The original version of this article appeared on ExplorersWeb.
The 2024 Pacific Crest Trail hiker survey is out, and its data will interest long-distance backpackers.
Halfway Anywhere, a blog run by long-distance athlete Tyler Fox, compiles the annual survey (now in its 11th year). It’s an in-depth look at a host of metrics from age and ethnicity to money spent and technology used on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).
This year, 764 thru-hikers completed the survey. That’s only about 9.5% of the 8,000 long-distance permits issued on average each year by the Pacific Crest Trail Association. So, while the survey is far from comprehensive, it’s nevertheless a decent sample size.
Let’s take a look.
The Cost of Adventure
On average, thru-hikers paid $1,708 for gear in 2024. That’s up from the early years of the survey by almost $500. Hikers spent an average of $10,149 on the trip last year, including the initial cost of gear.
The survey didn’t begin asking hikers about total trip cost until 2019. In that year, hikers spent an average of $6,561, or $38.68 a day, compared to $71 a day in 2024. So the cost has risen 55% in just 5 years. Inflation (particularly with food) is certainly a factor here, as well as an increasing interest in ultralight backpacking, which tends to use gear made of high-end, expensive materials.
You might think that a higher percentage of first-time thru-hikers could be driving up these numbers. Novice thru-hikers need to spend more on gear and might also be more likely to splurge on hostels and transportation. But as it turns out, it’s just the opposite.
In 2019, 67.6% of survey responders were on their first long-distance thru-hike. In 2024, that number had dropped to 50.2%. Thru-hiking as a whole has become increasingly popular through books and films like Wild and A Walk in the Woods, and the Appalachian Trail, rather than the PCT, is generally seen as more beginner-friendly. Many thru-hikers tackle the Appalachian Trail first, then the PCT, then the Continental Divide Trail.
Those trails have also seen large increases in reported costs. A 2024 survey of the Appalachian Trail by The Trek found that hikers spent $10,500 on average last year, an increase of $500 from 2023. As for the Continental Divide Trail, the average cost of the entire hike was about $8,900 in 2023, according to Halfway Nowhere. The 2024 survey of the CDT isn’t yet available.
Some Unsurprising Findings
Overall, 55% of the survey respondents were male, 40% were female, and 1% identified as non-binary. Just under half of the thru-hikers were between the ages of 25 and 34, and almost 90% of them were white. None of that is surprising, given the general breakdown of outdoor sports.
One encouraging statistic is that the percentage of female thru-hikers rose 3.5% from last year. When the survey began in 2013, 35% of the hikers were female.
Most of the people who took the survey hail from western U.S. states, so it’s also not shocking that over 5.4% of them listed “software engineer” as their profession. And given that the PCT is a summer trail, it also tracks that educators were well-represented at 6.6% and students at 4%.
White-collar jobs like engineer, scientist, mechanical engineer, consultant, and IT professional also made the top ranks of professions for PCT thru-hikers. Seasonal workers made the top 10, but interestingly, they comprised only 3.5% of the hikers who completed the survey.
Apps and Maps
Gone are the days when long-distance hiking meant a break from modern technology.
In 2024, 99% of the surveyed thru-hikers used some type of phone app, generally for navigation. FarOut Guides (formerly GutHook) was by far the most popular, with 96% of hikers choosing it for its ability to tell you your exact distance from any given point on the trail. FarOut also includes real-time, crowd-sourced information on important things like water levels at river crossings.
Hikers also used apps that provided more detailed topographical information, like GIA GPS (33.9%) and CalTopo (12.3%). Note that the use of one app doesn’t preclude the use of another.
You can find the complete 2024 Pacific Crest Trail Hiker Survey here. It’s worth spending a few hours digging into — especially if your sights are set on a 2025 permit.
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