Pace, load & food
How long a route takes, what pack weight costs in energy, how to calculate base weight and how much food to carry, with worked numbers.
Time, weight and food are linked. A heavier pack slows you down and burns more energy, and the food that covers the energy is itself weight. Naismith, Tobler and Pandolf each model one part of that loop.
- 016 min read
Naismith’s rule, with the corrections that make it useful
Naismith’s rule in metric: 5 km/h plus 10 minutes per 100 m of ascent, with Langmuir descent corrections and a worked 14 km hiking time example.
- 025 min read
Tobler’s hiking function: how walking speed changes with slope
Tobler’s hiking function gives walking speed on a slope: 6 × e^(−3.5 |S + 0.05|) km/h. See the speed table, the flat value and a map-based example.
- 035 min read
The Pandolf equation: what a backpack adds to walking energy
The Pandolf equation estimates walking energy with a pack. A 75 kg walker with 12 kg at 4 km/h on a 3% grade uses about 327 kcal in one hour.
- 045 min read
Base weight: the ledger behind a pack’s total weight
Base weight is pack gear without food, water or fuel. Learn what counts, how skin-out weight differs, and a worked ledger reaching 5,700 g.
- 055 min read
Backpacking food weight: turning a calorie target into grams
Work out backpacking food weight from calories and energy density. 2,800 kcal per day at 450 kcal per 100 g is 653 g per day with 5% packaging.