Hiking Skills

No everyone aspires to being an expert hiker. Take baby steps, don’t be afraid to ask for advice, be patient with yourself while you plan your hikes, develop your skills. Take time to refine them and practice, practice, practice. 

Knowing what hiking skill level you are at is important for planning your hikes. Be honest with your self-assessment and be safe on the trail.

Regardless of where you are in the wilderness, water is your most valuable commodity. If you don’t have water, you are going to need to find some, quick. Here are a few tips on How to Find Water on a Hike.

If your hiking boots start to wear on your feet in uncomfortable ways, you’ll be glad to learn a few new lacing tricks that could help improve your comfort.

If you’ve ever hiked on the beach, you’ve felt the sand give way with every step you take. When you hike on wet sand that is packed, the going is much easier than on dry, soft sand.

Here are six basic climbing movement skills that will improve your scrambling, getting you up more mountains and staying safer when you’re climbing easy rock without equipment and a safety rope.

Scree trails can’t have very steep inclines so they typically run straight across or a slight rise. It is very important to remain on the trail and watch your step.

Apart from their beauty and interest, clouds can provide a useful indication of weather conditions, both current and approaching. Being able to recongise and interpret cloud formations is a vital skill to master when hiking.

Boulder hopping is when you step or hop from one boulder to the next in a large field of (you guessed it) boulders. In good hiking boots with grippy rubber soles and on dry rocks this is fun.

Hiking safely across snow is an essential skill for many hikers and climbers as it is not the same as hiking on terra firma. Even if you don’t aspire to climbing peaks, it is definitely worth your time to learn how to kick good steps and travel with an ice axe.

Alpine climbing isn’t an easy task and requires resilience, determination and physical strength. Before you tackle an alpine climb, you will need to prepare your body and mind for the challenges you will face.

Sitting around a glowing campfire is one of the joys of camping, but with around ten per cent of bushfires caused by escaped campfires, it’s essential to follow the rules and do the right thing.

It is well worth spending the time at home learning how to load your pack with the gear you expect to use on different trips just to see how it fits and how the comfort level of your pack changes when your packing is configured differently.

Many hikers have a love/hate relationship with walking uphill or downhill. It takes extra exertion, so you know it is probably doing good things for your body. The benefits make it worth the sweat, especially when you take the time to walk uphill with good technique.

Knowing how to cross a river is a critical hiking skill, so is knowing when not to cross. Take the time to learn correct river crossing techniques.

On any hike it is important to focus on setting the pace and establishing natural rhythm that suits you or the slowest member of your group. Breathe smoothly, steadily and in rhythm with your pace and consider the following suggestions.

Just using poles with common sense will provide a few of these advantages, but some skill training is required to gain ALL of the available benefits.