How much elevation can you comfortably cover in a day?

[jarrettd]

How much elevation can you comfortably cover in a day? If you plan to park the truck at "X" and hike to glassing spot "Y". How high (or low) are you willing to hike? When you are e-scouting, when do you say "I think thats do'able" or "that elevation gain/loss is too much for me"

 

[Btaylor]

3000' of gain is covered the same way 300' of a gain is, one step at a time. That said, it is definitely going to matter for me if it is on trail or not, mostly open ground, dark timber or pure deadfall but that is going to determine if I am willing to kill in that area hunting solo. Has no bearing on whether or not I decide to go. If I see a spot online that I think I need to put boots and eyes on, I am going.

 

[jarrettd]

3000' of gain is covered the same way 300' of a gain is, one step at a time. That said, it is definitely going to matter for me if it is on trail or not, mostly open ground, dark timber or pure deadfall but that is going to determine if I am willing to kill in that area hunting solo. Has no bearing on whether or not I decide to go. If I see a spot online that I think I need to put boots and eyes on, I am going.

Good points. So you've hiked 3000' in one day?

 

[Btaylor]

Good points. So you've hiked 3000' in one day?

Yes a couple different times not hunting. Hunting 1500-2000 is fairly common. Some of those were relatively easy other than the lack of air, some suck.

 

[Dos Perros]

Packing in 1400 feet over a mile or two on a south facing slope in the hot September sun is an ass kicker. Seems harder every time I do it. Think it'd be much better at night.

I've also kicked my own ass doing 3000 feet over 5+ miles, took most of the day but we had driven straight through (no sleep).

Day hunting pack weights vs packing in weights make a significant difference.

 

[Poser]

For a glassing spot? I’m trying to sleep as close to it as possible because getting up at 2:30 in the morning to climb 2,000 feet in the dark kinda sucks. Terrain is a huge variable here. A buddy and I checked out some new terrain this weekend and it took us 3.5 hours to climb 3,000 feet in 2.4 miles of Rocky avalanche terrain. We did 2,000 feet in 3 miles on Sunday in 2 hours on a old mining trail. I’ve done as much as 4,000 feet in a day while hunting, but I’m usually not looking to climb more than 300-500 feet for a glassing spot.

 

[flatlanderhuffandpuff]

I've done 3k in about 3.5 miles with a well supplied camp on my back. I won't ever do that again.

doing 2000-3000 in a day with a day pack isn't too bad but typically less than that.

 

[sodaksooner]

2 to 3000 feet is doable for us and typical. I logged elevation on a hunt about 10 years ago(hunting the same unit this year) where we logged 29K feet in 7 days. We started to get a bit smarter after that hunt and learned the value of packing in....lol. Ive done 5k+ feet on a bike and that is a butt kicker too.

All that being said, if we see elk we go after them. Its fun to talk about afterward, but while we are out there we don't worry about it.

 

[isItFallYet]

All of it…

 

[mtwarden]

We gained ~ 24,000’ in four days doing the Wonderland Trail around Ranier- it wasn’t comfortable

 

[Team4LongGun]

To answer your actual question, 1200’ is as you say doable.
As some other have mentioned, trail vs off trail can make a huge difference.

My goal would be to basecamp at a location where I can access numerous glassing locations, with climbs around 4-700’ from camp

 

[Blackstorm]

As an overweight guy who looks out of shape for the last three years we have done up to 1700' in elevation change but avg about 800-1000' in elevation change a couple of times per hunt and we are only doing about 5-6 miles of hiking

 

[P Carter]

As others say, it is highly terrain dependent. In my eye, the most relevant factor would be on-trail versus off-trail, and the second would be how high of elevation the climb is. Climbing at 3,000 feet is different than climbing at above 10,000.

Hunting, I'd say 1,000-1,500 is typically a comfortable, normal, relatively easy day. My 10-year old does that without griping. (Too much, anyway.) Heck, my 4-year-old son, 8-year-old daughter, and 10-year-old son did 2,000 feet of gain in about 3.5 hours this summer. (I did carry my 4-year-old a bit, probably 1/2 mile total.)

3,000 feet ican be a pretty hard day. Over that and it gets hard.

I've had a good number of 10,000+ days, not hunting, and mostly on trails. Those are really tough and leave me with sore feet and stiff muscles.

