The edit below is a recap of the first 50 videos, giving us a brief look at 50 reasons why Colorado is great.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Find all the videos on awsmcolorado.com
(via Adventure Blog)
NOT The West Highland Way, Scotland
Not the West Highland Way
by Ronald Turnbull
Cicerone Press
The West Highland Way is one of the UK’s finest long distance walks, but the path runs close to a busy main road and avoids the mountain tops. NOT The West Highland Way describes alternative routes over mountains, smaller hills or high passes to all but one of the Way’s nine stages. With add-on day trips over Ben Lomond or Beinn Dorain.
___
Here at besthike we are NOT recommending the West Highland Way. There are plenty of better alternatives
Turnbull’s book details many of those alternatives close to the old trail.
Check it out for sure before deciding on the WHW.
related – Planning a West Highland Way walk
best treks western Indian Himalayas
September in Leh, Ladakh I found an excellent hiking guidebook by Depi Chaudhry in a bookstore.
Trekking Guide to the Western Himalayas
Collins (2009)
It includes 43 treks in Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. A quick summary of each along with good maps, altitude charts, colour photos, etc.
Depi has hiked 70% of the routes in the book; the rest put together with information collated from other trekkers. Having completed the best of the bunch already – Markha Valley – I’m finding it a good starting point for deciding where to head next.
So far I’m leaning towards hiking out of Dharmsala and Manali on my next Indian adventure. 🙂
related – Depi each season guides a section of a Trans Himalaya Trek.
E+J hike the John Muir Trail
Italy – Gran Paradiso: step into Paradise!
Guest post by mountain guide Roberto Calcagno:
I have been hiking Gran Paradiso National Park since I was 3yrs-old. My parents brought me there 3 months each season, my favourite time of the year. In Gran Paradiso I discovered my passion for the mountains and for nature in general.
After 30 years traveling around the world, exploring many other amazing destinations – including the Himalayas, Andes, Pamir, Andaman Sea – I had to conclude there is no place like home. Gran Paradiso National Park is my favourite place in the world.
Gran Paradiso was the first National Park in Italy and is today the largest. Cogne village is near the heart of this magnificent region. From Cogne there are hundreds of hikes and climbs. The mountains are rugged. Though there are many trails, most of the mountain valley crossings are challenging. Hikers need alpine experience.
Gran Paradiso National Park is two hours far from Turin and 3 hours from Milan, in the top north west corner of Italy.
The mountain environment is stunning with glaciers, alpine lakes and plenty of wildlife including ibexes, chamois, marmot and golden eagles.
Accommodation of all kinds are available: campsites to 4 star hotels. Food here is heavy but amazing with mountain cheese and typical rice and polenta dishes. Delicious food is just one of hundreds of reasons to come to visit this gorgeous park.
___
Roberto Calcagno was born in Turin, Italy. He is 30 years old, formerly a Telecommunication Engineer who studied and lived in both Chile and Thailand. He’s always loved Nature, especially the Alps. Roberto switched jobs some years ago to follow his passion and become a hiking guide. Today he’s the owner of trekking-alps.com. Contact Roberto via that link if you are interested in hiking these mountains.
Kilimanjaro with 12-Year Old Lilliana Libecki
Skyline Trail, Alberta, Canada
A local favourite.
WILL MCGOUGH:
Jasper National Park can be reached via Calgary or Edmonton. Both are four- to five-hour drives. The journey from Calgary is much more scenic, though, winding its way through Banff National Park and the Icefields Parkway.
The Skyline Trail is 27 miles in length with more than half above treeline. In good weather, it can be completed comfortably in as little as three days, two nights. …
The trail passes through six campsites, each positioned in scenic locations below treeline near or next to flowing water. …
If you’re tackling it in a standard weekend, plan to stay at Tekarra and Snow Bowl. For me, they were the most scenic, combining pine forests, rivers and landscape views. …
You can start the Skyline Trail from either the Signal or Maligne Lake trailheads. I recommend starting from Signal because you get the most boring part of the trail, a fire road with no views, out of the way in the beginning as opposed to letting it be an anticlimactic end.
The Skyline Trail is best enjoyed between late June and early September. …
Travel Pulse – What You Need to Know About Hiking the Skyline Trail in Jasper
Adventure blog linked to a video profile of Jasper National Park.
Click PLAY or watch Into the Canadian Rockies on Vimeo.
(via Meandrathals)
hike Via Dinarica, the Balkans
The Dinaric Alps have 8,000-foot stegosaurus spines, fairy-tale meadows, and stone guesthouses. Decades of conflict made them tough to experience, but the area is amping up its tourist offerings, and access is improving on the new Via Dinarica.
… Hire a guide and take three days to walk the 40 miles from Bosnia’s 6,900-foot Prenj Massif to Vran Mountain …
Heindrik Morkel‘s trip report:
30°C Sunshine, 3.000 m of ascent and 30 km of ridge walking – a good day on the Via Dinarica!
related – Interview with Hendrik Morkel
DAY 4 Sierra Nevada Traverse
trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
The night had been calm and MUCH warmer than the previous two. I actually got some sleep.
Josh was reading Into the Wild.
Civilization was in sight. We were confident of being able to catch the bus back to Granada, a day later than we had originally planned.
Once we no longer needed trail navigation, there were dozens of signs.
The promised clean water was finally available.
We were already starting to forget about the cold and wind.
In fact, sun and wind burn were our main concerns. We were back in southern Spain. 🙂
It was a treat to get to Lanjarón village.
Nearly out of food, we loaded up with treats. And enjoyed coffee at a pleasant restaurant until the bus arrived to return us to Granada.
Instead of the anticipated 45km / 3 day hike … ours was 65km over 4 days. We cursed Lonely Planet loudly.
Sadly, we never saw a single Ibex.
DAY 3 Sierra Nevada Traverse
trip report by site editor Rick McCharles
Cold and clear morning at the Refuge.
I had no water left. We headed directly down to the tarns. For coffee. 🙂
Somewhat out of the wind, we enjoyed breakfast here.
Then it was back UP UP UP. Into the wind.
Here is the weird and wonderful Refuge we’d not been able to find at dusk the previous night. It’s pretty much a ruin. Though we may have had to set up our tents inside.
The Traverse continued high.
Here’s the crux. A short via ferrata section. Some exposure.
Actually, it was a lot of fun. 🙂
The instructions in our Lonely Planet guide unclear, we were next … lost.
A pretty area. But our descent was (eventually) blocked by a cliff.
We were forced partway back up the mountain.
Then opted to give up on the official route, dropping off trail down to the river.
We could see the next couple of kms. It would go. … For a while, at least.
In fact – in the end – we agreed this was the prettiest section of all. Lost off trail.
Soon the river edge trail ended, however.
We traversed up along an old irrigation channel.
The guidebook said that the official trail would intersect this water course. All we had to do was find that intersection.
We found the official trail near the next Refuge.
Lonely Planet told that it was a functioning hut. But it had long been bricked up. A ruin.
Josh suspected that the LP author had never actually walked this section of trail. The information was long out of date.
Daylight running out, we decided to tent on an alpine meadow well above civilization. We’d seen only one local person all day – a sheep herder.
besthike.com 