Why do signpost times differ between Switzerland, Germany and Austria?

Because each country uses its own rule. Swiss signs come from a slope formula with 4.2 km/h on the flat, added up over short sections of the path. German and Austrian signs follow DIN 33466: 4 km/h, 300 m per hour up and 500 m down, with half of the smaller part added to the larger. Rounding differs too. Swiss signs round to 5 min. The DAV and ÖAV use 5 min steps up to 45 min, quarter hours from 1 to 2 h and half hours above. None of them includes breaks. Britain has no timed signposts, so walkers there use Naismith.

Why is going downhill not free?

Because steep descents are slow. You brake with every step and watch your footing. Langmuir subtracts time only on gentle slopes of 5–12° and adds 10 min per 300 m when it is steeper. The Swiss formula is fastest at about 5 % downhill (13.2 min per km). At 20 % downhill it needs 19.8 min per km, slower than the 14.3 on the flat. DIN counts 500 m of descent per hour.

What does “fitness” mean in Tranter’s table?

It is the time you need to climb 300 m over 800 m of path at a steady pace (1,000 ft over half a mile). 15 minutes is very fit, 50 is unfit. Naismith’s own rule predicts about 40 minutes for that test. The table also builds in tiredness. At fitness 40 a walk that Naismith puts at 2 h takes 2¾ h, and anything over 7 h is marked “too much to be attempted”. For rough ground or bad conditions Tranter says to drop one or more levels.

Is Naismith’s rule for one walker or for a group?

For a fit party on easy ground. Naismith wrote it in 1892 for “men in fair condition” on “easy expeditions”, and his own 6½ h example included short halts. For mixed groups Langmuir suggests letting the slowest member set the pace, with 4 km/h plus 1 h per 450 m of ascent. Tranter’s fitness levels are the other way to allow for slower walkers.

Where do the Swiss numbers come from?

From timed walks. Around 1986 a swisstopo employee walked and timed 162 routes of constant grade. His son, Stephan Weber, fitted a polynomial of the 15th degree to them, and Schweizer Wanderwege has used it nationwide since 2006. The organisation publishes the form of the formula but not its constants. This tool takes them from swisstopo’s map viewer, where they are labelled as SchweizMobil’s. The official formula covers grades up to ±25 %, and SchweizMobil applies it up to ±40 %. Schweizer Wanderwege’s rule of thumb is shown as a separate row.

What about the Munter method?

It is a ski-touring method, so it is not a preset here. Werner Munter counts 1 km of distance or 100 m of height as one unit and divides by a rate: 4 units per hour uphill, about 6 on foot on the flat or downhill, 10 when skiing down. The sources available online disagree on the walking descent rate, and none cites Munter’s own text. For the default walk it gives 4 h 10.

And Tobler’s hiking function?

It gives a walking speed on one slope, not a planning time. Waldo Tobler (1993) fitted W = 6·e^−3.5·|S + 0.05| km/h to field data published by Eduard Imhof: 5 km/h on the flat and 6 km/h at 5 % downhill. Applied to a whole route it runs fast for hikers with a pack, 2 h 24 for the default walk. Tobler himself says to take 3/5 of that speed off paths.

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Hiking time calculator

A hike takes roughly one hour per 4–5 km on the flat, plus about one hour per 300–600 m of climbing, depending on the rule. This calculator gives the walking time for your distance, ascent and descent by Naismith, Tranter, DIN 33466 (German and Austrian signposts) and the Swiss signpost formula, side by side.

Distance

Map distance, as a route planner shows it. On paths up to 20 % grade the length along the ground is at most about 2 % longer, so either figure will do.

Total ascent

All the metres you climb, added up. Route planners call it elevation gain.

Total descent

All the metres you go down. On a round trip it equals the ascent.

Method

The table under the calculator shows every method for the same walk.

Add Langmuir’s descent corrections

Minus 10 min per 300 m of descent on slopes of 5–12°, plus 10 min per 300 m when steeper than 12°. Naismith alone ignores descent.

Breaks

Signpost times exclude breaks. A break comes after each full hour of walking (each 2 h for DAV), none on arrival.

Walking time

2 h 33 min

without breaks

Time with breaks

2 h 33 min

no breaks added

Average walking speed

3.91

Methods disagree by

1 h 50 min

from 2 h 33 to 4 h 23 of walking time

Steady grade assumed: 10.0 % (5.7°) on the climb and on the descent.

One bar per method, all for the walk you entered. The green bar is the method you selected, the grey bars are the others. The solid part of a bar is walking time and the pale extension is the breaks under your break rule. The axis is time in hours from zero. An amber hatched stub means Tranter’s table has no value for this walk. The top line repeats your inputs, heights in the unit you picked last.

Walking times for a fit adult on good paths, without breaks unless you add them. With only totals as input, Langmuir, DIN and the Swiss formula assume the same steady grade on the climb and on the descent, so real routes with steep and flat sections take longer. The Swiss constants are SchweizMobil’s values from swisstopo’s map viewer, not a published standard.

