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WOULD YOU WALK HERE?

The world’s 25 most amazing places you can only reach on foot

2 WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017

Would YOU walk here?

BRIDGE 1 DEVIL’S ARIZONA

Come, cross it, enjoy; but as the locals will be only too keen to remind you: ‘This ain’t Disneyland’.

If you see a scorpion, it isn’t because a child dropped a toy; if you lean too far over the bridge, airbags do not deploy. www.hikearizona.com DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 3

PHOTO: © AURORA PHOTOS SUPPLEMENT WORDS: GUY PROCTER

Two miles on foot is all it takes to reach Mother Nature’s best bridge, and what a good job she did – though as the untimely end of several stumblers, selfie-takers and ‘tombstoners’ attests, she might think about putting handrails on her to-do list. The biggest of several sandstone arches in the Sedona region, it’s a relatively easy walk (though through 40° heat) from the trailhead, with 400ft of ascent.

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Would YOU walk here?

AIGUILLE DU MIDI PASSERELLE FRANCE

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No Bond villain had a more fantastic lair than the top of the Aiguille du Midi – the 3842m peak that gives ordinary mortals a window on the rarefied world of the Mont Blanc mountaineer. £43 buys you a ride on the cablecar with the highest vertical reach in the world, to a series of bridge- and tunnel-connected perches. You’re never far from a steaming mug and a tartiflette to shore up your nerves, but nor are you from an icy plunge. A 100ft walkable pipe ringing the summit pinnacle opened this summer, and since 2013 those who really like a bit of ‘flertigo’ have been able to ‘Step into the Void’ – an edgeoverhanging glass box that allows you to feel what it would feel like stepping out into a 3000ft crevasse-bottomed void. The answer is ‘a bit ooey’. www.compagniedumontblanc.co.uk DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

PHOTO: © HYLGERIAK/WIKICOMMONS

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HALF DOME YOSEMITE

No-one will believe you’ve walked up Half Dome; it doesn't look possible – either by sheer front or convex back.

But it is – and without so much as a harness. Not that the Half Dome Day Hike is easy: it’s a 15-mile, 5000ft day, the last 400ft a steep pull with the help of steel cables. Not via ferratas, but sort of floppy handrails. The views from the summit – of the Yosemite Valley in all its glory and High Sierra beyond – are stupendous. Access is literally a lottery.

225 permits a day are allocated by a preseason draw ($4.50 to apply; another $8 if you’re successful) and 50 a day during the season. If you get one, don’t let your luck blind you to the fact there’s literally nowhere worse to be on a stormy day than a steep, slippery, completely exposed mountain, holding onto a lightning conductor. www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/ halfdome.htm DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 5

?

PHOTO: © LI KIM GOH/ISTOCK

PEAK CIRCUIT 4 LOW’S KINABALU, MALAYSIA The highest via ferrata in the world lies at 12,000ft on Kinabalu, the tallest peak in Malaysia – and it’s been purpose-built to froth up adventurous walkers like a high-altitude SodaStream. Like all via ferratas, the protection of the cable to which you’re safely attached allows the route to follow what for walkers would otherwise be impossible trajectories – with added novelties on the 1.2km Low’s Peak Circuit including both the world’s highest suspension bridge and highest ‘Nepalese’ crossing (for which read ‘tightrope with handrails’).

For thrill-seeking walkers it’s the crowning glory of what is an already astonishing ascent. Kinabalu is home to over 5000 species of plant (that’s around twice as many as the whole of the UK), it’s the 20th most prominent mountain in the world (meaning the

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amount it stands proud of its surroundings), and thanks to the 13,436ft mountain’s shark’s-fin summit – the bit that’s actually called Low’s Peak – one of the most distinctive. Doing the Low’s Peak Circuit means using one of the country’s official guides (it’s the law), one overnight on the mountain and a 1.30am start. You’ll hit the summit at dawn before proceeding to your 4-5 hour via ferrata joyride a short way into the descent. Exhausted but elated you’ll finally reach the mountain’s foot around 6pm feeling that in spite of being around £475 per person lighter, you really regret rien. www.mountaintorq.com DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

Would YOU walk here?

