Walking The Alpine Parks Of France Northwest Italy

Suggests hikes in five French and one Italian national parks, and offers tips on trip planning, map sources, and safe hiking.

This popular guidebook by expert Kev Reynolds describes 100 day walks focusing on the mountain huts of the Alps. With walks in France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Slovenia, there are routes to suit every taste - from gentle and undemanding to long and tough, as well as all varieties of difficulty in between. What they have in common is a visit to a hut, each with its own character. Some walks are perfect for lunch at a hut before a return to the valley base, others involve an overnight stay at a hut. In a few cases, a short hut-to-hut tour is suggested. The routes are grouped by country and by specific Alpine district. Most of the routes avoid any climbing of a technical nature, beyond the odd scramble aided by a fixed rope. Notes on hut etiquette, what to take and an English-French-German-Italian glossary are also included to help trekkers get the most out of their time in the Alps.

The second edition of this classic guidebook by Kev Reynolds on walking and trekking in the Alps. This book is a definitive guide to the many thousands of possible routes, with a geographical span that ranges from the Maritime Alps of southern France to the Julians of Slovenia, from Italy's Gran Paradiso to the little-known Türnitzer Alps of eastern Austria, and from the ice-bound giants of the Bernese Oberland to the green rolling Kitzbüheler Alps and the bizarre towers of the Dolomites of South Tirol, showing the amazing diversity of this wonderful mountain chain. There are walks to suit every taste: gentle and undemanding, long and tough, and everything in between. Written by Britain's most respected authority on the Alps, this is a fully updated edition of this important book.

This guide describes the eleven-day 163km Tour of the Vanoise and the five-day 72km Tour des Glaciers de la Vanoise, two fantastic hut-to-hut treks through the pristine Alpine landscapes of France's Vanoise National Park. Three other short treks - the Tour of the Eastern Vanoise, the Tour of the Western Vanoise and a Traverse of the Vanoise via the GR5 and GR55 - are also summarised. The routes tackle several passes in excess of 2500m but there are no glacier crossings, no significant scrambling and no lengthy paths exposed to either stonefall or vertigo-inspiring exposure (though optional variants may involve some slightly more challenging sections), and waymarking is usually clear - making this an ideal route for those new to Alpine trekking. The guide contains everything you need to plan and walk the routes, with advice on travel to the region, accommodation and recommended kit. Clear route description, mapping and overview statistics are provided for each day stage, there are notes on the region's plants and wildlife and other points of interest, and accommodation listings and a handy glossary can be found in the appendices. Completing the package, the beautiful colour photos will call to your wanderlust. The Vanoise is less well known than its neighbours Mont Blanc and the Ecrins massif but is equally beautiful. The scenery is quintessentially Alpine, with 3000m peaks decorated with gleaming glaciers and snowfields, valleys glistening with lakes and streams, towering moraine walls, impossibly steep rock slabs and, in the early summer, meadows extravagant with a riot of alpine flowers. A well-appointed network of refuges promises a warm welcome at the end of each day's walking. It's a perfect place to experience the pleasures of Alpine trekking and these routes offer the ideal opportunity to explore this magnificent region.

Find out the rules of the trail what kinds of local hiking maps to purchase what kind of clothing to wear or how to get discounts on travel to Europe Based on a three-level rating system choose routes for their magnificent mountain locales availabi

* A well-loved, classic tale of adventure * Read this and you'll find yourself recommending it to friends again and again This is the story of Barbara and Larry Savage's sometimes dangerous, often zany, but ultimately rewarding 23,000 miles global bicycle odyssey, which took them through 25 countries in two years. Miles From Nowhere is an adventure not to be missed! Along the way, these near-neophyte cyclists encountered warm-hearted strangers eager to share food and shelter, bicycle-hating drivers who shoved them off the road, various wild animals (including a roof ape and an attack camel), sacred cows, rock-throwing Egyptians, overprotective Thai policeman, motherly New Zealanders, meteorological disasters, bodily indignities, and great personal joys. The stress of traveling together constantly for two years tested and ultimately strengthened the young couple's relationship. As their trip ends you'll find yourself yearning for Barbara and Larry to mount back up and keep pedaling. It's a story that makes you feel like you've grown right along with the author.

Snow sports are usually the first step to learning about snow country wildlife, which is only as safe as knowledgeable people want it to be. Unfortunately knowledge is too often lacking, and skiing is perceived as detrimental too wildlife. Reality is that skiing in all its many forms, from ski lift resorts to far flung Scandinavian style ski touring, holds the keys to wildlife conservation and restoration. No amount of litigation can change this basic fact of life, although the Mineral King Case (from the Supreme Court of the United States) certainly changed the legal landscape for all environmental litigation. Mineral King's near miss at becoming another ski lift avalanche disaster area preceded Early Winters, another almost ski lift area which shares the honor of being a Supreme Court case, and is the last chapter of this book. Olympic National Park is the other ski history explored, so that the National Parks are given equal emphasis with America's National Forests and Canada's Crown Lands. An extensive bibliography also includes many electronically available sources. The language is not technical and no prior experience with either skiing or wildlife is presumed. The book is primarily written for both skiing and wildlife enthusiasts, who may not know much about each other. It is intended as a peace offering to hopefully prevent future ski wars and unnecessary trips through the legal system. That effort could be better spent restoring wildlife and the life support system of our circumpolar boreal forest.

Detailing 22 treks in France, Switzerland, and Italy, this informative guide has detailed maps in full color and provides descriptions of treks in the Southern Alps, the Western Outliers, the Mont Blanc Range, the Pennine Alps, and Western Oberland. A Trek Essentials box in each chapter summarizes the number of days required, how to access each trek, and the highest elevations.