Books for Hikers and Backpackers (2024 Version)

The fifth iteration of the “Mountain climbing Books Information” has been up to date and expanded to incorporate greater than 90 works divided into eight classes: 1. Academic; 2. Guidebooks; 3. Humour; 4. Inspirational; 5. Literature; 6. Memoirs; 7. Philosophy, and; 8. Ultralight.

The entire books have a spot on my conventional, cyber, or audio bookshelves, and the featured authors embrace among the most skilled and educated hikers and/or outdoorsy people on the planet.

Outdoorsy bookshelf at Casa Honan.

1.   Academic

• Auerbach, Paul. Medication for the Outside (seventh version, 2023): I first picked up a duplicate of this guide within the late ’90s. Wonderful reference textual content. In keeping with Richard Carmona, seventeenth Surgeon Common of the USA, Auerbach’s guide is the “most complete and authoritative work within the discipline.”

• Burns, Bob. Wilderness Navigation (third Version, 2015): Clearly written, helpful for novices in addition to veterans on the lookout for a refresher. Consists of useful sensible workouts in the back of the guide. Written by the co-author of the ‘Navigation’ chapter of the traditional, “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” (see beneath).

• Curtis, Rick. The Backpacker’s Subject Guide (2005 version): Arguably nonetheless essentially the most complete “how you can” backpacking information in the marketplace. A wonderful reference guide that deserves a spot on each hiker’s bookshelf.

• Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival (2003): After listening to about this guide for a decade, I lastly received round to studying “Deep Survival” throughout the pandemic. I discovered it to be a extremely readable mixture of survival tales, sensible recommendation, and the psychology of how folks take care of excessive adversity. On the not-so-great facet, it felt just a little disorganized and repetitive at instances.

• Gooley, Tristan. The Misplaced Artwork of Studying Nature’s Indicators (2015). An informative and entertaining information to channeling your inside Sherlock Holmes out within the wilderness. Gooley particulars how you can use Mom Nature’s indicators to find out every little thing from the path of journey to climate patterns to animal behavioral patterns.
  

  “Randomness is just not an amazing survival technique, so it’s uncommon in nature.” – Tristan Gooley

• Hansen, Derek. The Final Dangle (2024): Extremely regarded illustrated information to hammock tenting. Advisable by serial thru-hiker and long-time hammock devotee Brian “Beardoh” Ristola, who wrote Hammocks for Via-Mountain climbing for ‘The Mountain climbing Life’ web site in February 2018.

• Lichter, Justin. Path Examined (2020; 2nd Version). Light-weight backpacking strategies and kit recommendation from a man who has walked the stroll for over 40,000 miles, together with winter thru-hikes of the Appalachian Path and Pacific Crest Trails and pioneering routes within the Himalaya, New Zealand’s South Island, and Mexico’s Copper Canyon Area (with yours actually).

• Magnanti, Paul. How one can Survive Your First Journey into the Wild: Backpacking for Newbies (2019). Filled with sensible, to-the-point recommendation, How one can Survive Your First Journey into the Wild is good for these seeking to make the transition from day hikes to in a single day backpacking excursions. Magnanti’s a long time of discipline expertise, mixed with an typically humorous writing type, make this guide not solely an amazing useful resource for novices but in addition brings house the truth that so long as you’re properly ready, heading out into the woods is an expertise to be loved, moderately than merely endured.

• Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills (tenth version, 2024): This traditional mountaineering textual content (first printed in 1960) additionally has numerous data related to hikers and backpackers (e.g., snow abilities, wilderness first support, knots, and navigation).

• Skurka, Andrew. The Final Hiker’s Gear Information (2017; 2nd Version). An intensive overview of light-weight backpacking gear and strategies from one of many sport’s main authorities.

• Tazz, Iron. Hike It: An Introduction to Tenting, Mountain climbing, and Backpacking within the USA (2024). Written by fellow PCT 2012 alumni Iron Tazz and illustrated by Martin Stanev, Hike It is a superb introductory information to the world of mountain climbing and backpacking aimed toward younger adventurers aged 7 and up. The guide showcases a few of America’s most gorgeous landscapes whereas additionally bearing on vital topics reminiscent of navigation, LNT, wildlife encounters, mountain climbing your personal hike, and how you can poop within the woods.

“Hike It” by Iron Tazz.

• Thomas, Liz, Mastering the Artwork of the Via Hike (2017). Over the previous decade, Liz “Snorkel” Thomas has hiked many long-distance trails round North America, together with the Triple Crown (i.e., PCT, CDT, and AT). That properly of ambulatory expertise mixed with spectacular consideration to element has resulted in a guide stuffed with sensible, hard-won recommendation, which took out the Nationwide Out of doors E book Award in 2017 (Educational Class).

• Townsend, Chris. The Backpackers Handbook (4th Version; 2011). A wonderful backpacking useful resource written in a private, down-to-earth type by a person who positively is aware of his stuff. Over the a long time Townsend has printed greater than 20 hiking-related books, and since 1991 has been the Tools Editor for The Nice Outside (TGO) journal.