TIANMEN WALKWAY CHINA

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PHOTO: © EPA/ALAMY

A glass floor and a waist-high barrier are all that separate you from falling from 4600ft on Tianmen’s Coiling Dragon Cliff walkway – a 330ft-long dare-walk that opened in August.

It’s one of three glass walkways on Tianmen Mountain, reached by the world’s longest cablecar. It’ll cost you £33 to scare yourself witless. www.chinahighlights.com/ zhangjiajie/attraction/tianmenmountain.htm DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

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HUAYNA PICCHU PERU

You haven’t really done Macchu Pichu unless you’ve done the gherkin-shaped sentinel that overtops it by 1000ft.

That’s Huayna Picchu – and it’s climbable (just) thanks to the ingenuity of the Incas. How they built the steps when they’re so steep and narrow it’s barely possible to pass on them is anyone’s guess, but if you thought they were hairy going up, the ones you have to take on the way down are even worse – they call them the Stairs of Death.

400 people a day are permitted to climb Huayna Picchu, and Sod’s law dictates this is where you’re bound to meet most of them. Trying to pass people on these narrow unprotected stairs, while resisting gravity’s suggestion to fall headfirst from the mountain is likely to be as memorable as Machu Picchu’s spectacular ruins themselves. www.machupicchu.gob.pe

PHOTO: © KUTTIG/ALAMY*

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 7

WALK GERMANY!

ADVERTISING FEATURE

MUNICH TO FÜSSEN

Passed over by many walkers drawn by the icy towers of the Alps, Germany offers British walkers much they already love – and more

G

ERMANY, DESPITE BEING the largest country in Europe, is often missed off most walkers’ to-do lists. That leaves a large chunk of country there ripe for exploring on foot, free from the crowds!

Beginning in the Bavarian capital of Munich, this eight-day route weaves its way southward before culminating in the castle-rich town of Füssen, near to the Austrian border, the Alpine skyline becoming larger the further south you venture. It is ideal for the less experienced walker looking to experience a part of Germany you are all too likely to miss when speeding past in a car.

Starting out in Munich provides walkers the chance to experience the bustling urban heart of Bavaria, not to mention feed up on würst and beer at the bierkellers. The entire route seems geared up to quench even the hardiest beer drinker’s thirst, with ample opportunity to experience famous Bavarian brews and cooking at each evening’s rest.

Once free of urban Munich, hikers are led along wide, wellmaintained paths through rolling countryside. The route takes in two of the region’s largest lakes at Ammersee and Forgensee, not to mention the ‘Grand Canyon of Bavaria’ at Ammerleite. Despite that, the real highlight of the walk comes close to the end with a day walking past the Bannwaldsee and Alpsee lakes before visiting the fairytale Neuschwanstein castle. Built by eccentric King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the castle was to become the eventual basis for Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland.

Fact file GETTING THERE Most airlines fly direct into Munich, from where the walk starts. Füssen is connected to Munich via a regular train service.

WHEN TO GO May-September. Summer is good weather-wise, but the route may be busier during school holidays.

WHO TO GO WITH Walk2Walk Holidays offers a self-guided eight-day trip beginning each Saturday over the summer months. Prices from £479 per person including seven nights’ accommodation, luggage carriage, transfers and route information (excludes flights).

FEES AND REGISTRATION There are no fees or registration necessary.

FITNESS The route is mostly on wide tarmac paths and well-maintained forest trails. Some stretches in the Wiesfilz moorland on wooden boardwalks.

Ascent is minimal and there is the option to cut short some days by hopping on a bus.

MAPS Walk2Walk Holidays provide all route details.