All methods for this walk

For this walk the methods range from 2 h 33 to 4 h 23 of walking time. That spread is normal, because each rule was fitted to different walkers and paths.

Method	Walking time	With breaks	vs your choice
Naismith’s rule	2 h 50	2 h 50	+11 %
Naismith + Langmuir	2 h 33	2 h 33	selected
Naismith + Tranter (25 min)	2 h 45	2 h 45	+8 %
DIN 33466 (DAV/ÖAV)	4 h 03	4 h 03	+58 %
Swiss signpost formula	2 h 51	2 h 51	+12 %
Swiss rule of thumb	4 h 23	4 h 23	+71 %

Naismith uses its metric form (5 km/h, 600 m per hour) whatever units you type. The original 3 mi/h and 2,000 ft per hour differs by up to 3.5 %.

How it works

01
Measure the walk

Take the distance and the total ascent and descent from a map or a route planner. The rules work with map distance. On paths up to 20 % grade the length along the ground is at most about 2 % longer, so either figure will do.
02
Pick a rule

Naismith (5 km/h plus 1 h per 600 m of climb) is the British rule. DIN 33466 (4 km/h, 300 m per hour up, 500 m down) gives German and Austrian signpost times. The Swiss formula gives Swiss signpost times. The rules were fitted to different walkers, so they disagree.
03
Add the climb

Naismith and the Swiss rule of thumb simply add the climbing time to the flat time. DIN takes the larger of the two and adds half the smaller, separately for the way up and the way down. The Swiss formula sets the pace per kilometre from the slope.
04
Correct for descent and fitness

Langmuir subtracts 10 min per 300 m of descent on gentle slopes (5–12°) and adds 10 min when it is steeper. Tranter’s table stretches Naismith’s time for your fitness and for tiredness on long days.
05
Add breaks and round

Signpost times exclude breaks, so add your own. The DAV suggests 15 min about every 2 h and 30 min at the summit. Swiss signs round to 5 min, and from 3 h on, x h 05 and x h 55 become the full hour.

Formulas

Naismith’s rule with Langmuir’s corrections

t = D5 + H_up600 + c_L

t — walking time, h
D — distance, km
H_up — total ascent, m
c_L — Langmuir: −10 min per 300 m of descent on 5–12°, +10 min above 12°, 0 below 5° (plain Naismith: 0)

Tranter’s correction

t = T_f(t_N)

t_N — Naismith time without Langmuir, h
T_f — the table row for fitness f (15–50 min), linear between its columns
below 2 h: t = t_N·T_f(2)/2 (this tool’s assumption)
past the row’s last value: no result, as in the source

DIN 33466 (DAV/ÖAV), for each leg

t_leg = max(h, v) + min(h, v)2

h — horizontal time of the leg: km / 4 km/h
v — vertical time: m up / 300 m/h, or m down / 500 m/h
t = t_up + t_down

Swiss signpost formula: pace

m(s) = C₀ + C₁·s + … + C₁₅·s¹⁵

s — slope in % divided by 10 (10 % → 1)
m — minutes per km of map distance, 14.271 on the flat (4.2 km/h)
C₀…C₁₅ — SchweizMobil constants from swisstopo’s map viewer
beyond ±40 %: m = 17·s uphill, m = −9·s downhill
official window ±25 %, SchweizMobil uses ±40 %

Swiss signpost formula: time

t = L_up·m(+s) + L_down·m(−s)60

L_up, L_down — length of the climb and of the descent, km
s — the same steady slope on both
signposts add this up over short sections of the real path

Swiss rule of thumb

t = D4 + H_up400 + H_down800

D — distance, km (¼ h per km)
H_up — ascent, m (¼ h per 100 m)
H_down — descent, m (¼ h per 200 m)

Worked example

10 km, 500 m up, 500 m down (the defaults)

steady grade: 1000 m / 10 km = 10 % (5.7°), 5 km up and 5 km down
Naismith: 10/5 + 500/600 = 2.833 h = 2 h 50. Langmuir (5.7° is gentle): −500/300 · 10 min = −16.7 min → 2 h 33
Tranter, fitness 25: 1.5 + (3 − 1.5) · 0.833 = 2.75 h = 2 h 45
DIN: up 1.667 + 1.25/2 = 2.292 h, down 1.25 + 1.0/2 = 1.75 h → 4.042 h = 4 h 03
Swiss formula: 5 · 20.00 + 5 · 14.21 = 171.0 min = 2 h 51 (a signpost would read 2 h 50)
Swiss rule of thumb: 2.5 + 1.25 + 0.625 = 4.375 h = 4 h 23

