How to Plan the Perfect Hill Walk
The perfect hill walk is all about efficiency. The distance
doesn’t matter, that all depends on your level of fitness and
how much time you have available. The important thing is not to
waste energy unnecessarily. Retraced steps, boggy ground,
excessive loss of altitude and steep descents are to be avoided
if possible. So how do you plan the perfect hill walk?
In my opinion, the perfect hill walk has the shape of a
horseshoe. The general idea is to choose a key summit as your
main objective. This will typically be the highest peak in an
area. Then link that summit to adjacent summits, connected by
ridges if possible. If you can find ridges that curve around or
run adjacent to one another, you have the potential for a
horseshoe walk.
Where to Start?
Ideally you’ll want to start at the lowest point, which will
typically be at a river that runs between the two ridges.
You’ll then climb up one ridge, follow it from summit to summit
until you reach the main peak, then follow another ridge back,
eventually descending to your starting point.
The reason for starting at the lowest point is to avoid any
additional ascent at the very end of the walk. If you start
halfway up a slope you’ll find yourself having to ascend back
to your start point, which is no fun when you’re tired at the
end of the day. Of course, you could do the reverse and start
by walking downhill, but this is not a natural way to start a
hill walk. Besides, there’s something that just feels “right”
about starting beside a river. Ideally, there’ll be a bridge
there too!
Ridges
Planning a route that follows ridges prevents unnecessary
loss of altitude, since between summits you only descend to the
col, which is the “highest” low point between summits. In
contrast, crossing intervening river valleys is extremely
wasteful of energy and hence time. It also necessitates river
crossings which can be a problem if the river levels are high.
There’s also a much greater likelihood of encountering boggy
ground.
The other advantage of following ridges is that they are
generally the best way to avoid bogs, which are the bane of
hill walkers. Since ridges act as watersheds, the water usually
runs down each side. However, flat topped ridges can be boggy
(Offa’s Dyke in the Black Mountains is a prime example), in
which case it’s best to stick to the crest rather than the
centre of the ridge. Some cols can be surprisingly flat and
boggy too, so it’s not always possible to avoid bogs
completely, but sticking to ridges gives you the best odds.
Dead-end Detours
If you’re peak bagging, you’re bound to find situations
where there’s a nearby summit that can’t be included in the
natural horseshoe shape. It may be connected by a ridge, but
it’s a dead-end detour that requires you to retrace your steps.
I’ve never liked dead-end detours, but sometimes they’re
unavoidable.
If you really want to include a dead-end detour, that’s up
to you. I’d recommend including it as part of a different walk
on another day, but some of these summits can’t easily be
included in any horseshoe walk, so you may have no choice.
However, if it’s not connected by a ridge, then it would be
extremely inefficient to include it. Provided it’s not too far
from a road, I’d recommend bagging it in a separate short walk,
one of those “quick bags from the car” on the way to somewhere
else.
Steepness
Now you need to consider the steepness of the ground. It’s
been said that there are two types of hill walkers, those that
suffer from knee problems and those that are going to! If
you’re lucky enough to be in the latter group, remember that
prevention is better than cure. Like those in the first group,
you should try to avoid excessively steep descents. Your knees
will thank you for it!
Walking poles will help of course, but it’s best to avoid
steep descents, even if that means taking a longer detour for a
more gradual descent. In contrast, steep ascents are usually
not a problem for knees. Since there are two possible
directions that you can do a horseshoe walk, try to pick the
direction that has the steepest slopes on the ascents, and the
gentlest slopes on the descents. Of course, climbing steep
slopes is harder, but that’s far preferable to painful
knees.
In particular, you should try to get the steepest slopes
done early in the walk while you’re still fresh and have plenty
of energy. By the same logic, try to end with long gentle
descents at the end of the walk. Apparently most joint injuries
happen at the end of walks when your leg muscles are tired and
can’t support the joints so well.
