Looking for ideas for my next trip. Ideally 5-10 days, huts or no huts are fine. Would prefer mountain scenery.
I'm a solo female, enjoy doing big days but I'm not good with exposure so that rules out a few of the more obvious options for me. For reference have done TMB, AV1 etc all fine previously.
Thanks! Will definitely look into this!
Good luck!
MacLehose Trail in Hong Kong. As a bonus, you get to visit Hong Kong.
I'd recommend looking into Taiwan. The permit process is annoying but the central mountain range is stunning and often overlooked by international tourists.
For 5+ days there are multiple "section" hikes you can choose from that make up a larger mountaineering route. I've done part of 北一段 before, covering Nanhu mountain and some surrounding peaks. There's a lot of elevation gain and the terrain is technical, but the views are incredible and really varied. Easily one of the best hikes I've ever done.
There are serviced huts at multiple points along the route that make logistics much easier as well, especially if you pay for a porter to provide food and equipment.
Had never considered Taiwan, thanks for the recommendation!
if you end up seriously considering it feel free to hit me up with any questions. I love hiking here but it's not super tourist-friendly.
Would this trail be appropriate in winter months (February) or would you stick to summer?
The campsite I stayed at to visit Nanhu mountain is over 3000m elevation, so by February I think there'd be significant snowfall and hiking would require more traditional mountaineering gear/knowledge.
Summer is fine but also brings a higher chance of typhoons/rain. I think shoulder seasons are actually ideal, with the best time being October-December.
Pictures of nanhu mountain look incredible- might try to check it out next fall break. Thanks for bringing something new to my horizon!
I'm interested, even though i can read chinese (i'm from HK), I actually gave up after reading some website on "camping rules" and "permits requirements", as u said, it is very confusing
In my experience, it's actually not as complicated or bureaucratic as it seems. Almost all the high mountain hikes can be applied for through https://npm.cpami.gov.tw/.
There are only a handful of hikes that even check permits tbh. Most hikes in 太魯閣國家公園 have lax enforcement and nobody ever asks if you have a permit. 雪霸 is stricter.
Lescun to Gavarnie along the HRP in the French Pyrenees would do the trick
That’s what I did this year (HRP), lescun (or more precisely Gourette) to gavarnie is beautiful however beware of the crowd between the refuge d’ilhéou and refuge des oulettes de gaube. Very touristic in the summer.
You could consider sections of the Italian GTA.
[edit] just realized later but why post this on r/Ultralight?
Well, people on this sub do occasionally hike
Not me!!!
If you can squeeze a few more days, everest base camp is pretty sweet
3 pass loop as well, but yeah need more like 15 days
Ha I was going to say 3 passes but didn't want to add too many extra days! I loved it
Gr58 ,tour du queyras ,done in 6 days approximatively
Or consider GR54 tour des écrins !
Via Alta Vallemaggia - https://www.viaaltavallemaggia.ch/en
Very stable weather conditions throughout the main season. So great if you fly in from abroad. You have many options to shorten the trip and take a bus out of the valley.
I personally prefer hiking in Norway, mostly because of "Allemannsretten" or Freedom to roam (which is also a thing Sweden and Finland).
What it boils down to is that besides a very few limited exceptions, as long as where you are is clearly nature, you can walk and camp where ever you want. That means no permits. No worrying about if the distance between camp sites fits with what you want to do, you walk for however long you feel like, and then throw down your tent where ever you are (there are also to option of hiking between huts, but then you loose that freedom I personally love, but it's there).
There's also always a ton of melt water in the mountains so you don't need to carry more water than 1 liter. There's a max 1km between you and the next water source at any point in time.
Those two things makes planning really easy. There's also long days during summer, so if you want to hike long days you can certainly do that without needing to rely on a lamp.
Now for actual planning. UT.no is a fantastic resource (just get your browser to auto translate to English so you actually know what is going on). It's the Norwegian tourist organisations webpage, there are both user generated trips and trips that the organisation has mapped out. The most well described trips are the signaTUR routes, those are sort of "highlighted" trips that are well know for being really good, but they are more visited than the user generated trips. Mostly you'll see a lot of people doing day hikes in Norway. If you do a 5 day round trip into the mountains and back, you'll in summer see a lot of people on the first day and the last, but the 3 days where you are more than a day hikes time away from the rim of the mountains you will likely be pretty alone.
As one example of a really good route I would recommend the Lysefjord round signaTUR. Only issue is that it can be a bit difficult to get to the start of the route in many cases.
Allemannsretten
A complementary resource on Allemansretten and its many limits, responsibilites and requirements:
https://www.visitnorway.com/plan-your-trip/travel-tips-a-z/right-of-access/
do you carry bear spray when hiking and camping in Norway??
the Lysefjord hike is actually really interesting! I probably will go solo in next Sept (currently thinking this or Tour Mont Rosa), how to get to the trail head (skåpet parkering) if I'm not planning to rent a car ?? Line 100 + taxi/uber ?? or i can find some hikers to carpool together? Thanks!
One of the European "underdogs" which doesn't get enough credit: The Walkers Haute Route (Chamonix to Zermatt). It is so scenic and majestic. The part that follows the TMB is quite busy but the rest of the trail is a good mix in between. Met some great people.
Another great option in the Alps is the Alta Via 1 of Aosta. Did it one year ago en it was great. For the Alps there are not much people. Most days in the mountains we didn't see anyone in early july.
Plenty to do in the Pyrenees.
Sections of HRP or GR11 or combo come to mind.
Aigues Tortes - Carres de Foc is gorgeous but have to do huts
Andorra GRP circuit has free huts and manned refuges.
Mountains and 5-10 days could be West Highland Way? It's not quite as scenic as the Alps, though :-)
But its a lovely walk.
Haha it is a lovely walk! I've actually done this too as I live in Scotland!
A friend of mine did some long hiking in Croatia that looked p amazing.
Three passes loop in Nepal
Look at sections of the Via Dinarica in the Balkan. Did that as a female alone, and it was amazing. The path less traveled. Super kind locals, great views, good food, spectacular nature.
Check out the Alta Via delle Dolomiti, 9 routes, each 1-3 weeks in total (but easy to cut short or combine), spectacular mountain views with quickly changing scenery and a very well maintained infrastructure (including huts). Doesn't get more beautiful than these mountains!
The Ecrins or the Queyras in France (was there earlier this year)