Chris Townsend (born 1949 [1] ) is a hillwalker and author of over 20 books. He is also currently Hillwalking Ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council. [2]
Although Craig Caldwell was the first person to climb all of the Munros and Tops in one continuous journey, Townsend was the first to do so entirely on foot covering 1,700 miles (2,700 km) and 575,000 feet (170,000 m) of ascent over all 517 of the 3,000 ft (914 m) Scottish summits listed in Munro's Tables. [3] He was also the first person to walk the length of the Canadian Rockies, a distance of 1,600 miles (2,500 km). Chris Townsend has also hiked the 2,600 mile (4200 km) Pacific Crest Trail, the 3,100 mile (5,000 km) Continental Divide Trail, from Land's End to John o' Groats in the UK (1,250 miles, 2,000 km), south–north through the Scandinavian mountains (1,300 miles, 2100 km), 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south–north through the Yukon Territory, the 800 mile (1,300 km) Arizona Trail, the 1,200 mile Pacific Northwest Trail and the 700 mile Scottish Watershed.
Townsend has been a long-term contributor to The Great Outdoors magazine, for whom he is currently the Gear Editor. His book The Backpacker's Handbook won the Outdoor Writer's Guild Award for Excellence in 1993. [4] He is the co-author, with Annie Aggens, of the Encyclopedia of Outdoor & Wilderness Skills: The Ultimate A–Z Guide for The Adventurous. [5]
A Munro is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 feet (914.4 m), and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 4,411 ft.
Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is the oldest outdoor group in the United States. Created in 1876 to explore and preserve the White Mountains in New Hampshire, it has expanded throughout the northeastern U.S., with 12 chapters stretching from Maine to Washington, D.C. The AMC's 90,000 members, its advocates, and supporters mix outdoor recreation, particularly hiking and backpacking, with environmental activism. Additional activities include cross-country skiing, whitewater and flatwater canoeing and kayaking, sea kayaking, sailing, rock climbing and bicycle riding. The Club has about 2,700 volunteers, who lead roughly 7,000 trips and activities per year. The organization publishes a number of books, guides, and trail maps.
NOLS is a non-profit outdoor education school based in the United States dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, wilderness medicine, risk management and judgment, and leadership on extended wilderness expeditions and in traditional classrooms. It was previously known as the National Outdoor Leadership School, but in 2015, this label was retired in favor of the independent "NOLS". The NOLS mission is to be the leading source and teacher of wilderness skills and leadership that serve people and the environment. NOLS runs courses on six continents, with courses in a variety of wilderness environments and for almost any age group. The NOLS vision is to, "elevate the leader in everyone".
Ski mountaineering is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipment used: free-heel Telemark skis and skis based on Alpine skis, where the heel is free for ascents, but is fixed during descent. The discipline may be practiced recreationally or as a competitive sport.
Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on one's back while hiking for more than a day. It is often an extended journey and may involve camping outdoors. In North America, tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain huts, widely found in Europe, are rare. In New Zealand, hiking is called tramping, and tents are used alongside a nationwide network of huts. Hill walking is equivalent in Britain, though backpackers make use of a variety of accommodation, in addition to camping. Backpackers use simple huts in South Africa. Trekking and bushwalking are other words used to describe such multi-day trips.
Established in 1889, the Scottish Mountaineering Club is a club for climbing and mountaineering in Scotland.
Outdoor literature is a literature genre about or involving the outdoors. Outdoor literature encompasses several different subgenres including exploration literature, adventure literature and nature writing. Another subgenre is the guide book, an early example of which was Thomas West's guide to the Lake District published in 1778. The genres can include activities such as exploration, survival, sailing, hiking, mountaineering, whitewater boating, geocaching or kayaking, or writing about nature and the environment. Travel literature is similar to outdoor literature but differs in that it does not always deal with the out-of-doors, but there is a considerable overlap between these genres, in particular with regard to long journeys.
