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Hiking/Hill walking for AT

S

Sniffer

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Chaps and Chapesses,

Im looking for a good location for an exped.

What I want is a walking trail with accomodation on route, such as very basic huts or something along those lines. Ideally I'd want to avoid the need for tents/cooking equipment other than something basic like a jet boil for rat packs and brews.

Ideally, somewhere like spain or france. Expeds are much more fun when the sun is shining I find!

So does anyone know of any relatively arduous walks of about 50ish miles that could be covered in 4 days with 3 nights staying on the trail.

Your help is appreciated!
 
vim_fuego

vim_fuego

Hung Like a Baboon.
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We do two expeds a year to Ambleside...roughly the same people...very cliquey...anyway there are bags of routes that can be accessed straight out of the town that take approx 5 hours to complete and all end with you sitting in a pub drying out by a log fire...

Accom is available here:

http://www.amblesidebackpackers.com/

Stay out of season and mention who you are and you won't pay anywhere near that rate...we managed to get in for £10 per head last November...Nice part of the world with pubs doing good food within 5 mins walk of the hostel...People there are well used to us types and our habit of coming in after the local bop on the Wednesday at oh my god 'o' clock a bit 'tired'...They supply you with a free breakfast (toast etc. ) weather, route advice and hold your safety until you get back in after a day in the hills...

And to make it really easy I'll even email you a copy of the op-order that we use that is very swept up so all you have to do is cut and paste in the new dates and names...

It's a nice easy exped to organise and run in a beautiful part of England at a snip in cost terms...
 
vim_fuego

vim_fuego

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Sniffer said:
Vim I like it..... I like it a lot!

PM Inbound!
Click to expand...

And received...This offer is open to any budding walkers...The place is very good to us so some business pushed there way will do all of us some good...
 
W

wgaf

Guest
The south west coast path has some fantastic walks, it totals about 630 miles altogether but can be split into very good manageable chunks. Loads of accommodation on the way as well i.e. good pubs and YHA places.
Cicerone do a very good book by Paddy Dillon. Also there's a book called called 500 mile walkiesy Mark Wallington.
 
C

ChrisBrit81

Sergeant
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Snowdonia is really nice, plenty of places to stay, many of them actually run expeds from the lodge.

Cumbria is good too.

Google these two places, plenty of tracks and trails available.
 
I

icarus

LAC
90
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6
Hi Sniff,
There's some excellent walking to be had around the Black Mountains/Brecon Beacons area of south to mid Wales. I've taken many hill walking expeds there over the last 15 years. St Athan have a self catering lodge half way between Crickhowell and Hay-on-Wye which sleeps up to a dozen in quite reasonable comfort.

Best regards

Icarus
 
P

POB

Guest
Should you, or anyone else for that matter, want to go a bit further afield I can (obviously and predictably) heartily recommend South America. A fantastic continent with some of the best walking in the world...PM for details.

Europe has the best long walk though, The Camino de Santiago, (The way of St James) is amazing. Possibly the best long walk in the world? Have a look at the wiki entry for starters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

This though is a very serious undertaking, if you do the whole walk it's about 8 weeks...
 
vim_fuego

vim_fuego

Hung Like a Baboon.
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POB said:
Should you, or anyone else for that matter, want to go a bit further afield I can (obviously and predictably) heartily recommend South America. A fantastic continent with some of the best walking in the world...PM for details.

Europe has the best long walk though, The Camino de Santiago, (The way of St James) is amazing. Possibly the best long walk in the world? Have a look at the wiki entry for starters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

This though is a very serious undertaking, if you do the whole walk it's about 8 weeks...
Click to expand...

Trouble is POB most of us normal people are lucky to scrape off enough time from work these days to nip up Scafell Pike before someone starts bleeting about the half a year you've had off on 'holiday'...As we all know the only people who can undertake such extravigant expeds are PEdO's, pretty wrafs of any rank and holding officers...
 
C

chiefy

Corporal
406
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0
If this is your first proposed oversea's exped you are probably going to shocked/ bogged down with the current level of bureaucracy required to organise such an undertaking (insurance, diplomatic clearance, land clearance, qualified leaders etc) good luck though.

