A survey of thru-hikers on America’s famous Pacific Crest Trail reveals that the cost to complete the 2,650-mile route has more than doubled in less than a decade.
Thru-hikers, who spend an average of 144 days competing the hiking trail from Mexico to Canada, spent an average of $10,149 during the trip in 2024, compared to $5,705 in 2015. That’s a current cost of more than $70 per day.
Interestingly, PCTers today do not spend a great deal more on their hiking gear before setting off than they did 10 years ago.
The survey, which is carried out annually, shows hikers in the last season on the PCT spent $1,708 on average on backpacking gear, representing a rise of $463 in just over a decade.
Since 2013, thru-hiker and adventurer Tyler “Mac” Fox has compiled an annual survey of PCT hikers.
The PCT, which extends through California, Oregon and Washington, can be hiked north to south, or in the other direction. Northbound is the more popular choice.
While it’s estimated that about a million hikers use the PCT annually, not all of these people are aiming to complete the full route.
Long-distance users, defined as those travelling 500 miles or more in a single trip, are a small percentage of the trail’s total users. These hikers will usually apply for a PCT long-distance permit. According to the Pacific Crest Trail Association, 6840 long-distance permits were purchased in 2024, compared to 1897 in 2013.
Other stats from the new survey, which was completed by 764 hikers, shows that the average age of a respondent has increased from 26 in 2013 to 38 last season. This suggests that PCTers are getting older, although it’s worth noting that it may be skewed by the age demographic of people who are willing to fill out the survey.
Almost two-thirds (62.2%) of PCT hikers were, unsurprisingly, from across the US. The next four positions go to 6.6% hikers arriving from Germany, followed by Canada at 6.1% of hikers, the UK at 5.6% and fifth was Australia at 3.3%.
The number of countries represented in thru-hikers of the PCT has steadily grown over the years. In 2013, the figure was 11 countries and by 2017, hikers came from 34 different countries. Last year, this number was matched at 34.
Just over half of the thru-hikers were first timers on any long-distance trail. Almost three quarters had done some training for the hike, although a disconcerting number – 28% – report that had not done any training.
Almost three-quarters (72.2%) started the hike alone, while 16.7% began the PCT with a partner.
PCTers who completed the full route took on average 144 days, of which 126 days were spent hiking. Each day of hiking was, on average, 21.7 miles.
Completion rates of thru-hikers hit an all-time high with more than three quarters (77%) of respondents reporting a full finish. The figure has undulated over the last decade, or more.
Previous surveys show that completions in 2013 were 27%, increasing to 34% in 2014, then a drop for subsequent years to a low of 14% in 2017. There was a new increase to 24% in 2018 after which the trend has been for a generally growing percentage of hikers to complete the route.
There was a fair amount of flip-flopping, which is a term used to describe hikers missing a section for the trail (the flip) and returning to this section later (the flop).
Flip-flopping can happen when hikers want to avoid snow, when a section is closed or for a variety of logistical reasons such as requiring to return to work.
In 2024, 17% of hikers flip-flopped and the reasons included 64.6% due to fires, 21.2% due to snow, 4% for personal or logistical reasons and 2% due to hiking injuries.
Two more fascinating results revealed by the latest survey report that hikers were more likely to eat cheap grocery store food while on the PCT rather than commercial backpacking meals, which is a change to previous years, plus the most common wildlife spot of PCT thru-hikers in 2024 was rattlesnakes.