All numbers here are elevation gain, obviously with an equivalent amount of loss.

 

[ewade07]

Ive had a few days shed hunting of 5000'+ feet in a day. Granted, the pack is lighter (to start at least). Worst I have ever done is 1800' in 0.8 miles. I thought I was just being a p***y as i was stopping about every 50 yds on the way up. Once i got to the top and checked my GPS i didnt feel as bad!

 

[wind gypsy]

As others say, it is highly terrain dependent. In my eye, the most relevant factor would be on-trail versus off-trail, and the second would be how high of elevation the climb is. Climbing at 3,000 feet is different than climbing at above 10,000.

Hunting, I'd say 1,000-1,500 is typically a comfortable, normal, relatively easy day. My 10-year old does that without griping. (Too much, anyway.) Heck, my 4-year-old son, 8-year-old daughter, and 10-year-old son did 2,000 feet of gain in about 3.5 hours this summer. (I did carry my 4-year-old a bit, probably 1/2 mile total.)

3,000 feet ican be a pretty hard day. Over that and it gets hard.

I've had a good number of 10,000+ days, not hunting, and mostly on trails. Those are really tough and leave me with sore feet and stiff muscles.

All numbers here are elevation gain, obviously with an equivalent amount of loss.

This aligns with my experience.

3k feet is probably pretty common but I also feel pretty whooped by the end.

 

[Maverick1]

How much elevation can you comfortably cover in a day? If you plan to park the truck at "X" and hike to glassing spot "Y". How high (or low) are you willing to hike? When you are e-scouting, when do you say "I think thats do'able" or "that elevation gain/loss is too much for me"

A lot of posts above have it right: it depends on the type of terrain you are covering, the amount of time you have, and the starting elevation. However, what they are missing is the amount of distance you are covering to be 3000' higher, which is the average slope. Going up 3000' in a short distance such as 3000' is a 45% incline. That is MUCH more challenging than spreading that same 3000' of vertical gain over several miles, which would be a much more gradual incline/slope, obviously. (Very few of us would be able to climb at a 45% incline in the mountains with a fully loaded pack for any period of time!)

When going into a brand new area, I always use Google Earth to plot out potential hiking approaches to give me the total distance, elevation gain/loss, max slope, and average slope. This has made a HUGE difference when going into a new area. I can compare my 'known' areas where I've gone before to the 'new' areas and figure out if it's possible, or if I'm biting off more than I can chew. (You can find this information in Google Earth by adding a path, and then right clicking on that path to "show elevation profile".) This has been super helpful to me in a number of new states. Good luck!

 

[jarrettd]

Thanks for the replies everyone. This helps a lot. Looking at a 8000-10000' climb, 5 miles, On trail. Shouldn't be too bad, but my Pennsylvania lungs may beg to differ....

And to clarify, this would be to the "area" I want to hunt, but obviously, I'm plotting my initial trail to the Plan A glassing spot. I'm realizing that hike would be very difficult to get to before daybreak, so we will problably just hike/hunt into the area the first day and depending on if we want to stay there, pick a camp spot (bivy) that would put us in a good position for the next morning. Hopefully hear some bugles overnight.

 

[BigDog00]

Put me in the camp that, "it depends". If it's on the hike in with a full load (50-60 lbs), 2-3K over a couple miles is a butt kicker. With a day pack its much different.

You're looking at ~10,000ft in elevation over 5 miles just to get to your area? Maybe I'm the exception, but that sounds absolutely miserable and not something I would not consider hunting. I would need some horses or a helicopter to consider that.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

We gained ~ 24,000’ in four days doing the Wonderland Trail around Ranier- it wasn’t comfortable

That's just showing off!

HOLY CRAP MAN! I

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Thanks for the replies everyone. This helps a lot. Looking at a 8000-10000' climb, 5 miles, On trail. Shouldn't be too bad, but my Pennsylvania lungs may beg to differ....

And to clarify, this would be to the "area" I want to hunt, but obviously, I'm plotting my initial trail to the Plan A glassing spot. I'm realizing that hike would be very difficult to get to before daybreak, so we will problably just hike/hunt into the area the first day and depending on if we want to stay there, pick a camp spot (bivy) that would put us in a good position for the next morning. Hopefully hear some bugles overnight.

Where in the heck are you finding an 8k vertical climb over 5 miles? The Himalayas?