The trajectory of a hiker can be decomposed in walking sections and pauses. The attributes and possible roles of pauses in a hike has been under-looked in studies of human mobility in nature. In mountains, pauses can have several functionalities, depending on whether they occur by choice or are imposed by the lack of people fitness walking in arduous terrain. We studied the trajectories of mountain hikers from a pause point of view, based on GPS-trackers and questionnaires. We proposed a typology of pauses at the within-trajectory level, defining ”Longest”, “Eye-catching” and “Breath-catching” pauses. We then contrasted their characteristics (duration, number, and landscape variables), and their occurrence, number and duration in hikes depending on hiker groups attributes (size, age and gender structure). Longest pauses occurred most often close to summits, eyes-catching pauses close to passes and breathcatching pauses in steep terrain. Group size, and to a lesser extent, age structure, determined the number and total duration of pauses. Cumulated duration in breath-catching pauses made up one fourth of the pause duration on average. A better assessment of the functionality of pauses should therefore be pursued, especially in the context of hike planning, time budget, group dynamics and satisfaction.