Work Out Your Walking Level before you book a guided holiday
Your biggest walk of the last 12 months: how much ascent?
The day after that walk, how were the legs?
In a normal week, how much physical activity is there?
Several days of walking one after another, have you done that?
The ground underfoot: how far does it go?
The rucksack, on a multi-day walk:
Your ideal mountain holiday looks like:
- Facts rather than 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 when rating themselves
- Checking physically with 4 measurements
- Checking physically with 1 day on the ground
- If in doubt, take the time to ring us
- Frequently asked questions
Level 1 to 2: Accessible
Your answers describe an unhurried practice, where the walking is there to show you something rather than to grind you down. Your ground at the moment is 200 to 400 m of ascent, 2 to 4 hours out and a light rucksack, which is roughly a graded path up a smaller Lakeland fell: our day-long nature outings and our family activities. Level 2 is within reach this season if you fancy it, with a donkey-supported walk that lengthens the day without you carrying anything, or a weekend in the Southern Alps. Level 3, where most of our departures sit, becomes a realistic aim after a season of regular days on the hill. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go over this result with you before you book, and it often shifts a notch one way or the other.
Level 2: Moderate
You can hold a full day out without writing off the rest of the week. Up to 600 m of ascent, near enough Snowdon from Pen-y-Pass, 4 to 5 hours on the ground, on paths that ask for no technique: a walking weekend in the Southern Alps or a bivouac night in the Écrins is within reach this season. With the rucksack and several days back to back, reckon on 400 to 500 m a day instead, because the figure drops as soon as the stages stack up. To step outside your comfort zone, level 3 is the notch to aim for, and that is where most of our departures sit. To keep a margin, or to travel with someone who trains less, a level 1 holiday takes nothing away from you. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go over this result with you before you book, and it often shifts a notch one way or the other.
Level 3: Intermediate
A pass a day holds no fear and one night is enough to recover. This is the level we see most on our departures: up to 1,200 m of ascent in a day, a shade under Ben Nevis from Glen Nevis, 4 to 6 hours of walking, 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 outside your comfort zone, our level 3 to 4 treks are worth a go provided you put the miles in beforehand. To keep a margin, or to bring a friend who trains less, a level 2 holiday leaves you something in reserve and the time to look around. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go over this result with you before you book, and it often shifts a notch one way or the other.
Level 4 to 5: Sustained
Ascent is no longer what limits you. From 1,200 to 1,800 m in a day, which is the Yorkshire Three Peaks and then some, 6 to 8 hours of walking, 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 your compass, 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 obliges you to aim high either, and a level 3 holiday remains the right call for a comfortable fortnight or for bringing someone who trains less. The levels in detail. 7 questions are no substitute for a conversation: Alice or Robin go over this result with you before you book, and it often shifts a notch one way or the other.
Level 4 to 5: Intense
Scree, pathless ground, airy ledges and long days: you come looking for commitment. Routes of that sort are built around you, so tell us what you have in mind and we will draw the line together. In the meantime most of our scheduled departures run at level 4 and you will have a 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 holiday keeps all its point on 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 over this result with you, and it often shifts a notch one way or the other.
Tell us about your next plan in the mountains: we will say whether it matches this level, and if not, which one to aim for.
"I am a fairly strong walker." 2 people who say it on the same day can mean 300 m of ascent 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 book: your last big day out, what it left in the legs the next morning, what you do with an ordinary week. The test takes them up and translates them into our scale of 1 to 5, the one printed on every holiday we run.
What follows explains what these questions measure, how to read the level you were given, how to check it in 3 minutes on your own body, and what shifts it a notch.
Facts rather than a feeling of fitness
The picture you carry of your own condition is a poor measuring instrument. The facts of a season of walking, on the other hand, can be counted.
So the test looks at facts: your last big day counted in ascent, 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 are willing to carry. 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 holiday 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 goes to the gym 3 times a week starts fast and stalls on day 3, where a regular walker holds the same pace from the car park to the car park. And carrying changes the level you can hold without changing the walker: 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 | Ascent in a day | Time on the ground | What it assumes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Accessible | 200 to 400 m | 2 to 4 h | Good health, nothing more |
| 2. Moderate | up to 600 m | 2 to 6 h | Occasional physical activity |
| 3. Intermediate | up to 1,200 m | 4 to 6 h | A weekly activity |
| 4. Sustained | 1,200 to 1,800 m | 6 to 8 h | 2 sessions a week and hill days behind you |
| 5. Intense | often beyond 1,500 m, pathless | 7 h and up | Regular practice and ease on technical ground |
These figures hold for a single day taken on its own, with a light rucksack. That is the reading to keep when you are choosing a day walk or a weekend.
