the overall time to complete a
route and more importantly the times to reach points along the route. By
giving actual walking times, as recorded by the author, the guide user
can judge their own progress and adjust times accordingly - assuming the
walk description gives times along the route.

I won't buy books that give times rather than distances - I find it
very irritating and useless. Walking time is too subjective to be
included as information, imo.
--
R
o
o
n
e
y

"I always knew the entire Green party were nutters" - Ken Livingstone

The other thing that occurs to me is that there are some days when
everything just feels right and you feel as if you could walk forever and
you cover endless miles in no time. Of ocurse, there is often the opposite
too...I am not sure how you factor this in because it is totally random

Rob

Rob Devereux said:

The other thing that occurs to me is that there are some days when
everything just feels right and you feel as if you could walk forever and
you cover endless miles in no time. Of ocurse, there is often the opposite
too...I am not sure how you factor this in because it is totally random

Very true! This is especially true when backpacking. At a weekend if you
feel exhausted and washed out you can just roll over and go back to sleep
again. When engaged on a long walk you often have to move on!

--
Andy Howell
Birmingham, UK

To mail simply put back the dots ...