For more info, please call 0800 731 1631 or visit walk2walkholidays.com

£40 OFF

ALL WALKING HOLIDAYS OVER £399 PER PERSON OR MORE. QUOTE TR2017F TO CLAIM!

Would YOU walk here?

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CATACOMBS OF ODESSA

PHOTO: © JANMANU / WIKICOMMONS

The third largest city in Ukraine was largely built from sandstone mined from a multilayered warren of tunnels in the ground on which it stands.

Disused today, there are an estimated 1500 miles and no comprehensive map – a hellish maze only smugglers, fugitives and extreme tourists relish entering. Thanks to disorientation, dehydration and rockfall not all of them make it out. Detritus and graffiti of previous generations lie awaiting discovery in chill and perfect darkness.

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

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GORGES DU FIER FRANCE

PHOTO: © G.LANSARD/SAVOIE MONT BLANC

In the foothills of the French Alps, the Gorges du Fier are the result of river descending into potholed rock like a dropped buzz-saw, carving a crazy cleft of sunlight-dappled limestone six miles outside Annecy. It’s been a minor wonder of the Alps since 1869, when workers hoisted in barrels bored and bonded a metal walkway (see it?) along 1000ft of the tumbling, turbid water.

A gripping way to spend £5 and an hour. www.gorgesdufier.com/en DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

BIG FOUR ICE CAVES WASHINGTON

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PHOTO: © BREWBOOKS

These gleaming blue ice caves offer the promise of a rare serenity – interrupted solely by the occasional fall of headsplitting chunks of ice. It’s a 2¼ mile hike through forest to get there, when you’ll be tempted to explore the falls at the back of the caves. But is it so cold there will have been a lot of snowfall recently, which can lead to collapse; or warm enough for melting to pose the same rather unwelcome threat?

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 9

Would YOU walk here?

10 ANGELS LANDING ARIZONA

PHOTO: © DAVID WALL/ALAMY

There’s a 1000ft drop on either side, but don’t worry! There’s a chain greased by the palms of a hundred fretful passers-by.

But there’s no better view of Zion Canyon than looking straight down the middle from nearly 6000ft up, and this 1926-built trail up a sandstone fin will take you there, in a five-mile round-trip of unparalleled intensity. www.zionnational-park.com DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

10 WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017

NEW YEAR, NEW VIEW

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11 ONEONTA GORGE OREGON

The walls of Oneonta’s slot-gorge are so tall and close you feel like a tiny flower waiting to be pressed – that or you’ve found the entrance to another world where the whump of dragon wings is about to fill the air. The reality is scarcely less magical – because on this trail the

12 WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017

river is the trail; and on a hot summer day walking doesn’t get any better, as first feet, then thighs, then chest are swallowed by the cool blue water.

It may only be a 1/4 mile wade to the 100ft falls at the head of the chasm (there may be some log-jams to negotiate along the way) but in

few places does a walk so short take you so far from the familiar. www.oregon.com/recreation/ oneonta-gorge DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

PHOTO: © INGER ELIN

Would YOU walk here?

12

DJEVELPORTEN LOFOTEN

Svolvær is a small town in Lofoten – Norway’s spectacular archipelago of peaks soaring out of fjords. It’s about the size of Keswick, and like it has a friendly nearby peak all the locals love. Unlike Latrigg, 1935ft Fløya comes equipped with a Djevelporten (‘Devil’s gate’) – one of several examples of rocky happenstance (like Pulpit Rock and Trolltunga) that make Lofoten such

a productive farm for Facebook likes.

It’s a short, intense climb to Fløya’s lightly serrated summit and a quick detour to Djevelporten – which it only takes a calm nerve, a steady shuffle and an overmastering desire for a new social media cover photo to get onto.

