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Trekking in the Alps

ISBN

9781852846008

Availability

Published

18 Mar 2011

Reprinted

12 Feb 2024

Edition

First

Pages

256

Size

24.00 x 17.00 x 2.00cm

Weight

720g

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A book to 20 classic trekking routes in the Alps. Exploring the best trekking areas, outline descriptions and photographs illustrate the classics such as the Tour of Mont Blanc, and Chamonix to Zermatt, as well a number of trekking routes in Slovenia, the Italian Dolomites, the French Alps, Austrian Alps and Swiss Alps. Ideal for inspiration.

Seasons

summer-only - from late June until the end of September

Centres

Chamonix, Zermatt, Grindelwald, Sargans, Brand, Briançon, Modane, Bourg d'Oisans, Neustift, Mayrhofen, Ormea, Bressanone, Lago di Braies, Kranjska Gora, La Thuile, Emosson

Difficulty

a wide range of difficulty and/or commitment, from mildly demanding to strenuous; on some treks glaciers are crossed which require the use of ice axe and rope

Must See

All the great Alpine regions and their peaks: Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, the Jungfrau, the Oisans, the Vanoise, the Queyras, Mont Ruan, the Stubai, the Zillertal, the Eastern Alps, Gran Paradiso, the Italian Alps, the Dolomites, the Rätikon and the Slovenian Alps

ISBN

9781852846008

Availability

Published

18 Mar 2011

Reprinted

12 Feb 2024

Edition

First

Pages

256

Size

24.00 x 17.00 x 2.00cm

Weight

720g

Overview

An inspirational larger format guidebook to 20 summer treks in the Alps across Italy, Austria, Switzerland, France and Slovenia, including the classics such as the Tour of Mont Blanc and lesser-known routes like the Traverse of the Slovenian Alps.

Perfect for planning, the treks included are: Tour of Mont Blanc, Tour of the Matterhorn, Tour of Monte Rosa, Walker's Haute Route, Tour of the Jungfrau Region, Tour of the Vanoise and Dolomites AV 1 and 2; (longer trans-Alpine routes) GR5 (Lake Geneva to Nice), Eastern Alps E5, Italian Alps GTA and the Traverse of the Slovenian Alps; and (for the Alpine adventurer) Alpine Pass Route, Tour of the Oisans, Tour of the Queyras, Tour of Mont Ruan, Stubai High Route, Zillertal High Route, Gran Paradiso AV2 and the Ratikon Hoehenweg.

Outline schedules for each trek allow you compare the routes and become inspired to take up the challenge. Basic day-by-day route descriptions for each route are illustrated with maps and profiles, helping you choose the best routes to walk.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

Map key

Locations of the treks

About the authors

Overview of routes

Introduction

About this book

Hut conventions

Advice for trekkers

When to go

Safety in the mountains

Words of greeting

The Treks

Trek 1 Grande Traversata delle Alpi: GTA – Gillian Price

Trek 2 Tour of the Queyras – Alan Castle

Trek 3 Tour of the Oisans – Kev Reynolds

Trek 4 Tour of the Vanoise – Kev Reynolds

Trek 5 Gran Paradiso Alta Via 2 – Gillian Price

Trek 6 Tour of Mont Blanc – Kev Reynolds

Trek 7 GR5: Through the French Alps – Paddy Dillon

Trek 8 Tour of Mont Ruan – Hilary Sharp

Trek 9 The Walker’s Haute Route – Kev Reynolds

Trek 10 Alpine Pass Route – Kev Reynolds

Trek 11 Tour of the Jungfrau Region – Kev Reynolds

Trek 12 Tour of the Matterhorn – Hilary Sharp

Trek 13 Tour of Monte Rosa – Hilary Sharp

Trek 14 Tour of the Rätikon – Kev Reynolds

Trek 15 Across the Eastern Alps: E5 – Gillian Price

Trek 16 Stubai High-Level Route – Allan Hartley

Trek 17 Zillertal High-Level Route – Allan Hartley

Trek 18 Dolomites Alta Via 1 – Gillian Price

Trek 19 Dolomites Alta Via 2 – Gillian Price

Trek 20 Julian Alps Traverse – Roy Clark & Justi Carey

Appendix A Useful contacts

Appendix B Glossary for trekkers

Updates

July 2018

Updates

page 243

The hut on Krn is closed - it doesn't say how long for, but it sounds like it might be for the season.

