Hiking in Colorado - Hike Difficulty Calculator

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Hike Difficulty Calculator

I found this formula for rating the difficulty of hikes one day while surfing through Mike's Hikes and thought it would make a useful calculator. Of course these ratings are only an indicator of hike difficulty - every hike has its variables beyond elevation gain and distance including weather, experience/fitness, unique trail conditions, starting/ending elevation, etc.

HIKE DIFFICULTY CALCULATOR

Hiker
Type

Elevation
Gain

Round Trip
Distance

Hike
Difficulty

0-5
Easy

6-10
Moderate

10 +
Strenuous/Difficult

These equations do not represent the
true difficulties for very short and steep hikes.

According to Mikes Hikes, allow 1 hour for each 1,000 feet of elevation gain, and another hour for every two miles of distance. I would have to agree with Mike when he says "I´ve always found myself hiking faster than this, though."

Notes:

The equation for novice mode comes from the book Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker´s Guide by Jerome Malitz and was developed by Dick Holley.

Rating (Novice) = ( 0.002 x elevation gain [ in feet ] ) + round trip distance [ in miles ]

The equation for expert mode is continuously being modified by Steve thanks to comments received regarding calibration of the constants with respect to difficulty.

Rating (Expert) = ( 0.0005 x elevation gain [ in feet ] ) + round trip distance / 2 [ in miles ]