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

13 EL CAMINITO DEL REY SPAIN

An hour north-west of Malaga, the ‘King’s Little Pathway’ used to be the most dangerous walk in the world, and despite being refurbished in recent years the mile-long aerial boardwalk still feels it. ‘Is it hazardous?’ reads the FAQ. ‘Of course it is’ begins the reply. Built between 1901 and 1905 as a commuting route for hydroelectric construction workers, this linear trail is five miles long, comprising dusty

footpaths and forest trails in addition to the mile of chanted prayer that is the boardwalk, suspended 300ft above the canyon floor. Entrance is £8 and it’s open year-round except Mondays.

That’s when Wile E Coyote practises. www.caminitodelrey.info DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 13

Would YOU walk here?

WALK 14 PEAK SWITZERLAND The Peak Walk is the only bridge in the world to link two mountain peaks.

An hour’s drive east of Lausanne in the Bernese Alps, it’s 350ft across, thousands of feet up (9800ft to be precise) and offers views to Mont Blanc, the Matterhorn, Mönch, Jungfrau and Eiger – with a partial glass floor to remind you just what a precarious spot it occupies. Although who else you’d trust to build a bridge over a vast chasm lashed by 120mph winds than the Swiss we’re not sure. www.bit.ly/peakbridge DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

15 TRIFT BRIDGE

SWITZERLAND

PHOTO: © PURCELUS/CREATIVE COMMONS

Built for hydroelectric engineers, the longest suspension bridge in the Alps was so fun they opened it to the public.

This gappy wooden-topped 560ft walkway near Gadmen in central Switzerland spans the Triftsee lake (330ft, or a 4.5 second fall, below) and even getting here is an adventure – through a ravine via a cablecar followed by a 90-minute walk.

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

MADAGASCAR

The limestone needles of this national park are like a draining board full of butchers’ knives – poised to snick through fabric and saw into flesh. If you wandered in drunk you’d emerge naked and covered in your own arrabiata sauce. Best to stick to the six-hour Big Tsingy Trail, with its series of protected scrambles and bridges through the most formidable karst landscape on the planet. www.parcs-madagascar.com DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

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PHOTO: © LOOK DIE BILDAGENTUR DER FOTOGRAFEN GMBH / ALAMY

DE 16 TSINGY BEMARAHA

WALK MAJORCA!

ADVERTISING FEATURE

TRANS TRAMUNTANA If it’s slighted by its sun-seeking tourist image, it’s also protected: far fewer people visit Majorca’s wonderful trails than they deserve

M

AJORCA IS POSSIBLY bestknown as a package tour destination for Brits trying to get a bit of Balearic sunshine. For the walker, though, the stunning coastline and undiscovered Tramuntana mountains offer some stunning rewards for those willing to put a few miles in. Instead of sun-baked beaches, this walking tour offers sun-dappled olive groves, stunning coastline, mountain passes and tranquillity far from the holiday-making hordes.

Taking in some of the best that Majorca has to offer the walker, this tour starts out at the port town of Port d’Alcudia hugging the coastline, offering views over the Mediterranean and smaller Balearic islands on the horizon. From there the route sticks to the Tramuntana mountains on the northern side of the island. Weaving along rocky paths, passing oaks and olive groves, the trail heads through whitewashed villages, manor houses and castles. Those looking to get a bit of a mountain fix are also in luck. Up at the summit of Es Cornador at 934m, there is a stunning 360˚ panorama of the Tramuntana range and the Mediterranean far down below.

This tour also manages to capture some cultural highlights too, with side trips to visit (and stay in) the monastery at Lluc, the secluded artists’ village of Deja and the historic old town of Palma.

Packages include a detailed itinerary of the week’s walk, which includes images helping to pinpoint different places along the way.

£40 OFF

ALL WALKING HOLIDAYS OVER £399 PER PERSON OR MORE. QUOTE TR2017L TO CLAIM!

Fact file GETTING THERE Budget, charter and regular airlines all fly into Palma de Majorca. Transfers are available from the airport to the start of the walk at Port d’Alcudia.

WHEN TO GO Tours run throughout the year from the end of February to the end of September. The weather is pleasant most of the year. Temperatures and visitor numbers are greater during the height of summer.

