How to use
- Enter the elevation gain in feet. Use the elevation page first if you have a list of heights.
- Enter the hours that match that gain. Moving hours and total hours answer different questions. Type the one you mean.
- Press Calculate. The hero is feet per hour.
- A descent is not subtracted. This form wants gain, not net change.
How it's calculated
Feet per hour = elevation gain ÷ hours.
There is no fitness table and no adjustment for pack weight. A bigger pack does not change the arithmetic. It changes the hours you type.
Worked example
Two thousand feet in two hours is 1,000 feet per hour. The same gain in three hours is about 667 feet per hour. Naismith, at a typed allowance per thousand feet, answers how long the climb might take. This page answers how fast a climb you already did, or already planned, rises.
Assumptions
The gain and the hours describe the same effort. Mixing a full-day clock with only the uphill gain will understate the climbing rate. The page cannot see which hours you included.
FAQ
Is this the same as grade?
No. Grade is rise divided by horizontal distance. Vertical speed is rise divided by time.
What about the walk down?
Leave it out of the hours if you want the climbing rate. Include it if you want gain divided by the whole outing, and know that is a different rate.
Can I enter meters?
Convert to feet first. One meter is about 3.281 feet.
Where do the hours come from?
From a watch, or from a time estimate on the pace, Naismith, or Tobler pages.