It says it is possible to spend the night on tables or benches in the lobby - there's room for about 8 people. There are therefore three possibilities - sleep in the lobby as it says, bivi out near the hut (bearing in mind in both of these options that there won't be any food up there) or drop down into the Bohinj valley from Dom na Komna and pick the route up again at Vogel . There is a cable car from the valley up to the Ski Hotel on Vogel.

It is also possible to walk directly from Dom na Komna to Vogel - there is a waymarked path but we haven't done it so can't advise - we suggest people ask at the hut.

Reviews

Trekking in the Alps is an excellent resource for researching and initial planning of a European hike.

After tackling the Tour du Mont Blanc in recent summers I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to find another Europe hike to match or top that wonderful experience.

To aid me in my decision I have been poring over Trekking in the Alps, an excellent book from Cicerone, and edited by Tour du Mont Blanc guide editor Kev Reynolds.

This covers 20 classic routes in the European Alps and there is a huge range to choose from. This hiking book includes hikes in France, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia and Austria.

It also covers some incredible treks that take hikers, as with the Tour du Mont Blanc, across the borders of multiple European countries.

The most epic is the Grande Traversata delle Alpi (or GTA if you’re short on time) and I might have to leave this one until I’m retired because it takes a full 47 days!

This trek skirts the big mountains of the Alps, staying mainly in the foothills. An alternative that is more alpine in nature, crossing big passes is the GR5 through the French Alps from Lac Leman at Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea.

Ultra long distance hikes like these can, of course, be broken up into more achievable chunks. This guide book offers suggestions for shorter routes and variations available to walkers.

Trekking in the Alps is an excellent resource for researching and initial planning of a European hike. It covers the most famous treks in the Alps – the ones I’d really love to achieve. It truly is a compilation of the best walking in the Alps.

Editor Kev Reynolds and eight other authors provide comprehensive summaries of each route, including photos, a map and an elevation diagram. There’s enough information in this glossy book to allow hikers to make an educated choice of walking holiday.

This book includes treks with a range of difficulty from only mildly demanding to properly strenuous. There are a few where you will need skills and equipment to cross glaciers.

One particular lifegoal of mine is the Walkers’ Haute Route. This follows the Pennine Alps and offers views of some of the most stunning panoramas in Europe. This sounds like a tough and adventurous route and one of the most beautiful in Europe.

After much enjoyable reading of this book I and browsing some other Cicerone guides I came up with a couple of different options. Thanks Cicerone for not only helping choose my trekking holiday this year, but for inspiring me for many years to come!

By Natasha von Geldern

So helpful in deciding where to head next

I have Walking in the Alps & Trekking in the Alps. I'm a bit of Cicerone Guidebook Junkie, but I find them so helpful in deciding where to head next.

LuAnne, by email

Yes, I know it's a cliché to say that this book inspired me to book my next holiday, but it did – well, almost. It certainly made me determine to do one or more of the treks described within at some point in the near future, which will involve booking a holiday eventually...

Some might say that a mere 20 treks for a range as well trodden as the Alps is rather parsimonious, but what contributing editor Kev Reynolds has done is select the crème de la crème of trekking options, invited a coterie of top outdoor writers to describe them (along with his esteemed self), dropped in a fine selection of images and gathered it all together in a highly attractive package that will surely inspire anyone who calls themselves a real walker.

Read the full review...

UKClimbing.com

Extremely readable route guides with a jovial story telling tone are coupled with quality photographs of each region that will inspire you to tackle your next classic route. A great starter pack to the Alps when deciding which trail to head to next and for how long.

Read the full review...

www.wideworldmag.com

The eight writers contributing to this selection have written many other guidebooks and are experienced and enthusiastic about their chosen treks.

170 stunning colour photographs

Trekking in the Alps celebrates the rich scenic diversity for which this area is renowned. Whether you have a week to spare…or a whole summer free to wander, this book describes some of the very best treks in Europe’s premier mountain range. It certainly fulfils its aim ‘to be an introduction to some of the most exciting and rewarding of multi-day treks’.