On a trek, how do you read your level?
As soon as the days stack up with a rucksack, 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 at around 600 to 700 m a day on a 4-day route, and that is exactly as it should be: fatigue accumulates, it no longer wipes off in one night.
2 figures do the work on a multi-day plan. The first is that daily one, 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 path and on scree, and it is ascent rather than distance that sets the pace. Use the first to size a holiday, the second to plan a day.
The most common mistake people make when rating themselves
Nobody underrates themselves. Across several seasons of bookings, 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 rucksack already heavy, when a fresh climb appears.
The descent gives no warning. It asks nothing of the lungs, so it never enters the mental arithmetic you run before booking. It builds most of the stiffness: a stage at -900 m usually leaves more marks than a stage at +900 m.
The ground changes everything. 1,000 metres on a built, wide path almost climb themselves. The same 1,000 on running scree in the Écrins, where the foot has to find its place at every step, ask for twice the concentration 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 spoiled a holiday, and nothing stops you adding a variant along the way if the form is there. The other way round gets paid for in tendinitis, or in giving up halfway round 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 hills.
4 measurements settle it. They are done at home, with no equipment, and take 3 minutes. Have a wall, a staircase and something to count seconds with.
The wall sit: back to a wall, no chair, thighs horizontal and knees at a right angle. How long before the burn stops you?
4 flights of stairs taken in one go, at a brisk pace. At the top:
Your pulse just after those stairs, then 2 minutes later. By how many beats per minute has it come down? (count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4)
Walking 1 hour at a stretch at a good pace, around 5 km/h, in town or on a flat path:
The body is behind the experience
Your measurements come in below what your hill history suggests. This is the classic case of the walker with a good past in the legs and 1 or 2 thin seasons behind him: the level you were given 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 and find your real level again over a few weeks of outings at 400 and then 600 m of ascent, 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 leader.
The body is ahead of the experience
Your fitness runs ahead of what your hill 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 ground 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 running 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 when you book, 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 walk with 600 to 700 m of ascent and 6 to 8 kg on your back. If you come home tired but pleased with it, the level above is open to you. If you come home emptied, 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 amount to training that pays. Walking rewards regularity far more than intensity, and a half marathon in the legs guarantees nothing about your 3rd day of trekking. Lightening the rucksack produces the same effect as a month of training for much less bother: our bivouac kit list shows where the kilos are won.
If in doubt, take the time to ring us
Vertigo, a fragile joint, a recent operation, the highest altitude you have been to, heat that takes your legs away 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 leader's job to adjust the pace, place the breaks before fatigue settles in, offer a variant to those who want more, and turn back from a pass when it has to be done. On a guided holiday, half a level of difference is absorbed without drama. 2 levels is trickier.
That is also why Alice or Robin go over these questions when you book: the test result gives a basis for discussion, not a decision. You can look at our guided walking holidays with this level in mind, and if yours falls between 2 of them, a tailor-made route settles the question. If what is still open is the format rather than the grade, guided or self-guided sets the 4 out side by side, with a quiz at the top.
Frequently asked questions
Does the test level match the one shown on your holidays?
Yes, it is the same scale of 1 to 5, the one set out on our walking difficulty page. A holiday advertised as level 3 to 4 therefore asks for a result of 3 as a minimum, with a 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 outside your comfort zone. A day finished with something left leaves a far better memory than a day endured, and the leader offers variants to whoever asks for more.
Is my level the same on snowshoes as on a summer walk?
No. In snow, speeds drop and depend on the snowpack: reckon on 200 to 300 m less ascent for the same feeling, plus the extra fatigue of breaking trail. Our winter holidays carry their own level, to be read as it stands.
And for children?
The classic marker is about 100 m of ascent 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 holiday is guided?
One notch, yes, provided you are honest about the margin. The leader sets the pace on the group and can shorten a stage, but he will not carry your rucksack every day. Beyond one notch, the holiday turns into an ordeal.
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- Work Out Your Walking Level before you book a guided holiday