Discover the epic drama of mountain trails, windswept coastal paths, dense forest walks and the immense canyons, glaciers and ocean vistas only your feet can take you to.
Vivid essays introduce the world’s best trekking regions—from the Himalayas to the Andes, the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to the dusty Australian Outback—exploring the challenges of walking these paths, the history of their formation and the sense of exploration and wonder to be found along these distinctive routes. Each route is accompanied by stunning photography, showcasing the variety of terrains and their magnificent vistas.
“An absolute ‘must’ for armchair travelers, aspiring mountaineers, and ambitious world travelers.” —Midwest Book Review
Discover the epic drama of mountain trails, windswept coastal paths, dense forest walks and the immense canyons, glaciers and ocean vistas only your feet can take you to.
Vivid essays introduce the world’s best trekking regions—from the Himalayas to the Andes, the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to the dusty Australian Outback—exploring the challenges of walking these paths, the history of their formation and the sense of exploration and wonder to be found along these distinctive routes. Each route is accompanied by stunning photography, showcasing the variety of terrains and their magnificent vistas.
“An absolute ‘must’ for armchair travelers, aspiring mountaineers, and ambitious world travelers.” —Midwest Book Review
Trekking Beyond: Walk the World's Epic Trails
224
Trekking Beyond: Walk the World's Epic Trails
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Overview
Discover the epic drama of mountain trails, windswept coastal paths, dense forest walks and the immense canyons, glaciers and ocean vistas only your feet can take you to.
Vivid essays introduce the world’s best trekking regions—from the Himalayas to the Andes, the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to the dusty Australian Outback—exploring the challenges of walking these paths, the history of their formation and the sense of exploration and wonder to be found along these distinctive routes. Each route is accompanied by stunning photography, showcasing the variety of terrains and their magnificent vistas.
“An absolute ‘must’ for armchair travelers, aspiring mountaineers, and ambitious world travelers.” —Midwest Book Review
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781781318553 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Quarto Publishing Group USA |
| Publication date: | 07/27/2022 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 47 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
About the Author
Dave Costello is an award-winning writer, editor, photographer and filmmaker. He is the author of Flying off Everest, a former senior editor at Alaska magazine, and has also been published in Outside, National Geographic, Backpacker, Rock & Ice, Climbing and more.
Alex Treadway has worked around the world as a travel photographer for fifteen years, four of which he lived and worked in Kathmandu. As well as working for environmental and humanitarian NGO's in Nepal, his work has been published multiple times in National Geographic and Geo Special, along with many other publications.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & ENGLAND
CAPE WRATH TRAIL (SCOTLAND)
WEST HIGHLAND WAY (SCOTLAND)
THE PENNINE WAY (ENGLAND)
Scottish Highlands & England
Compared to other hiking hotspots, Britain doesn't offer big mountains, remote wilderness or comparatively exciting wildlife. And yet it is still undoubtedly one of the world's premier hiking destinations. Why? Because it offers something most other places can't: testing hills and impolite weather, at times; spectacular views and some compelling history; but all with most of the comforts of civilisation available, and very little risk of being bitten by something big and toothsome. It is a satisfying wildness experience, but with creature comforts. The best of both worlds.
Despite being a relatively highly populated island, hills and mountains, dales and fells (the last two words being local names for the aforementioned) abound. So, too, do welcoming villages and small towns. This combination means that you can spend the day getting your hat blown off up on the moors and dales, but call in to a café for a lunch or a cream tea, and later, fine dining with a glass of Merlot, followed by a night in a historical B&B ('bed and breakfast' accommodation).
And what of the landscapes? The island hasn't got deserts and volcanoes, but it has got: the melodramatic, purple-and-yellow-dotted moors of Yorkshire and Dartmoor (Britain has 75 per cent of the world's heather moorland); the chalky Downs (with their white horses and rude giants) in the south; endless views from the Cotswold Edge; the sheer green walls of the Brecon Beacons; incredible coastal scenery; craggy Snowdonia; the remote Cambrian Mountains; stone circles and hill forts; castles; history and mystery; clandestine valleys and ancient woodlands; long whistling rivers and crashing waterfalls; the peaty Peak District and – oh my – the Lake District; plus the tangible history of Hadrian's Wall. Then you cross the border to the north and Scotland's Highlands. Up there, everything's bigger, wilder and more colourful – with decent mountains and a surprising sense of remoteness, too.
