Hike Difficulty Grading

It's just a guide, be prepared.

Hike Difficulty Grading

It’s easy to depend solely on a hike difficulty grading instead of using it as a pre-hike guide. Each hike is unique and somewhat unpredictable: weather and trail conditions can differ dramatically within a few hours. It’s also essential to be attentive to other daily influences, like the participants’ ages, abilities, and the hike length (day or multiday hikes).

This Hike Difficulty Grading and other hike preparation pages on the LifeTrail website have been designed mainly for LifeTrail Teen Hikes and NDIS Naturbility Hikes. Still, it would assist anyone planning their hike.

Prepare For Your Multiday Hike
Hiking Food
Multiday Day Gear List

How you prepare yourself and gear before your hike will dramatically affect how challenging your hike is. Incorrect footwear can lead to nasty blisters, and beginning a hike with an injury that hasn’t fully recovered can lead to much pain and a much longer recovery. Using the wrong gear,  a backpack hipbelt, which is too big for you, will lead to painful shoulders and high exhaustion rates. These don’t solely affect you; they will affect others if you’re in a group.

However, Australia has created its own Hike Difficulty Grading that this is based on. Multiday hikes will generally be a grade 3 to 4 due to the total distance and carrying a 15 kg plus backpack.

There is no such thing as a bad hike, only wrong gear and a bad attitude

Hiking for beginners can be challenging and scary. Didier has many years of experience assessing people’s (all ages) physical, mental, and attitude capabilities due to his work in disability and mental health services. He reserves the right to request a further assessment from your medical specialist before anyone participates in a hike. Didier always welcomes a chat to discuss your dream hike, whether one hour or the 1000 km Bibbulmun Track.

Grade 1 – Suitable for anyone

The hike will be under 5 kilometres and doesn’t require any hiking experience. The terrain will be flat even with no stairs or overly steep sections. To be rated a grade 1, the track should suit children in wheelchairs (with assistance), with physical barriers, and children’s strollers.

Grade 2 – Suitable for beginners, young children

These are great hikes to get started on. The hike will be under 10 kilometres, and like the grade 1, it doesn’t require any prior hiking experience or a compacted path and may include some gentle slopes and occasional steps. It requires the participant to have average health and low-level fitness.

Training tip: The participant will find this hike more enjoyable if they can climb 10 steps at once while carrying a 5kg pack. 

Grade 3 – Recommended for people with some hiking experience or average fitness

For these hikes, days may be up to 20km long, but you’ll find many that are 10km long. They are suitable for most ages and average fitness levels, but it’s suggested that you have some hiking experience. The tracks are well-formed and marked but may have short/medium steep hill sections, steps and uneven ground. There may be obstacles you need to go over or under in parts. A person with a low fitness level can participate but may find it more challenging.

Training tip: The participant will find this hike more enjoyable if they can climb 100 steps at once while carrying a 10kg pack. 

Grade 4 – Recommended for experienced hikers and a reasonable level of fitness

A grade 4 hike will likely have most days over 15 km, including rough ground and very steep sections. These trails are suggested for people with experience hiking. They may be any length but physically more demanding. A reasonable level of fitness and unrestricted movement will be required.

Training tip: The participant will find this hike more enjoyable if they can walk 15 to 20 km in a day and comfortably climb 200 steps at once while carrying a 10kg pack, potentially more than once daily. 

Grade 5 – Recommended for very experienced hikers

These trails are only for experienced hikers with specialised skills and equipment, including navigation, emergency first aid and climbing. They are likely less defined, rough, and steep and have few directional signs or trail markers.

Training tip: The participant will find this hike more enjoyable if they can walk more than 20 km daily and climb 200 steps at once while carrying a 17kg pack, potentially more than once a day. 

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