Strider, August 2011

‘This book should have the sub-heading ‘the book of dreams’: I could plan about 15 of my next holidays from it, and then a gap year.

The book dedicates at least 10 pages to each route, including photos, maps, graphs showing the altitudes you’ll be at on the trek, and details of each day or stage of the trek. Everyone should have it on their coffee table or by the bed for planning or dreaming about their next adventure.’

Adventure Travel Magazine, September/October 2011

By Alan Castle

Alan Castle has trekked and cycled in over 30 countries within Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australasia. A member of the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild, he has written 18 guidebooks, several on long-distance mountain routes in France. An erstwhile national secretary and long-distance path information officer of the Long Distance Walkers Association, Alan now lives at the foot of the Moffat Hills in Scotland.

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By Justi Carey

Justi Carey and Roy Clark started visiting the British mountains in their teens, a discovery which has shaped their whole lives. Their passion for the outdoors has since led to travels across the world and a deep commitment to the environment, while their continuing interest in being ‘out there’ has resulted in an enthusiasm for skiing, canoeing, cycle touring, horse riding and even rollerblading! Since moving to Slovenia in 2002, Justi has worked as an English teacher, while Roy has developed his skills in landscape photography. They now run a Bed and Breakfast in the mountainous north-west corner of Slovenia.

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By Paddy Dillon

Paddy Dillon is a prolific walker and guidebook writer, with over 100 guidebooks to his name and contributions to 40 other titles. He has written for several outdoor magazines and other publications and has appeared on radio and television.Paddy uses a tablet computer to write as he walks. His descriptions are therefore precise, having been written at the very point at which the reader uses them.Paddy is an indefatigable long-distance walker who has walked all of Britain's National Trails and several European trails. He has also walked in Nepal, Tibet, Korea and the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the US.

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By Allan Hartley

Allan Hartley has maintained his close links with Austria, which he discovered by accident in the early seventies in respite from atrocious weather conditions on the higher mountains of the western Alps. He has climbed extensively throughout the Alps, in east Africa and in the greater ranges in Nepal and Pakistan.

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By Gillian Price

Gillian Price has trekked throughout Asia and the Himalayas, but now lives in Venice. Gillian has steadily explored the mountain ranges of Italy, and Corsica, and brought them to life for visitors in a series of outstanding guides for Cicerone. She is an active member of the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and Mountain Wilderness.

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By Kev Reynolds

Kev Reynolds was a freelance writer, photojournalist and lecturer. A prolific compiler of guidebooks, his first title for Cicerone Press (Walks & Climbs in the Pyrenees) appeared in 1978; he later produced many more titles for the same publisher. A member of the Outdoor Writers' Guild, the Alpine Club and Austrian Alpine Club, his passion for mountains and the countryside inspired a lifetime's activity, and he regularly travelled throughout Britain to share that enthusiasm through his lectures. Sadly, Kev passed away in 2021. He will be remembered fondly by all who knew him and by many more he inspired through his writing and talks.

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By Hilary Sharp

Hilary Sharp is British, a qualified Accompagnatrice en Montagne (International Mountain Leader), and is based permanently in France. After 23 years living in the Alps she now lives in northern Provence, within easy driving distance of the southern French Alps. She runs her own trekking business, Trekking in the Alps and Provence, guiding walks in winter, spring and summer (hilaryalp@gmail.com; www.trekkinginthealps.com; www.trekkinginprovence.com). Her love of walking and climbing has taken her to many parts of Europe and further afield. Hilary occasionally contributes to British walking magazines and is author of Trekking and Climbing in the Western Alps (New Holland, 2002).

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By Roy Clark

Justi Carey and Roy Clark started visiting the British mountains in their teens, a discovery that has shaped their whole lives. Their passion for the outdoors has since led to travels across the world and a deep commitment to the environment, while their continuing interest in being ‘out there’ has resulted in an enthusiasm for skiing, canoeing, cycle touring, horse riding and even rollerblading! Since moving to Slovenia in 2002, Justi has worked as an English teacher, while Roy has developed his skills in landscape photography. They now run a Bed and Breakfast in the mountainous north-west corner of Slovenia.

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