Trip planning and boundaries

[wayno]

when you are planning your trips.. what are the guidellines you use for deciding on where and how long your trip and how long your walking time will be each day?
almost anything goes? walk 15 hours a day, day after day?
walk a few hours a day?
mix up the hours you walk each day?
go for vertical rough terrain, vegetation isnt a limiting factor....
go for tame terrain on good tracks?
or something in between?

i'm usually a four to six hours a day. but i'll throw in longer days in between.
i dont go vertical, but very steep terrain with rock scrambling is ok,
i dont mind some scrub bashing but prefer it wasnt all day every day....
i generally limit overnight trips to spring summer and autumn, but will consider winter trips if its really interesting
day walk year round all weathers.
dont get a lot of chances to get into snow. but its not a limiting factor, prefer avoiding endless deep postholing, been there done that enough.
can use ice axe and crampons, rusty on a rope...
generally i'm an on track walker but i'll do off track on known off track routes that dont need constant navigation...
muds ok provided its not endless deep mud
not a fan of swamps if they are big ones....
i'll research trips to see how dangerous it is, if there have been a lot of injuries or the odd death, i'll examine any patterns surrounding those and decide if i think the trip is more dangerous than i'm willing to take on.

example: Cascade saddle, Aspiring National park:
over the last ten years, a person has died on this trip every other year from falling, almost every year there are injuries including broken bones on the approach to the pylon because its a steep ascent....
however, at least in recent years all injuries and deaths occured in wet, soft snow or icy conditions, most occurred when the people were descending on one particular side of the saddle from the pylon.
so I decided i would go if i could get fine weather, and ascend from the side where the accidents had happen i had to book my leave a couple of weeks in advance, the trip is four days including the dart valley. i booked a weeks leave. I didnt book my travel till half a week before the trip when the forecast gave a reasonable idea of when the best weather would be... end result, i missed a storm and was able to cross the saddle without any issues. wasnt worried at all on the saddle despite its history, but having done it i wouldnt attempt it in the wet or soft snow.
if the weather didnt pan out then i had a plan B to do another trip in the are that avoided the saddle altogether... there isnt really an easy way around it, you can climb the valley wall in other places but its just as steep or steeper... people have died up and down the valley from falls

[Moondog55]

Interesting post.
My planning decisions are almost always made on the basis of how fit I am. When I know I am fit and reasonably conditioned [ a while ago I admit] I would happily tackle difficult and long routes, these days I need for various reasons to keep a lot of my walking to tracks and moderate terrain. But rock, steep snow, ice? That part of it doesn't phase me much at all, so long as I had planned properly and was carrying appropriate gear vertical ice tho would be a different matter but that is climbing not walking

[andrewbish]

Something
- I haven't done before
- where I can walk for most of the daylight hours (except the first and last days)
- with a mix of track/off track
- with a bit of gradient involved eg. Vic alpine
- overnight (3-6 days)
- with amazing scenery
- where I am unlikely to meet anyone else (combo of remote, rarely travelled and weekdays)

I love the cold and added challenge of winter trips. Mid Summer heat is my least fav

Hiking with spikes & ice axes is a fun added challenge
.
Have considered climbing, but the gear $$ and the interdependency with others is a drag (I prefer to solo)

[north-north-west]

Something
- I haven't done before
- where I can walk for most of the daylight hours (except the first and last days)
- with a mix of track/off track
- with a bit of gradient involved eg. Vic alpine
- overnight (3-6 days)
- with amazing scenery
- where I am unlikely to meet anyone else (combo of remote, rarely travelled and weekdays)

Have considered climbing, but the gear $$ and the interdependency with others is a drag (I prefer to solo)

Stop reading my mind, you pervert!

[andrewbish]

Something
- I haven't done before
- where I can walk for most of the daylight hours (except the first and last days)
- with a mix of track/off track
- with a bit of gradient involved eg. Vic alpine
- overnight (3-6 days)
- with amazing scenery
- where I am unlikely to meet anyone else (combo of remote, rarely travelled and weekdays)

Have considered climbing, but the gear $$ and the interdependency with others is a drag (I prefer to solo)

Stop reading my mind, you pervert!

Don't worry, NNW, I didn't stay in there long - I began feeling cranky for no obvious reason .. and getting inexplicable yearning for the Western Arthurs.