• Wall Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass (2015). An insightful and galvanizing guide beneficial to me by serial long-distance hiker, Kate “Swept Away” Pickett. Weaving collectively botany, spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge, Braiding Sweetgrass examines and celebrates our innate connection to the pure world whereas nudging the reader to acknowledge and act upon the teachings which can be typically ‘hiding in plain sight.’

“Within the Western custom there’s a acknowledged hierarchy of beings, with, in fact, the human being on prime—the top of evolution, the darling of Creation—and the crops on the backside. However in Native methods of understanding, human individuals are sometimes called “the youthful brothers of Creation.” We are saying that people have the least expertise with how you can stay and thus essentially the most to study—we should look to our lecturers among the many different species for steering. Their knowledge is clear in the best way that they stay. They educate us by instance. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we’ve got been, and have had time to determine issues out.”

• Waterman, Man & Laura. Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness (1993). This guide was beneficial to me by Paul “Mags” Magnanti (see above). I discovered it to be a well-written, balanced, and interesting examination of the moral questions round how we use wilderness. Its themes are extra related right this moment than ever earlier than.

“However essentially the most astonishing factor about bushes is how social they’re. The bushes in a forest take care of one another, typically even going as far as to nourish the stump of a felled tree for hundreds of years after it was minimize down by feeding it sugars and different vitamins, and so maintaining it alive……..A tree’s most vital technique of staying linked to different bushes is a “wooden huge internet” of soil fungi that connects vegetation in an intimate community that enables the sharing of an infinite quantity of knowledge and items. Scientific analysis aimed toward understanding the astonishing skills of this partnership between fungi and plant has solely simply begun. The rationale bushes share meals and talk is that they want one another. It takes a forest to create a microclimate appropriate for tree development and sustenance. So it’s not shocking that remoted bushes have far shorter lives than these dwelling linked collectively in forests.”

2.   Guidebooks

• Cicerone Press Guidebooks: For greater than 5 a long time, Cicerone Press has been producing extremely regarded guidebooks for mountain climbing, trekking, climbing, and biking. Historically, their focus has been on the UK (the place they’re based mostly) and Europe; nevertheless, in latest instances, they’ve been more and more that includes different areas around the globe, such because the Himalayas, Andes, and Atlas mountains.

4 of my Cicerone Guides from the 90s and 2000s.

A screenshot of the Cicerone Kindle guides I utilized in 2018/19 for journeys to the Scottish Highlands and the Alps.

• Falcon Guides: One of many largest publishers of out of doors guidebooks in the USA. Their intensive mountain climbing catalogue contains Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, and Arizona.

• Lonely Planet Mountain climbing Guides: Amongst its a whole bunch of titles, the famed journey guide writer has additionally put out scores of helpful mountain climbing/trekking/strolling guides. Areas lined embrace the Nepal Himalaya, New Zealand, and Patagonia (Notice: Lots of the LP mountain climbing guides are at present out of print, however with a little bit of looking out, you’ll be able to typically discover used copies and/or eBook variations).

• Trailblazer Guidebooks: Together with Cicerone Press, the principal mountain climbing guidebook firm for the UK and Europe over the previous couple of a long time. As with their counterpart, they’ve additionally expanded their geographic horizons in recent times and now characteristic books for South America, Asia, and different locations across the globe.

3.   Humour

• Bryson, Invoice. A Stroll within the Woods. The famed journey author’s account of his time on America’s most iconic long-distance pathway. Some thru-hikers complain about what this guide isn’t (i.e., the story of somebody who hiked the entire Appalachian Path) moderately than specializing in what it’s – a witty and infrequently insightful account of an AT part hike by an excellent author.

“I do know a person who drives 600 yards to work. I do know a lady who will get in her automotive to go 1 / 4 of a mile to a school gymnasium to stroll on a treadmill, then complains passionately concerning the issue of discovering a parking area. After I requested her as soon as why she didn’t stroll to the gymnasium and do 5 minutes much less on the treadmill, she checked out me as if I have been being willfully provocative. ‘As a result of I’ve a program for the treadmill,’ she defined. ‘It information my distance and pace, and I can modify it for diploma of issue.’ It hadn’t occurred to me how thoughtlessly poor nature is on this regard.”

• Burns, John D. The Final Hillwalker (2017). A love letter to the hills. I picked up this totally pleasurable account of 4 a long time’ price of adventures within the British mountains (and past) throughout my 2018 journey to the Scottish Highlands. On the identical journey, I additionally learn Burns’ glorious Bothy Tales – an ode to the characterful mountain huts that dot the Scottish Highlands.

• Grinter, Lawton. I Hike (2012) and I Hike Once more (2019). Collections of brief tales derived from greater than 15,000 miles of mountain climbing on a few of America’s most interesting trails. Humorous, poignant, thought-provoking, and entertaining, studying Grinter’s books makes you are feeling like you’re sitting round a campfire, swapping yarns with a bunch of long-distance hikers over a beer or three.