Should you want to arrange something very simple and challenging though look at Snowdonia. Get yourself on DII and search for Tai Newyddian Cottage, it's owned by the RN and managed by a good bloke called Vance who is a great source of local info. From Tai Newyddian Cottage you have the Glydders(Fawr and Fach), Devils Cauldron, and Tryfan at your back (you can start the ridge walk from the front door) and the Snowdon Horseshoe a 30 minute drive away. For something less challenging (for the less fit or able) there is also the Carneddau and Moelwyns (both stunningly beautiful and easier under foot)

For climbing; Llanberris pass has what I'd consider some the most accessible yet challenging and exposed climbs in the entire UK and for the novice there is always Milestone Buttress or Idwall Slabs where virtually every climber I know learnt to climb.

For canoeing there is always Plas-Y Brenin: http://www.heartofsnowdonia.co.uk/pybrenin.htm where you can hire gear and instructors if necessary, they also have an indoor climbing wall if the weather turns sour and you need to entertain the group.
 
B

Bitburger

England 2010 Campaign
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Back in 1999 I took a group on a two week exped from Bruggen, Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn on the Hauter route , totallyawesome. Slept in Swiss Alpine Club Huts and cheap Doritoir accomodation

The REME have a lodge at Obersdorf I have used as a base camp while walking in the Germany and Austrian Alps
 
S

Sniffer

Super Moderator
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chiefy said:
If this is your first proposed oversea's exped you are probably going to shocked/ bogged down with the current level of bureaucracy required to organise such an undertaking (insurance, diplomatic clearance, land clearance, qualified leaders etc) good luck though.

Should you want to arrange something very simple and challenging though look at Snowdonia. Get yourself on DII and search for Tai Newyddian Cottage, it's owned by the RN and managed by a good bloke called Vance who is a great source of local info. From Tai Newyddian Cottage you have the Glydders(Fawr and Fach), Devils Cauldron, and Tryfan at your back (you can start the ridge walk from the front door) and the Snowdon Horseshoe a 30 minute drive away. For something less challenging (for the less fit or able) there is also the Carneddau and Moelwyns (both stunningly beautiful and easier under foot)

For climbing; Llanberris pass has what I'd consider some the most accessible yet challenging and exposed climbs in the entire UK and for the novice there is always Milestone Buttress or Idwall Slabs where virtually every climber I know learnt to climb.

For canoeing there is always Plas-Y Brenin: http://www.heartofsnowdonia.co.uk/pybrenin.htm where you can hire gear and instructors if necessary, they also have an indoor climbing wall if the weather turns sour and you need to entertain the group.
Click to expand...

I'm not organising it as such, more a case of proposing ideas and doing some of the leg work. It is one of my trade officers who will be running it and he has done this type of thing a few times before as an ex-ranker. I think so far Vims link sounds nice and simple, especially as he has still got the admin order etc.

I really do not under-estimate the amount of hoops to jump through as I have recently been on a 3 weeker to New Zealand and the sheer volume administration the organiser had to do was amazing. Must admin he did a bloody fantastic job and the exped from start to finish ran as smooth as. It did help that he had a few Ex Pats out there to iron out some of the wrinkles and point him in the right direction.
 
C

chiefy

Corporal
406
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0
Sniffer said:
I'm not organising it as such, more a case of proposing ideas and doing some of the leg work. It is one of my trade officers who will be running it and he has done this type of thing a few times before as an ex-ranker. I think so far Vims link sounds nice and simple, especially as he has still got the admin order etc.
Click to expand...

I've heard that El Camino is pretty awesome in parts (and fairly mundane in others) but make sure you get your Diplomatice Clearance sorted out early, parts of the original pilgrimage cross the basque territory where the ETA would like nothing better than to kidnap a couple of RAF ramblers for cash. Their current level of activity and the exact location of your exped will dictate whether the clearance is granted or needs to be route adjusted. Spain have in the past refused permission for military expeds to take place in this region.

Edited: Do you know about the Bavarian Joint Service Mountain Training Centre and what they can offer by way of adventure training activities? Very cheap, already dip cleared, qualified instructors for walking, climbing, skiing, canyoning, mountain biking and all the kit, good social and fairly quick to organise.
 
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