WHO TO GO WITH Walk2Walk Holidays offer a self-guided eight-day trip. It’s £569 per person including seven nights’ half board accommodation, luggage carriage, transfers and route information (excludes flights).

FEES AND REGISTRATION There are no fees or registration necessary.

FITNESS Good walking fitness is needed, along with confidence on stony paths. The walk follows undulating coastal and mountain paths.

MAPS Walk2Walk Holidays provide all route details.

For more info, please call 0800 731 1631 or visit walk2walkholidays.com

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17 MOUNT HUASHAN CHINA

PHOTO: © CHENSIYUAN/WIKICOMMOMS

One of the five sacred mountains in China, Mount Huashan is itself a chain of five peaks rising to 7067ft, the traverse of which has long been a test of religious mettle. But since cablecar access arrived in the 90s (£30 for your entrance and ride) it’s not just the pious who hit the trail but thousands wishing to experience one of the world’s most notorious walks – almost all of whom survive to tell the tale. A 6km walk links all the

key attractions – Hundred Foot Crevice, 1000 Foot Precipice, Plank Road, Heaven’s Ladder and the aptlynamed Changing Mind Rock – but despite improvements it’s still largely a health and safety black hole – a mixture of exposed stone steps, hand-chains, iron stemples and footpockets cut out of the rock. Harnesses are now a mandatory hire on the Plank Road section, but it’s as well to remember the trail is two-way

at all times and you are not among a disciplined crowd of safetyconscious alpinists. Many Chinese make the traverse by night, not just to avoid traffic on the foot-wide plank gangways, but because sometimes it’s better not to be able to see what a ridiculous situation you’ve got into.

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

PHOTO: © CHRIS SHEPHERD/@SHEPSAPPEAL

Would YOU walk here?

18 HAIKU STAIRWAY HAWAII

were open to the public. Refurbished at great expense in 2003, liability concerns have kept them closed since, but hundreds a month complete the dizzyingly narrow 2¼-mile/2,500fteach-way trail. As of today, the stairs face an embattled future – the mayor of Honolulu keen to see them re-opened; the Hawaiian Board of Water Supply on whose land they stand keen to get permission to rip them up. www.yelp.co.uk/biz/haiku-stairsaccess-restricted-kaneohe DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

PHOTO: © GARETH MCCORMACK / ALAMY

3922 steps, not all of them solid, will take you to the top of the Ko'olau mountain range on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. It’s steep, dangerous and, erm, illegal. But those who’ve done it – like Chris Shepherd – say they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything: “We burned through our dirt bike gloves holding on to the decrepit railing so tight. But it was the best thing we have ever done and not a single day goes by that we don’t think back to this hike!”

Originating during wartime, the stairs helped the US Navy build a gigantic radio transmitter spanning the mountain range, and until 1987 they

ICELAND 19 KRAFLA take you on a 3-4 hour journey through Licked your knife and lived to tell the tale? How about upping the stakes a bit – and walking on lava. In Iceland you can do it in the mega-crater of a volcano that dares you to call it extinct. Krafla has erupted 29 times so far as we know, and spewed fountains of multicoloured lava into its 10km crater as recently as 1984 – and it’s still got a bellyful of magma. In spite of all that, the Leirhnjukur hiking trail will

what the locals fondly call their ‘víti’, or ‘hell’. It’s a well-marked trail through a hissing, bubbling, sulfurous geological work-in-progress. You’ve never seen the Earth looking younger. www.visitmyvatn.is/en DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 19

ADVERTISING FEATURE

WALK ITALY!

MERAN TO LAKE GARDA Sun-blessed, soaring, and with over 10,000 miles of trails it’s no wonder more and more walkers are making a bee-line to South Tryol.

