Energy minimizing mountain ascent

In this article, an optimal mountain ascent is studied as a particular problemof a human walking over a rugged terrain. First, an approximation of the terrain is constructed using particular smooth splines-macro-elements. Then a functional measuring the energy consumption along boundary curves of a macro-element is defined. Finally, the corresponding discrete problem of finding the optimal path on a mesh of curves is applied. Numerical results on real-life data indicate that computed paths are a good approximation of hiking paths in nature