Chris Townsend (born 1949) is the hiking author who’s influenced me most.
He’s written over 20 books, including Cicerone guidebooks, and countless articles
I started with High Summer: Backpacking The Canadian Rockies (1989).
He’s most famous for The Backpacker’s Handbook.
But If you’ve never read Chris Townsend, I’d recommend you start with Out There: A Voice from the Wild. I recently read the Kindle edition while hiking on Vancouver Island.
Chris reflects back on the takeaways from all those trips.
Drawing from more than forty years of experience as an outdoorsman, and probably the world’s best known long distance walker who also writes, Chris Townsend describes the landscapes and wildlife, the walkers and climbers, and the authors who have influenced him in this lucid and beautiful book.
Writing from his home in the heart of the Cairngorms he discusses the wild, its importance to civilisation and how we cannot do without it.
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