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The safety tool

Turnaround & daylight

The single habit that keeps people out of the dark: a turnaround time, set before you leave. This computes the real sunrise and sunset for where and when you’re going, then works backwards to the latest moment you can still be heading up.

Where and when

Presets assume summer daylight saving (CEST, +2). Outside summer the offset is +1; set it under a custom location.

The hike

Don’t know the time yet? Get it from the hike time calculator.

The daylight

Sunrise
05:57
Sunset
21:19
Daylight
15 h 22 m

Your turnaround

Latest safe start
16:34
Turn around by (at the high point)
18:46
Be down by
20:34

Keeping a 45 min buffer before sunset. Turnaround assumes the descent is about 1 h 48 m of the day.

If you left at first light

Starting at sunrise (05:57), a 4 h day finishes around 09:57. That is 10 h 37 m inside your buffer — the daylight easily holds this.

A turnaround is a decision made at the kitchen table, so you don’t make it badly on a cold ridge. The thinking is in how to plan hiking time.

How the turnaround is calculated

First the tool computes the real sunrise and sunset for the exact place and date you enter, using the standard sunrise equation rather than a fixed table, so it holds anywhere and in any season. That gives the daylight you actually have to work with.

Then it works backwards from sunset. It keeps a safety buffer before the light goes (45 minutes by default), assumes the descent takes a share of your planned time, and from that returns the latest safe start, the time to turn around at the high point, and the time you should be back down. Reach the turnaround and you turn around, wherever you are.

A turnaround is a decision best made at the kitchen table, not on a cold ridge at dusk. If you do not have a time for the day yet, get one from the hike time calculator, and see the reasoning in how to plan hiking time.