The wisepilgrim website and the iPhone app are made by one person, and among the reasons for doing this, Michael gives the excellent rationale:
a way to pass the time during a particularly dark winter in Reykjavík.
This contains the alarming diagram showing the altitude of the walk. For example, this is part of the traditional first stage, starting from the French village of St Jean Pied de Port:
The commentary in the wisepilgrim app for this stage is:
"Pilgrims wishing to endure a penitential pilgrimage could find no better way to begin their journey in Spain than by making their way over the Pyrenees from the French town of St Jean at the Foot of the Pass."
Quite so.
That's 12 times up Awaba St carrying a backpack. Not too bad if you do it once an hour!
ReplyDeleteI just went up and down Awaba St 3 times, it took about 8 minutes up and then I took 10 minutes to walk down. (all of this is without a backpack!!!)
DeleteAccording to my GPS, the change in altitude was 85m and the distance is 0.6km. I'm not sure what the distance means - the horizontal distance or the distance covered?
Of course the backpack will make a big difference, and it will get harder as the day goes on. As they say in the guidebooks, it is not a race. A fallback option is to stay at a hotel, of which I believe there are some on the way.