The National Outdoor Book Award (NOBA) was formed in 1997 as an American-based non-profit program which each year presents awards honoring the best in outdoor writing and publishing. It is housed at Idaho State University and chaired by Ron Watters. It is sponsored by the National Outdoor Book Awards Foundation, Idaho State University and the Association of Outdoor Recreation and Education. As of 2021, awards have been presented in 13 categories, although not all categories are awarded in any given year.
The Alpine Club of Canada (ACC) is an amateur athletic association with its national office in Canmore, Alberta that has been a focal point for Canadian mountaineering since its founding in 1906. The club was co-founded by Arthur Oliver Wheeler, who served as its first president, and Elizabeth Parker, a journalist for the Manitoba Free Press. Byron Harmon, whose 6500+ photographs of the Canadian Rockies in the early 20th century provide the best glimpse of the area at that time, was official photographer to the club at its founding. The club is the leading organization in Canada devoted to climbing, mountain culture, and issues related to alpine pursuits and ecology.
The Trinity Alps Wilderness is a 525,627-acre (212,714 ha) designated wilderness located in northern California, roughly between Eureka and Redding. It is jointly administered by Shasta-Trinity, Klamath, and Six Rivers National Forests. About 4,623 acres (1,871 ha) are administered by the Bureau of Land Management. The wilderness is located in the Salmon and Scott Mountains, subranges of the Klamath Mountains region. The high, granitic and ultramafic peaks of the eastern half of the wilderness area are known as the Trinity Alps. Granite peaks at the core of the area are known as the White Trinities, reddish ultramafic peaks in the southeast are known as the Red Trinities, and the forested mountains in the western half of the wilderness are known as the Green Trinities.
Hamish Brown M.B.E. FRSGS is a professional writer, lecturer and photographer specialising in mountain and outdoor topics. He is best known for his walking exploits in the Scottish Highlands, having completed multiple rounds of the Munros and being the first person to walk all the Munros in a single trip with only ferries and a bicycle as means of transport.
Dave Hewitt is editor of The Angry Corrie, a hillwalking magazine. He is editor in chief of TACit Press, author of Walking the Watershed, his account of the first continuous walking of the Scottish watershed, editor of A Bit of Grit on Haystacks, a celebration of the life of Alfred Wainwright, and editor of the Sport and Outdoor sections of the online Scottish newspaper Caledonian Mercury.
Kintail is a mountainous area sitting at the head of Loch Duich in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, located in the Highland Council area.
Cameron McNeish FRSGS is a Scottish wilderness hiker, backpacker and mountaineer who is an authority on outdoor pursuits. In this field he is best known as an author and broadcaster although he is also a magazine editor, lecturer and after dinner speaker as well as being an adviser to various outdoor organisations.
Annie M. Aggens is a polar expedition leader for Polar Explorers. She is one of only a few women who have led treks to both the North and South Poles.
Walking is one of the most popular outdoor recreational activities in the United Kingdom, and within England and Wales there is a comprehensive network of rights of way that permits access to the countryside. Furthermore, access to much uncultivated and unenclosed land has opened up since the enactment of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. In Scotland the ancient tradition of universal access to land was formally codified under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. In Northern Ireland, however, there are few rights of way, or other access to land.
Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activities can include fishing, hunting, backpacking, walking and horseback riding — and can be completed individually or collectively. Outdoor recreation is a broad concept that encompasses a varying range of activities and landscapes.
The Triple Crown of Hiking refers to hiking the entire length of three major U.S. National Scenic Trails:
Rev. Archibald "Archie" Eneas Robertson (1870–1958), was a Church of Scotland minister. He is generally regarded as being the first mountaineer to climb all 282 Munros, the peaks of Scotland over 3,000 feet (910 m) in height, first listed by Sir Hugh Munro.
Elizabeth Thomas is a thru-hiking champion and former women's unassisted speed record holder for the 2,181-mile (3,510 km) Appalachian Trail. She holds the hiking "Triple Crown," having completed the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail. She is the pioneer of the Chinook Trail in Washington and the Wasatch Range in Utah. She is Vice President of the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West, an ambassador for the American Hiking Society, and an outdoors writer for Wirecutter, a New York Times publication. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Treeline Review, a hiking gear publication. As of 2018, she completed 20 long-distance wilderness hikes.
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