The Hiking Club team love data. In fact, it’s so important to us that we made it one of our core principles. So, to wrap up the 2023 hiking season we decided to analyse our data from over 10,000 responses to our free planning tools and 500+ personalised itineraries created using The Hiking Club self-guided packages in the past year. Here are some fun facts on how people plan to hike the legendary hikes in the Alps:
🏃♀️ How fast do people believe they hike relative to others?
Hiking speed is an important factor to planning a multi-day hike. It’s key to determining how many days you’ll take to complete a trail and when you can expect to start après refreshments each day. Based on over 10,000 responses to our calculators, here are the results on how fast people believe they hike relative to others:
A bit slower than others = 12%
Same speed as others = 37%
A bit faster than others = 40%
A lot faster than others = 11%
Looking at the data by trail, the Alta Via 1 in the Dolomites attracts the most people planning to take their time and hike a bit slower than others (21% of total Alta Via 1 Dolomites population). In contrast, the Walker’s Haute Route appeals to those who plan to go a lot faster than others (17% of the total Walker’s Haute Route population).
What this shows is we have a humble, diverse community of hikers! Interested to learn more about hiking speed? Read this blog on “how we calculate hiking time estimates”.
⏱ how long do people take to complete the legendary trails of the Alps?
Based on over 500+ unique itineraries created using The Hiking Club packages, there is a huge range of how many days people complete our popular multi-day hikes.
Tour du Mont Blanc: The average is 10 days, but the range is 4 to 14 days.
Walker’s Haute Route: The average is 13 days, but the range is 5 to 15 days.
Tour of Monte Rosa: The average is 10 days, but the range is 6 to 12 days.
These huge ranges indicate we have people creating itineraries for fastpacking, all the way through to people taking their time to enjoy an extended time in the Alps.
🚡 HOW MANY PEOPLE PLANNED TO USE TRANSPORT DURING THEIR HIKE?
Using our itinerary builder, people are able to add transport directly into their plan to skip ahead on the trail. Each year, we see the number of people incorporating buses, trains, and gondolas into their plan increase as more people realise how interconnected the trail network is to mountain transport. This year, the number of people that planned to take transport during their journey was:
84% of Walker’s Haute Route hikers
69% of Tour du Mont Blanc hikers
59% of Tour of Monte Rosa hikers
We are curious whether the number of people that planned to use transport v. those that actually used transport is higher or lower! What do you think?
⏳ HOW MANY HOURS DO PEOPLE WANT TO HIKE EACH DAY?
When planning an itinerary, one of the key questions to decide is how long you want to be hiking each day. Some people love to spend the whole day hiking, regardless of what the conditions will be like, whereas others like to know they can start early to arrive at their destination by lunchtime if afternoon storms are forecast. Interestingly, the numbers were different across our trails, with a trend of the more challenging journeys attracting hikers prepared to do longer days.
Alta Via 1 Dolomites = Average 6 hours of hiking time per day
Tour du Mont Blanc = Average 6 hours 55 minutes of hiking time per day
Walker’s Haute Route = Average 7 hours 15 minutes of hiking time per day
Tour of Monte Rosa = Average 7 hours 20 minutes hiking time per day
Do any of the results surprise you?
I hope you found this update entertaining to compare with your own experience, or useful if you’re thinking about hiking one of the legendary trails in the Alps next year. The way you experience these trails is really up to you, and we’ll be ready to support your journey 🥾
Brendan