Half Out, Half Home

You planned two hours. You’ve been walking for two and a half, the top of the hill is still up there, and it looks maybe twenty minutes further. What do you do?

Most people keep going. That’s the problem.

Here’s a general rule for almost any walk. Look at your watch, not at the hill. If you have four hours of light, you turn back after two. Half out, half home.

Why the watch and not the map? The sign that says one mile to the top is telling you about the hill. Your watch is telling you about you: how slow the last climb was, how heavy your legs are.

And those twenty minutes? Twenty minutes up is forty minutes there and back, and on a mountain twenty minutes is never twenty minutes. The light goes early behind a hill, an hour before it goes anywhere else.

So what do you lose? The top. That’s all. The hill will still be there in June, and it will look the same in every photo.

Ask the people who walk in the Scottish hills every weekend. The best ones are not the ones who go the furthest. They’re the ones who get home in the light.