I really loathe the groups you see online, or hear about in hiking communities, complaining that somebody is not fast enough.
When you are hiking in a group, the whole point is to hike as a group. It is not to leave somebody behind, belittle them or race to prove who can be at the front.
Yet there are people who act as though being the fastest is something to be proud of. As though hiking quickly somehow makes you more experienced, more capable or more deserving of being there.
It doesn’t.
Being a good hiker isn’t about how quickly you can get from the start of a trail to the end. It is about understanding your own abilities, choosing appropriate routes, preparing properly, making sensible decisions and moving through the outdoors safely.
And sometimes, being a good hiker means being perfectly happy to walk slowly.
Speed does not decide who belongs outdoors
When I was younger, I used to feel like I had to be fast to prove something.
There was so much rhetoric about women not belonging in outdoor spaces, being too soft or not being able to cope with big hikes, expeditions and climbs. I had the technical ability to be there, but it still felt as though I needed to be as fast as, or faster than, the boys for it to count.
That is a horrible way to experience the outdoors.
After years of hiking, climbing and leading groups in the mountains, my understanding of what makes someone a capable hiker has changed considerably.
And speed is one very small part of the picture.
A good hiker can navigate. They pay attention to the weather and the terrain. They carry appropriate equipment and know how to use it. They understand when conditions are changing, when somebody in their group is struggling and when continuing with the original plan might no longer be the best decision. They know when to keep going and, perhaps more importantly, when to turn around.
None of those things require you to be the fastest person on the mountain.
These days, I know what rhythm works for me. I don’t feel I have to prove that I belong by pushing myself into a pace that isn’t sustainable, and I’ve become much better at recognising that different people move well in very different ways.
After all, someone overtaking you on a climb isn’t automatically a better hiker than you. They’re simply walking faster at that particular moment.
How fast should you hike?
There isn’t one hiking speed that everyone should be aiming for.
You will often see estimates suggesting an average walking pace of around four kilometres per hour on relatively straightforward ground, but that number becomes much less useful once you introduce hills, rough terrain, mud, weather and a backpack.
Your hiking pace might change dramatically within a single walk.
You might cover a flat section of good path quickly before slowing considerably on a steep climb. Rocky or technical terrain can require more careful movement. Deep mud, bog, snow, strong winds or heavy rain can all reduce your speed. Carrying camping equipment will probably feel different from walking with a small day pack.
Then there is the human attached to the backpack. Fitness matters, but so do sleep, food, hydration, confidence, previous injuries and simply whether you’re having a good day.
That’s why I think it is far more useful to understand your own sustainable hiking pace than to worry about somebody else’s.
A sustainable hiking pace will get you much further
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from long-distance and multi-day hiking is that going faster doesn’t necessarily mean travelling better.
Setting off at a pace you can’t maintain might feel brilliant for the first few kilometres. It feels considerably less brilliant when you’ve exhausted yourself and still have half the route left to walk.
A sustainable hiking pace should feel like something you can maintain for the day ahead. On longer routes, that means leaving enough energy to continue walking comfortably rather than repeatedly pushing hard and then needing long periods to recover.
It also gives you the capacity to pay attention.
You can look at the landscape around you. You can notice changes in the weather. You can concentrate on navigation. You can eat and drink regularly. You can stop to deal with the tiny hot spot developing inside your boot rather than ignoring it because everybody else has disappeared around the corner.
On a multi-day hike, pacing becomes even more important. Your comfortable day-hiking speed may feel very different after four, five or ten consecutive days of walking.
The aim isn’t to win the first morning. It is to still be capable of putting your boots on and walking again tomorrow.
Your hiking pace is part of your safety planning
There is, however, an important distinction between saying that you don’t need to be fast and saying that hiking pace never matters. Let me be clear, it does matter.
If you are planning a route that needs to be completed within a particular timeframe, you need to be realistic about how long you are likely to take.
That might be because you have limited daylight, deteriorating weather forecast for later in the day, a tidal section of coast to cross safely or public transport you need to catch at the end. Some mountain routes also have sections where being able to maintain an appropriate pace matters because there are limited opportunities to shorten the walk once you’ve committed to them.
The solution isn’t necessarily to force yourself to walk faster. It is to plan around the pace you actually walk.
If a guidebook suggests a route takes six hours but experience tells you that similar routes usually take you eight, plan for eight. Start earlier. Check sunset times and the weather forecast. Carry a head torch. Know whether there are places where you can shorten the route if necessary and identify sensible escape routes before you leave.
If the timings still don’t work, then you should choose another hike.
Changing the route to suit your abilities doesn’t make you less capable. Recognising that a particular route isn’t appropriate for you on a particular day is exactly the kind of judgement that good hikers develop.
A hiking group should actually hike as a group
Pace becomes particularly important when you’re walking with other people.
A good hiking group needs to move at a pace that allows everyone to remain together, rather than allowing the fastest person to dictate how quickly everybody else should walk.
That doesn’t mean treating the slowest person as an inconvenience everyone else has to tolerate. Nor does it mean constantly announcing that you’re waiting for them. It just means recognising that the group’s pace needs to work for the people who are actually in it.
One of the problems with pushing people to keep up is that they then may not tell you when they’re struggling.
Nobody wants to feel like the difficult person holding everyone back. So someone who is already working harder than everybody else may start skipping breaks, drinking less frequently or ignoring the fact that something hurts because they’re worried about making the group wait again.
That is when something as seemingly harmless as a difference in walking pace can become a genuine safety problem.
If the difference in ability is so significant that the planned hike isn’t appropriate for everybody, that should be addressed through route choice and planning rather than by expecting one person to spend the entire day desperately trying to keep up.
And nobody should be abandoned on a trail simply because they are slower.
People can and do get into serious trouble after becoming separated from the people they were hiking with. Leaving someone behind isn’t evidence that they weren’t a good enough hiker. It is evidence of poor group management.
Your hiking speed isn’t fixed
It’s also worth remembering that there probably isn’t one single number that represents “your hiking pace.”
You might be strong on climbs but cautious descending. Someone else may fly downhill but need more time going up. A person who walks quickly on well-maintained trails might slow dramatically across rocky mountain terrain, while someone with years of experience on rough ground may barely seem to change pace.
Even your own speed will vary from one day to another. Heat can slow you down. So can cold, wind, mud, a heavier backpack, tired legs, poor sleep or simply reaching the fifth day of a long-distance trail.
None of that means you’re suddenly a worse hiker. It means you’re a human being moving through an environment that changes constantly.
Learning how you respond to those conditions is far more useful than chasing an arbitrary number on your watch.
Find the hiking pace that keeps you coming back
There are situations where speed matters in the outdoors, but speed and competence are not the same thing. I wish I’d understood that better when I was younger.
I spent far too much time feeling that I had to demonstrate that I deserved to be in outdoor spaces by keeping up, pushing harder and proving that I could do everything just as quickly as everyone around me. I don’t need to do that anymore.
I would rather walk at a pace that allows me to make good decisions, look after myself and the people I’m with, notice the landscape around me and actually enjoy the place I’ve made the effort to visit.
If you’re newer to hiking and worried that you’re too slow, learn your pace rather than apologising for it. Pay attention to how long different distances and types of terrain take you. Use that information when you’re planning future walks. Give yourself enough daylight, choose routes that work for your current ability and gradually build your fitness and experience if you want to take on bigger objectives.
You do not have to earn your place outdoors by being fast.
Because a good hike isn’t measured by who got back to the car first.