T

HE SOUTH TYROL is rapidly becoming one of the most popular locations for active holidays and it is easy to see why. 80% of the terrain is classed as mountainous and because of its south-facing location on the Italian/Austrian borderlands, South Tyrol and Trentino receives an incredible 300 sunny days per year! This makes the region one of the greenest, most picturesque and fertile in Europe. The best way to explore the South Tyrol is on foot following the wellmaintained walking paths, forest trails and some steep paths.

You will see turquoise lakes, mountain plateaus and river valleys. In fact, there are over 17,000km of walking and hiking trails to cover in the South Tyrol!

The section between the South Tyrolean town of Meran and the shores of Lake Garda is one of the finest you can walk along in Europe. On this self-guided walking tour with Walk2Walk Holidays, you’ll follow the ancient Waal paths constructed for water irrigation that now form the artery to many of the hiking paths and trails in the region.

As you follow the route, you will pass through idyllic villages situated in apple orchards and vineyards whilst cable cars will take you to the higher mountain areas. Don’t forget to stop off at the sparkling lakes and the impressive waterfalls as you get closer and closer to Lake Garda each day!

Wake up on the final day of your 8-day holiday for the final stretch to Lake Garda. On the way you will pass untouched meadows, olive groves and castles giving you a complete contrast to the opening days.

£40 OFF

ALL WALKING HOLIDAYS OVER £399 PER PERSON OR MORE. QUOTE TR2017M TO CLAIM!

Fact file GETTING THERE Fly to Verona from various UK airports. Then catch a train or bus to Meran (approx. 2 hours).

WHEN TO GO May to October. The weather in the area is generally sunny, but not guaranteed!

WHO TO GO WITH Walk2Walk Holidays offer a self-guided 8-day tour from Meran to Lake Garda. Prices are from £569 per person including 7 nights B&B accommodation, luggage transfers and route info.

FEES AND REGISTRATION This self-guided tour starts on Saturdays and Sundays only.

FITNESS Walking on well-maintained routes means that minimal technical experience is required.

Some steep paths and forest trails mean that a good level of fitness is required.

MAPS Walk2Walk Holidays provide all route details.

For more info, please call 0800 731 1631 or visit walk2walkholidays.com

Would YOU walk here?

ROC 20 LE DU VENT

FRANCE

Safely attached to a permanently fixed (and free-to-access) wires, via ferratas let the walker with at least a memory of their tree-climbing childhood soar into eyries otherwise reserved for rockclimbers. Today they are widespread, with over 1000 across the Alps. Le Roc du Vent is perhaps the most beautiful in France – a country which has taken up via ferratas with gusto since its first in 1988. It features a 2360m summit, beautiful lake, 200m tunnel, views of Mont Blanc and this gobsmacking 60ft-long wire traverse – a spectacle guaranteed to provoke stomachflipping feelings of admiration. Rated ‘Assez-Difficile’ it’s at the lower end of the difficulty ratings (one up from ‘not very hard’) which means if you can do Bristly Ridge or Sharp Edge without freaking out you really can do this. A few miles south-east of Mont Blanc, the route starts 40 minutes’ walk from the car and is all done in under three heartpumping hours. En route you’ll climb vertical ladders, scramble steep slabs, traverse that quivering high-wire – and the fact you’re completely safe will stay our little secret.

DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

21 FRANZ JOSEF

GLACIER HIKE NEW ZEALAND PHOTO: © AURORA PHOTOS / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Franz Josef is 12km long, descends to just 300m above sea level and is riddled with crevasses and ice-tunnels, with a face that is too unstable to approach.

Walkers are helicoptered in – exploring both guided and unguided, but there’s something about the word ‘jökulhlaup’ (glacier-speak for a sudden flood in ice tunnels) that makes us want to choose the former. It costs around £220 per person for a day, including flight. www.franzjosefglacier.com DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 21

Would YOU walk here?