Having said that, I don’t recommend starting with an
immediate steep ascent. Ideally a walk should start with either
a flat stretch of ground or a gentle incline. This will give
your leg muscles time to warm up before you start the serious
ascent, and thus will help to prevent injury. You should also
take it easy at the beginning of a walk, pacing yourself so
that you have plenty of energy left at the end.
Sun Direction
Finally, if you haven’t already decided on a direction,
photographers may want to consider the lighting issue. Even if
you aren’t a photographer, you probably don’t want to walk
straight into the sun more often than you need to, especially
if it’s low in the sky.
Since the sun is in the east in the morning, it’s best to
start a walk in a westerly direction. By midday the sun is in
the south (assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere) so it’s
best to be walking north at that time. In the afternoon when
the sun is in the west, it’s best to be walking east. So
ideally you’d want to start heading west and walk in a
clockwise direction.
Of course, this is only possible if the horseshoe is
oriented the right way, which is something you don’t have much
control over. The Snowdon Horseshoe is perfect for this,
although most people tend to do it anti-clockwise. Doing it
clockwise is not only better from a lighting point of view, but
you also miss many of the crowds who are doing it the other way
around (although you pass them all on the way). Unfortunately,
there’s a couple of steep descents at the end, so it isn’t
perfect.
Actually, if you’re walking at sunrise or sunset you may
actually want to face the sun at those times. So there’s no
perfect solution for this, but lighting is definitely something
to bear in mind when planning a walk.
Conclusion
To sum up, the perfect hill walk is a horseshoe walk around
summits with connecting ridges. It starts at the lowest point
in the valley at a bridge, initially follows a flat or gentle
slope before rising to a steep ascent, eventually finishing
with a gentle descent. It starts facing west and follows a
clockwise orientation.
Of course, in reality there’s no such thing as a perfect
hill walk, there’s always something to spoil it, but it’s still
worth bearing these points in mind when you plan a walk. The
closer you can get to a perfect plan, the more energy efficient
and enjoyable the walk will be, which in turn means you’ll be
able to walk further.
Many mountain ranges lend themselves well to the horseshoe
concept, but two that particularly stand out are the central
Brecon Beacons and the Black Mountains. There’s huge potential
for horseshoe walking there, with many different permutations
possible.
Originally published 23rd May 2007
Comments
1. {johnhee} | 24 May, 2007 at 6:36 pm
Paul, another excellent article. You’re setting a high
standard for yourself. Nice to see.
2. {Paul Saunders} | 24 May, 2007 at 6:58 pm
Thanks John. I wasn’t sure if anyone was actually reading
them.
3. {john hee} | 25 May, 2007 at 9:43 pm
Time for a freebie page viewer counter? (google analytics
seems quite popular at the moment)
If you’re lucky any comments will be left by
4. {john hee} | 25 May, 2007 at 9:43 pm
ooooo -comments cut off mid flow?
5. {Paul Saunders} | 27 May, 2007 at 2:32 pm
Actually I’ve got GA installed, but they’ve recently
upgraded to a new style. Some bits aren’t working properly and
there’s a longer delay than usual in collecting the stats. I
guess I’m just a bit impatient.
I’ve also signed up with Feedburner but there’s quite a long
delay on that too.
6. {johnhee} | 27 May, 2007 at 7:30 pm
……and its popping up on here as well?
{http://www.cocomment.com/comments/pvs1}
7. {Paul Saunders} | 27 May, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Er… yes. How did you find that? Is my comment page available
for public view? I don’t fully understand how it works yet, and
it doesn’t seem to be working correctly with some blogs (other
comments have been added but not reported). Still, it seems a
good way of keeping track of which posts I’ve commented on.
8. {Paul Saunders} | 27 May, 2007 at 7:51 pm |
{Permalink} | {Edit}
Another problem with GA is that since the blog pages are
generated dynamically, there are multiple ways of getting to a
particular page, so I’m not sure how accurate the page views
and visitor numbers are.
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