This is a land that loves walking. Charles Dickens, Bruce Chatwin, George Orwell, C.S. Lewis (who thought talking spoiled a walk), Thomas De Quincey, and many other legendary literary folk were serious yompers. Composing verse as he went, Romantic poet William Wordsworth is thought to have hiked approximately 300,000 kilometres (180,000 miles) in his lifetime (and not always while high on opium). It is said that his friend and fellow Romantic poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, once strode from Nether Stowey in the Quantocks to Lynton/Lynmouth and back again – some 145 kilometres (90 miles) – in just two days. Their unusual habit of night walking aroused government suspicion that they were French spies.
Britain has a long, healthier-than-ever tradition of hill walking and rambling. It was once a political struggle. In 1932, around 400 walkers scuffled with gamekeepers to mass trespass, a form of civil disobedience, on the summit of Kinder Scout in the Peak District, in protest against limited access to the countryside. 'Right to roam' legislation followed, opening up the countryside for us all to walk in, when previously much of it had been privately owned. The mass trespass also lead to the first modern long-distance path, the Pennine Way National Trail.
Many of the footpaths are ancient routes, historical trails that British ancestors took to travel to markets, places of work and worship. Footpaths used to be a transport network, and they are still cobwebbed across stout hills and wind-tickled dales, linking rustic villages and remote places of forgotten wilderness. People come from all over the world to walk this green and pleasant land.
It is difficult to find similar statistics for every country, but it is very likely Britain has either the most walking trails or is in the very top echelon of trail offerings. The Long Distance Walkers Association estimate the trails at over 1,400 (with the country's path network as a whole covering some 240,000 kilometres (150,000 miles). They are often well waymarked and reasonably well maintained – especially if they are designated National Trails – and maps are excellent. There are currently 16 National Trails in England and Wales, premier paths administered by government-funded Natural England, and 29 Great Trails in Scotland. There is a footpath along the entire glorious coast of Wales (the 1,400-kilometre/870-mile Wales Coast Path), and, in the near future, the England Coast Path will finally become a reality, the longest managed and waymarked coastal path in the world, covering an estimated 1,740 kilometres (2,800 miles).
CAPE WRATH TRAIL
SCOTLAND
Though Britain doesn't have any vast Yukon-esque wilderness regions, where you can walk for weeks without sign of civilisation, the Cape Wrath Trail is as close as it comes. The 370-kilometre (230-mile) trail from Fort William, north to the tip of the country at Cape Wrath, covers some of the wildest mountain terrain Britain has to offer. It isn't waymarked and often there is not even a clear path; of course, this lack of formality and its tough reputation has only mushroomed its legendary status.
The route, which takes most people between 17 and 21 days, is not an official National Trail. In a way, it is not really a trail at all, more a jigsaw of routes between Fort William and Britain's most northwesterly point, to be assembled according to a trekker's preferences. Limited resupply points mean self-sufficiency for much of the journey and several days' supplies need to be carried on some stretches.
The idea arose when photographer David Paterson headed north with his camera and a bivvy bag, his 1996 book The Cape Wrath Trail: A New 200-mile Walking Route Through the Northwest Scottish Highlands setting out a basic route template. Cameron McNeish, high-profile backpacker and writer, has further popularised it: 'It's the sort of long-distance route that most keen walkers dream of. A long tough trek through some of the most majestic, remote and stunningly beautiful landscape you could dare imagine. [It] could be described as the hardest long-distance backpacking route in the UK.'
From Fort William, trekkers traverse Ardgour and take in the gloriously remote Knoydart, before switching north to tick off Shiel Bridge, Kinlochewe and lnverlael. The approximate route goes inland to Oykel Bridge, before heading towards Glencoul via the majestic Ben More. Below the shadows of Arkle and Foinaven, the final leg passes Rhiconich and on to the west coast and over the windswept moors to Sandwood Bay and the Cape Wrath lighthouse, the journey's end.
There's no doubting Cape Wrath is a tough test, in remote country, on rugged terrain, likely to be accompanied by challenging weather. But those more testing moments will be quickly forgotten amidst a solitude and beauty rarely found in modern life. This is a trek for connoisseurs of wilder, more remote places.
WEST HIGHLAND WAY
SCOTLAND
The West Highland Way is Scotland's – if not Britain's – most trekked trail. The reason for the 151-kilometre (94-mile) trail's popularity is simple: it takes in some of the most dramatic scenery of Scotland's Highlands, but on a well-maintained, easy-to-follow trail, mostly in farmland, lowland and gentle hills. The path never goes too high and only the most topographically challenged could get lost. The mountains are almost always there on the horizon, but the West Highland Way is a safe experience of Scotland's spectacular yellow peaks.