FAQ

Why do signpost times differ between Switzerland, Germany and Austria?: Because each country uses its own rule. Swiss signs come from a slope formula with 4.2 km/h on the flat, added up over short sections of the path. German and Austrian signs follow DIN 33466: 4 km/h, 300 m per hour up and 500 m down, with half of the smaller part added to the larger. Rounding differs too. Swiss signs round to 5 min. The DAV and ÖAV use 5 min steps up to 45 min, quarter hours from 1 to 2 h and half hours above. None of them includes breaks. Britain has no timed signposts, so walkers there use Naismith.
Why is going downhill not free?: Because steep descents are slow. You brake with every step and watch your footing. Langmuir subtracts time only on gentle slopes of 5–12° and adds 10 min per 300 m when it is steeper. The Swiss formula is fastest at about 5 % downhill (13.2 min per km). At 20 % downhill it needs 19.8 min per km, slower than the 14.3 on the flat. DIN counts 500 m of descent per hour.
What does “fitness” mean in Tranter’s table?: It is the time you need to climb 300 m over 800 m of path at a steady pace (1,000 ft over half a mile). 15 minutes is very fit, 50 is unfit. Naismith’s own rule predicts about 40 minutes for that test. The table also builds in tiredness. At fitness 40 a walk that Naismith puts at 2 h takes 2¾ h, and anything over 7 h is marked “too much to be attempted”. For rough ground or bad conditions Tranter says to drop one or more levels.
Is Naismith’s rule for one walker or for a group?: For a fit party on easy ground. Naismith wrote it in 1892 for “men in fair condition” on “easy expeditions”, and his own 6½ h example included short halts. For mixed groups Langmuir suggests letting the slowest member set the pace, with 4 km/h plus 1 h per 450 m of ascent. Tranter’s fitness levels are the other way to allow for slower walkers.
Where do the Swiss numbers come from?: From timed walks. Around 1986 a swisstopo employee walked and timed 162 routes of constant grade. His son, Stephan Weber, fitted a polynomial of the 15th degree to them, and Schweizer Wanderwege has used it nationwide since 2006. The organisation publishes the form of the formula but not its constants. This tool takes them from swisstopo’s map viewer, where they are labelled as SchweizMobil’s. The official formula covers grades up to ±25 %, and SchweizMobil applies it up to ±40 %. Schweizer Wanderwege’s rule of thumb is shown as a separate row.
What about the Munter method?: It is a ski-touring method, so it is not a preset here. Werner Munter counts 1 km of distance or 100 m of height as one unit and divides by a rate: 4 units per hour uphill, about 6 on foot on the flat or downhill, 10 when skiing down. The sources available online disagree on the walking descent rate, and none cites Munter’s own text. For the default walk it gives 4 h 10.
And Tobler’s hiking function?: It gives a walking speed on one slope, not a planning time. Waldo Tobler (1993) fitted W = 6·e^{−3.5·|S + 0.05|} km/h to field data published by Eduard Imhof: 5 km/h on the flat and 6 km/h at 5 % downhill. Applied to a whole route it runs fast for hikers with a pack, 2 h 24 for the default walk. Tobler himself says to take 3/5 of that speed off paths.

Knowing how long the walk takes is half the plan. Waveshed shows what you will see from the summit: the view over real terrain, ridge by ridge, free in your browser.

See the view from your summit →

Related guides

What can you see from the summit? — drop a point on a peak and see which summits, valleys and huts are in view
Measuring tools — distance between two points and the terrain profile along the line

Sources & further reading

W. W. Naismith, “Excursions. Cruach Ardran, Stobinian, and Ben More”, Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal 2(3), 1892, p. 136 ↗ — the original rule, “an hour for every three miles … an additional hour for every 2,000 feet”, in the Glasgow Digital Library copy
Wegehandbuch der Alpenvereine — DAV / ÖAV ↗ — walking times on the basis of DIN 33466 (§1.6.2.5) and the signpost rounding
Tourenplanung: So planst du deine Bergwanderung — Deutscher Alpenverein ↗ — the same 4 km / 300 m / 500 m rule and the break advice
DIN 33466:2004-05 Wegweiser für Wanderwege — DIN Media ↗ — the standard itself, paywalled and not read for this tool
Wanderzeit — Schweizer Wanderwege ↗ — the official form of the Swiss formula, the rule of thumb and its 12 km / 400 m example
Signalisation Wanderwege, Vollzugshilfe Langsamverkehr Nr. 6 — ASTRA / Schweizer Wanderwege ↗ — 4.2 km/h on the flat (§3.1.2) and the rounding of signpost times (§2.1.3)
geoadmin/web-mapviewer, elevation profile utils.ts — swisstopo ↗ — the polynomial constants, labelled there as SchweizMobil’s, and the ±40 % window
W. Tobler, Three Presentations on Geographical Analysis and Modeling (NCGIA TR 93-1), 1993 ↗ — the hiking function, archived copy
Naismith’s rule — Wikipedia ↗ — Langmuir’s corrections and Tranter’s table, read 7 November 2026

Hiking time calculator

All methods for this walk

How it works

Measure the walk

Pick a rule

Add the climb

Correct for descent and fitness

Add breaks and round

Formulas

Worked example

FAQ

Related guides

Sources & further reading

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