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ROCK 22 PULPIT NORWAY Overlooking the lush green valleys of western Norway’s Ryfylke region from a vantage point of 1982ft, Pulpit Rock – originally ‘Hyvlatonnå’ meaning ‘planed tooth’ – is God’s message to humanity that BASE jumping was Meant to Be. A 2½ mile walk from the nearest car park, it’s an almost perfectly flat 80ft square of granite with a pert little lip that practically assures you you can dive straight off into the cool waters of Lysefjorden. People have tried. You can’t. www.visitnorway.com/places-to-go/ fjord-norway/ryfylke/ DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

Would YOU walk here?

BRIDGE 23 SKY SOCHI It may look like it’s constructed out of string and Meccano, but this Russian contraption is the longest suspension footbridge in the world – and though it looks frail, Putin’s people insist it can hold 3000 visitors come earthquake or hurricane, although you might be able to think of places you’d rather be.

At nearly 450m the Sky Bridge is as long as Cat Bells is high, and over 600ft off the ground. Since opening in 2014 it has become a bungee-jump Mecca. www.ajhackett.com/sochi DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

24 CALDEIRA DAS SETE

PHOTO: © VERACOR/AZORESPHOTOS.VISITAZORES.COM

CIDADES AZORES

A paradise in the throat of an ancient supervolcano in Europe’s Hawaii, 1000 miles off Portugal, it’s like nowhere else on Earth. Three miles across and filled with pasture, forests, footpaths and twin lakes, a 12km trail leads round the caldera’s rim – making for stunning views across isle and ocean. www.visitazores.com DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

MAZE 25 THE UTAH PHOTO: © NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Only 3% of visitors to Canyonlands National Park visit The Maze. Why? Its remoteness, total lack of water and forbidding reputation for bewildering hikers with deep, often dead-ended canyons. At least eight hours of dirtdriving from civilisation make it one of the most inaccessible places in the US, and most who visit the 20,000 acre sandstone wilderness do so for three days, only diligent navigation keeping it from being much, much longer. www.bit.ly/canyonmaze DIFFICULTY EXPENSE OMG FACTOR

WOULD YOU WALK HERE? 2017 23

Why just look out over the landscape...

when you can walk straight through it Come with us to the Americas and you won’t just see the sights, you’ll experience the real destination. Watch wildlife in its natural habitat. Meet local people. Experience the great outdoors. Discover the Americas like never before, travelling in real time.

The John Muir Trail 23 days from £2,789

Appalachian & New England Walk 11 days from £1,719

Canadian Rockies & Wilderness Walk 13 day tour from £1,679

One of the finest hikes in North America, the John Muir Trail won’t disappoint. Hike your way from south to north, crossing through three national parks, following the spine of California’s High Sierra and climbing the highest peak in the lower 48 states, Mount Whitney.

Hike in the footsteps of history, exploring the twists, turns, valleys and peaks of America’s oldest footpath. If you’re interested in scenic walking through forested areas, historical places and the outdoor lifestyle, then this tour was made for you.

Few places in the world offer such pristine scenery and diverse hiking options as the Canadian Rockies. Virgin forests, shimmering blue lakes, flowing glaciers, deep canyons and rushing rivers weave their way across the landscape on this dedicated walking tour.

Tuolumne Meadows YOSEMITE NP

Devils Postpile NM

Marie Lake

Le Conte Canyon

Baxter SP Mammoth Lakes Donohue Pass Bishop Glen Pass

KINGS CANYON NP

Rae Lakes SEQUOIA NP

Mount Whitney

White Mountain NF

M A I N E

VERMONT

Stowe

Forester Pass

Chicken Spring Lake

NEW HAMPSHIRE

Acadia NP Camden Hills SP MASSACHUSETTS

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Jasper NP

ALBERTA

Icefields Parkway

Lake Louise

Banff NP Calgary

Yoho NP

Kananaskis Country

Boston

Waterton Lakes NP

NEW YORK

For our full range of small group tours in the USA, Canada, South and Central America visit grandamericanadventures.com or call 0333 999 7963

Real Americas Real Adventure