The trail begins in Milngavie comparatively gently, then goes over Conic Hill, a stout little climb that bequeaths huge views across the serene Loch Lomond, the largest inland stretch of water (by surface area) in Britain, with the pointy Highland mountains rearing behind. Mature woodland accompanies walkers on much of the trail here.
After following the eastern shore of the loch (lake), the trail heads up Glen Falloch ('glen' is the Scottish term for a valley, but they are usually long, U-shaped and carved out by a glacier in the last ice age) and over the fringes of Rannoch Moor, a beautifully barren expanse of brackish pools and grassy hummocks. Then it is on to the mountains surrounding Glencoe.
A first sighting of Buachaille Etive Mòr is quite some view, and is to the Highlands in symbolism what the Matterhorn is to the Alps. There are two spectacular climbs over mountain ridges and the first is next, up the excellently named, infamous Devil's Staircase. The perspiration spent here is well worth it for the huge wild views of rugged yellow mountains at the top and along the next section.
From Kinlochleven there is another tough (the two biggest climbs are nearly 609 metres/1,998 feet each) but hugely rewarding climb. Then it is down to Glen Nevis, the mighty Ben Nevis at 1,345 metres (4,413 feet) and the town of Fort William.
For those keen on history, the route follows the line of General Wade's military road (built in the 18th century as the British government tried to bring order after the Jacobite rebellion of 1715), and Glencoe is famous for the massacre of the MacDonalds clan by rival Scots.
Simply put, if you love to experience mountain scenery without feeling at risk, you are very likely to love this walk. The Way also better suits those who are happy to regularly see other hikers, less so those who want more of a remote experience. This is a beginnerfriendly mountain trail. During the summer months – and often long before – accommodation on the route is usually sold out.
THE PENNINE WAY
ENGLAND
When it comes to the UK's long-distance trails, the Pennine Way National Trail is the original, the roughest and the toughest of them all. It features 431 kilometres (268 miles) of footpath, mostly along the top of the Pennines, the backbone of England, as the hills are often called. It is without question some of the wildest, remotest and best upland walking in England.
The Pennine Way leads from Edale in Derbyshire's rugged Peak District – the world's second-most visited national park, incidentally – through the glorious Yorkshire Dales and along the stirring Hadrian's Wall to the underrated Cheviot Hills and Kirk Yetholm in Scotland. The route leads through landscapes that inspired great writers, such as the Brontës, William Wordsworth, Charles Dickens and Charles Kingsley. It is a history lesson on Northern England, including insights into the Bronze Age, the Romans, Vikings, Normans, industrialisation, mining, farming and more. It is a fascinating geological field trip, not least at Malham Cove and its remarkable limestone pavements. It is a tour of cosy pubs, welcoming cafés and numerous charming villages that you have probably never heard of and may never want to leave. But most of all, The National Trail is a walk through life-affirming natural beauty.
You will be tramping your muddy boots across the bleakly beautiful gritstone plateaus and melancholy moorlands, up and down secret dales, along rugged ridges with endless views and expansive skies, past limestone splendour sculptured by Norse gods, following singing rivers and past crashing waterfalls, through wild flower-strewn meadows, up stout mountains and many more lonely and dreamy wild places.
If you like ticking things off, the Pennine Way includes England's highest waterfall above ground (Hardraw Force), the highest pub (Tan Hill Inn), the coldest place (Cross Fell), the highest road (Great Dun Fell), and one of the famous Yorkshire Three Peaks (Pen-y-ghent). That's not forgetting totemic Kinder Scout (site of the mass trespass), the terrifying yet compelling chasm of High Cup and 13 kilometres (8 miles) along Hadrian's Wall.
Sixty-one per cent of the trail is in national parks (Northumberland, as well as the Peak and the Dales) and it strides through the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, two large national nature reserves and 20 sites of special scientific interest. Fans of Harry Potter, Wallace & Gromit and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves will find places of interest, too.
CHAPTER 2THE NORDICS
KUNGSLEDEN (THE KING'S TRAIL) (SWEDEN & LAPLAND)
NORDKALOTTLEDEN (ARCTIC TRAIL) (NORWAY, SWEDEN & FINLAND)
The Nordics
Between them, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have reams and reams of dreamy wilderness, stretching well north of the Arctic Circle, and boasting fairy-tale glaciers, epic fjords, mountains soaring over 2,500 metres (8,000 feet), lakes, forests, tundra, upland plateaux, plunging waterfalls, elk, reindeer and lemmings.
