Add an Explicit Ascent Allowance to Walking Time — Free
A route’s flat-ground estimate can hide the time you spend climbing. Add a visible, self-chosen ascent allowance while keeping breaks, descent and difficult terrain outside the moving-time figure.
The proof surface
Road-trip stop plans arrange driving legs and breaks. This combines baseline walking minutes with elevation gain using an explicit personal planning assumption.
Why the flat version breaks
Using net elevation change
Downhill sections do not cancel the effort and time already spent ascending.
Adding ascent to an ascent-adjusted estimate
Some route apps already include elevation; check what your baseline means.
Treating the total as a safe arrival time
Terrain, fitness, daylight and weather can dominate a simple moving-time model.
How to work the ascent-time index card
Use your own flat-ground pace for the distance, excluding breaks. Do not use a route time that already includes climbing or you will count ascent twice.
Enter all uphill metres, not the difference between start and finish altitude. A route returning to its starting height may still contain substantial climbing.
Moving minutes = baseline + ascent ÷ 100 × allowance. Sixty baseline minutes with 200 m ascent at ten minutes per 100 m becomes 80 minutes.
All positive-ascent rows are flagged to make the added assumption visible. Add stops, descent difficulty, navigation and weather margins separately; turn back or change plans when conditions demand it.
What the ascent-time index card replaces
| Question | Before | Visible working |
|---|---|---|
| Using net elevation change | Downhill sections do not cancel the effort and time already spent ascending. | Use cumulative ascent for each leg |
| Adding ascent to an ascent-adjusted estimate | Some route apps already include elevation; check what your baseline means. | Add the stated allowance |
| Treating the total as a safe arrival time | Terrain, fitness, daylight and weather can dominate a simple moving-time model. | Build a separate safety margin |
A local arithmetic aid replaces hand calculation, not expert review. No paid AI service is needed.
Run it on the samples, right here
FIRST-LOAD
Research prototype — checkout unavailable. Input is processed locally and a draft is saved automatically in this browser profile when storage is available. Reset to sample clears that draft; Pro history has its own clear button. A state link encodes your inputs in its URL: share only non-sensitive rows. Browser history, clipboard and anyone receiving the link may retain it. Optional AI use below leaves this device; it is not required.
Personal scenario arithmetic only, not navigation, mountain-safety advice or an arrival guarantee. Use appropriate maps, current conditions and local guidance; do not rely on this figure for emergency or exposed-route decisions.
Data note: Everything runs in this browser tab on the ascent-time index card: your route leg | flat-ground moving minutes | ascent metres stays on this device, nothing is uploaded, and the reading is rebuilt only when you press run.
Go deeper: the companion app files the same reading as a index card with a stamped header
The article demo above runs without limits. The companion app keeps a local history, exports the rows as CSV, prints the ascent-time index card reading, and holds your drafts on this device — one complete free run; the proposed $4 one-time filing layer is not currently for sale.
The ascent-time index card reading is complete for free. The optional $4 layer adds print, row CSV and the last five local reading summaries; it does not add hidden answers. Checkout is not configured yet; the article demo remains unlimited.
Open the add an explicit ascent allowance to walking time companionBoundary
Personal scenario arithmetic only, not navigation, mountain-safety advice or an arrival guarantee. Use appropriate maps, current conditions and local guidance; do not rely on this figure for emergency or exposed-route decisions.
What this is built on
- Method: Moving minutes = baseline + ascent ÷ 100 × allowance. Sixty baseline minutes with 200 m ascent at ten minutes per 100 m becomes 80 minutes.
- All sample records are invented examples. The app does not fetch measurements, policies, files or personal records.
- Google’s official pricing page, fetched 2026-09-29, lists free-tier access including AI Studio. Optional formatting only; limits and availability can change. Free-tier content may be used to improve products. Never paste private records there.
Before: Downhill sections do not cancel the effort and time already spent ascending. After: the ascent-time index card shows the working beside each named row so the reader can change the assumption and inspect the consequence.
Optional AI formatting, not calculation
For this ascent-time index card, use the free AI Studio interface only if available to you, with no paid API key. Manual entry completes the same workflow for free. Supply only fictional or non-sensitive notes. Review its output against the source; never paste unresolved questions into the numeric rows.
Format my non-sensitive notes for a ascent-time index card. Return plain rows only: route leg | flat-ground moving minutes | ascent metres. Preserve supplied quantities exactly. Do not guess missing values; list questions separately. Do not calculate or add advice. I will check every row before pasting into the local tool.
Accepted schema: route leg | flat-ground moving minutes | ascent metres. No AI response is executed as code.