Where hiking ends: walk-ups, scrambles & mountaineering

The line this encyclopedia draws

This is a reference of trails you can walk. Where a famous route needs hands on rock, fixed cables as a climbing aid, a rope, glacier travel, or supplemental oxygen, we map the walking line and mark where it ends. We do not extend a distance DataPoint up a climb, and we do not dress a climb as a hike. That is the same honesty bar as how we verify: sourced or omitted, never invented.

Three tiers, in the grades we already use

Difficulty on this catalog is always cross-walked: SAC (Swiss Alpine Club hiking scale, T1–T6) and YDS (Yosemite Decimal System classes 1–5), plus a plain label. The SAC scale is six hiking grades from T1 (hiking) to T6 (difficult alpine hiking). A solid line on SAC maps is typically up to T3; dashed alpine ground is typically T4 and above.

• Walking — SAC T1–T3 / YDS 1–2. Established or continuous trail. Hands may be needed for balance on T3, not as the main way up.
• Scrambling — SAC T4–T5 / YDS 3. Hands needed, exposure, simple climbing terrain. A fall can be serious. We may map the walk to the start of that ground; we do not map the scramble as walking.
• Mountaineering — ropes, glacier gear, crevasses, fixed cables used as a climb, supplemental oxygen, death zone. Out of scope as a trail. YDS 4–5 is climbing; SAC T6 already assumes alpine aids. The 8,000 m summits sit beyond even that.

What the “Where the walking ends” block means

On some trail pages a labelled block sits next to Difficulty. It names the handoff point (and an elevation when we have a cited figure), states whether the continuation is scramble or mountaineering, cites an authority, and dates the check. It is always public — never behind login. It does not mean we have surveyed the technical section. The stored geometry and lengthKm stop at the walk, or the continuation is labelled and never summed into walking distance.

Walk-up summits we actually hold are grouped at Walk-up & trekker summits. Base-camp treks are not listed there: camp is a walking destination; the peak above is mountaineering.

Live records

Mount Kenya (Sirimon–Chogoria)

The trekker summit is Point Lenana (4,985 m). Batian and Nelion are technical mountaineering, not this walk. The schematic length on this record is 26.6 km — pin-to-pin, not walking distance. DEM high 4,949 m is a four-vertex sample, left as Copernicus.

Everest Base Camp Trek

The walk ends at Everest Base Camp. Everest itself is mountaineering (ropes, supplemental oxygen, death zone), not a trail. This record's stored line is a schematic village polyline (42.9 km) — not walking distance. DEM high 5,292 m is an eight-point GLO-30 sample of those pins; Kala Patthar is not on this line.

Annapurna Base Camp Trek

The walk ends in the Sanctuary at Annapurna Base Camp (4,130 m on this record). Annapurna I above is mountaineering, not a trail. Length 70 km is seed-approximate until an OSM line is ingested.

Manaslu Circuit

This is a walking circuit around Manaslu, not a walk to Manaslu Base Camp and not a summit. OSM 2-D length 146.9 km. DEM high 5,151 m is the Larkya La band. The peak above is mountaineering, out of scope.

Other base-camp walks we hold

• Makalu Base Camp — walking ends at camp on the upper Barun. Makalu the summit is mountaineering.
• K2 Base Camp / Concordia — walking ends at trekker K2 Base Camp / Concordia. K2 and the Gasherbrums are mountaineering.
• Kangchenjunga Base Camp (Pangpema) — walking ends at Pangpema. Kangchenjunga the summit is mountaineering.

Famous finishes we do not yet hold as trail records

On Mount Olympus, published walking lines stop at Skala (2,882 m). Mytikas (2,918 m) is a YDS III scramble, not a walking trail. We do not publish a summit-hike record for that scramble. When a walk-only record lands, it will carry the same marker.

On Half Dome, NPS requires a permit to use the cables when they are up. The cables are a fixed-aid scramble for the last stretch to the summit — not walking, and not a trail record on this catalog yet. The walking approach, when we hold it, will stop at the cable base.

Why some famous summits stop short

This is why some famous summits appear as a walk that stops below the top — that's the truth of the terrain, not a gap in our data.

Also in this desk: How we verify · Walk-up & trekker summits · Base camp treks explained · Scrambles & exposed alpine ground.