Norway is the wildest of the Nordic countries and is magnificently mountainous down its entire length. Sweden and Finland are significantly flatter, but well wooded and not short of lakes in the south, with stout mountains in the north and west. Lapland is the northern part of these three countries, straddling the Arctic Circle. It is a wondrous place with a real sense of remote and authentic wildness, and those world-famous, incredible, ethereal Northern Lights (aurora borealis).
Scandinavian mountains were once part of the same range as the Scottish Highlands, the great Caledonian mountain chain. They are renowned for their striking wildflowers, boasting over 250 species – best seen in early summer, straight after the snow melts. Except for the most popular areas at holiday times, these mountains are quiet and empty compared to British fells, the Alps or Pyrenees. You can walk for days without meeting anyone (especially if camping rather than using huts). Thankfully, plenty of land is protected in Scandinavia and national parks are numerous – a staggering 44 in Norway, 35 in Finland and 26 in Sweden.
A land of mountains (over 200 summits above 1,800 metres/5,900 feet) glaciers (over 100), cliffs and steep valleys, Swedish Lapland's Sarek National Park is one of the most magnificent wild areas anywhere in the world. Sarek has no huts or waymarks and few bridges, a place more suited to the more experienced outdoors person.
Throughout Scandinavia, wildlife is thrillingly plentiful, with elk, beaver, brown bears, wolverine and the rarer lynx and wolves. Reindeer are semi-domesticated and owned by the Sami people of Lapland. Birdlife includes white-tailed eagles, falcons, long-tailed skua and snowy owls.
Although the wilderness is huge here, it is relatively accessible. Thousands of kilometres of trails are served by an excellent hut system, while wild camping is a legal right. The huts are run by national organisations (DNT in Norway, STF in Sweden, FPS in Finland) and range from basic shelters to large hotel-like lodges with restaurants and shops.
Snow doesn't melt until early June and starts to fall again in October, so the trekking season is short. March to early May is excellent for ski-touring, with lengthening hours of daylight and better weather. Summer weather can be mixed. But in the far north at midsummer there are 24 hours of daylight.
In Sweden, the High Coast Trail has walkers passing mythical forests, characterful mountains and big views of the Gulf of Bothnia. The Österlen Way, too, carries you along the coast of the Baltic Sea, visiting pretty fishing villages and white, sandy beaches.
As well as the epic Nordkalottleden, Norway has plenty of classic and challenging long-distance routes, namely Preikestolen, Trolltunga, Galdhøpiggen, Besseggen and Romsdalseggen. In Finland, there are extensive areas of forest and open fell, especially in Finnish Lapland, which are often state-owned, and though many of the southern forests are privately owned, laws of public access give everyone the right to roam the forests and countryside freely, no matter who owns it.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & ENGLAND, 10,
Cape Wrath Trail, 16,
West Highland Way, 20,
The Pennine Way, 24,
THE NORDICS, 26,
Kungsleden (The King's Trail), 32,
Nordkalottleden (Arctic Trail), 36,
THE ALPS, 38,
Tour du Mont Blanc, 44,
Grand Traverse des Alpes (GR5), 46,
Walker's Haute Route, 50,
Munich to Venice (E5 Oberstdorf-Meran), 54,
The Matterhorn, 56,
THE PYRENEES, 58,
Grande Randonnée No. 10 (GR10), 64,
Gran Recorrido No. 11 (GR11), 68,
NORTHERN SPAIN, 70,
The Camino de Santiago, 76,
THE DOLOMITES, 78,
Alta Via 1 Trek, 86,
SOUTHERN & EASTERN EUROPE, 88,
Taÿgetos and the Mani, 94,
Rila and Pirin National Parks, 96,
GR20, 100,
THE HIMALAYAS, 104,
Everest Base Camp Trail, 110,
The Great Himalayan Trail, 114,
SOUTHERN AS I A, 118,
The Chadar Trek, 124,
Bagan, 128,
EASTERN AS I A, 132,
The Great Wall of China, 138,
Mount Fuji, 140,
AFRICA, 142,
Fish River Canyon, 148,
Kilimanjaro, 150,
Drakensberg Grand Traverse, 152,
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND, 154,
Overland Track, 160,
Larapinta Trail, 162,
Tongariro Alpine Crossing, 166,
Milford Track, 170,
CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA, 172,
Silver Trail, Copper Canyon, 178,
Inca Trail, 180,
Patagonia, 182,
EASTERN UNITED STATES, 186,
The Long Trail, 192,
The Appalachian Trail, 194,
WESTERN UNITED STATES, 196,
Pacific Crest Trail, 202,
Continental Divide Trail, 204,
Rim-to-Rim Trail, 206,
WESTERN CANADA, 210,
Chilkoot Trail, 216,
Great Divide Trail, 218,