Talus at a glance
- Size
- Dinner plate to car
- Behavior
- Individual blocks pivot
- Pace
- A fraction of trail pace
How to move across it
Step onto the middle of a block rather than its edge, and put weight on gradually enough that you can take it off again. A block that rocks announces itself in the first fraction of a second if you are paying attention and not if you are committed. Experienced scramblers move deliberately with a low center of gravity and almost never hurry.
Trekking poles are a mixed blessing here. They help on the approach and on the flat sections, and they are a liability where you want your hands free on bigger blocks, because a pole wedged in a gap while you are falling is worse than no pole. Stowing them before the field starts is usually right.
Why it is so much slower than it looks
A talus field flattens out on a map and reads as easy ground. In practice a kilometer of it can take as long as five kilometers of trail, and it does so while demanding concentration the whole way. Trip plans that assume trail pace across a boulder field routinely arrive somewhere in the dark.
Wet talus and lichen-covered talus are substantially worse again. Lichen on granite is close to frictionless when damp, which is where a soft, sticky rubber compound earns its price over a harder hiking outsole.
What this means when you're choosing
- A stiff enough midsole to stand on an edge without the shoe folding
- A sticky rubber compound, which is what holds on wet lichen
- Whether you can stow your poles quickly when you want your hands
- Realistic time estimates, since talus is far slower than its distance suggests
The common mistake
Reading a boulder field as flat ground on the map
Contour lines say nothing about whether the surface is trail or a kilometer of blocks. Talus routinely runs at a fifth of trail pace and it is one of the most common reasons people end up finishing a day route by headlamp.
Common questions
How fast can you cross talus?
Assume a fraction of trail pace. A kilometer of boulder field can take as long as five kilometers of maintained trail, and underestimating that is one of the commonest reasons parties finish in the dark.
Should I use trekking poles on talus?
On the approach and flatter sections, yes. On larger blocks most people stow them, because you want your hands and a pole jammed in a gap during a fall makes the fall worse.
Where this is defined
- Landforms and mass wasting, US Geological Survey
- Hiking safety, National Park Service