• McFarland, Boots. On the Path with Boots McFarland (2019): Lengthy-distance hikers are a quirky bunch. And infrequently have these eccentricities been higher captured than in Boots McFarland’s fantastic cartoons. Whether or not it’s our questionable consuming habits, debatable hygiene practices, or just the loopy notion that individuals would wish to stroll 1000’s of miles only for the enjoyable of it, Boots’ illustrations are a chafe-and-all celebration of what makes hikers tick.

• Newby, Eric. A Brief Stroll within the Hindu Kush (1958). The (mis)adventures of a vogue govt and his mate who works for the British International Service, who journey from London to Afghanistan with the purpose of scaling a hitherto unclimbed peak (Mir Samir) within the Hindu Kush. One of the entertaining books about climbing and trekking I’ve learn.

“I used to be closely concerned on all fronts: with mountaineering outfitters, who oddly sufficient by no means fathomed the depths of my ignorance; presumably as a result of they couldn’t conceive of anybody buying such a group of apparatus with out understanding how you can use it.”

• Twain, Mark. Roughing It (1872). Private recollections and tall tales from the writer’s wanderings round America’s Wild West. My favorite of Twain’s journey narratives, simply nudging out The Innocents Overseas. It’s not precisely a wilderness guide, however what the hey, I really like Mark Twain, I really like the American West, and his tales by no means fail to carry an enormous smile to my face.

4.   Inspirational 

• Berger, Karen. America’s Nice Mountain climbing Trails (2014): A fantastic espresso desk guide that includes America’s 11 Nationwide Scenic Trails. One in every of Berger’s earlier works, “Mountain climbing America’s Triple Crown” (2001), launched me to the concept of tackling the large three of American long-distance mountain climbing (i.e., the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails), which I ultimately did in 2012.

• Honan, Cam. Wanderlust: Mountain climbing on Legendary Trails (2017), The Hidden Tracks: Wanderlust off the Overwhelmed Path (2018), Wanderlust USA (2019), Wanderlust Himalaya (2022), Wanderlust Nordics (2023), and Wanderlust Mediterranean (2024). Odes to the wonder and surprise of experiencing the pure world on foot. Every work within the Wanderlust sequence options roughly 30 of the best trails and routes from across the globe, together with Tibet’s Mount Kailash Circuit, California’s Lowest to Highest Route, Peru’s Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit, and the legendary Haute Route between Chamonix and Zermatt. The books comprise background historical past, path descriptions, overview maps, and, most notably, scores of spectacular wilderness images.

The six Wanderlust books I’ve written since 2016/17.

• Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild (1996): The cautionary, enthralling, and tragic story of Chris McCandless, an idealistic younger man who walked alone into the Alaskan wilderness. I learn this guide throughout my very own three-month journey in Alaska and the Yukon in 1998. From the time of its publication, the guide polarized readers, with McCandless being painted as every little thing from a tragic hero to a reckless narcissist. Finally, his story stands as a grim reminder of what can happen within the wilderness when desires and idealism aren’t balanced by objectivity and the data and abilities vital to securely negotiate your chosen atmosphere.

• McDougall, Christopher. Born to Run (2009). Informative and inspirational, this guide options the unimaginable Tarahumaras (Raramuri) of Mexico’s Copper Canyon. The world and its folks maintain a particular place in my mountain climbing coronary heart. Between 1995 and 2013, I undertook 5 prolonged journeys there, the final of which was a 381 mi (613 km) traverse that linked collectively the six main canyons that represent the Copper Canyon Area (along with Justin Lichter).

Justin “Trauma” Lichter on the base of Basaseachic Falls (246 m/807 ft excessive), the start line of the Copper Canyon Traverse (2013).

• Macfarlane, Robert. The Outdated Methods: A Journey on Foot (2012):  In “The Outdated Methods,” Macfarlane traces the traditional pathways of Britain and past and explores the connection between folks, time, and landscapes. As with the writing of Nan Shepherd (see beneath), you get the sensation that the writer walks into landscapes moderately than up and over them. I learn this extraordinary guide throughout my Alps journey in 2019, and as quickly as I had completed, I ordered Macfarlane’s first two works – “Mountains of the Thoughts” and “The Wild Locations” (that are additionally glorious).

The one and solely Grandma Gatewood.

• Shepherd, Nan. The Residing Mountain (1977): Nan Shepherd was a Scottish poet and nationalist who’s commemorated on the nation’s five-pound word. “The Residing Mountain” is Shepherd’s superbly written testomony to the thrill and wonders of strolling in nature, particularly in her beloved Cairngorm mountains:

“I imagine that I now perceive in some small measure why the Buddhist goes on pilgrimage to a mountain. The journey is itself a part of the approach by which the god is sought. It’s a journey into Being; for as I penetrate extra into the mountain’s life, I penetrate additionally into my very own. For an hour I’m past want. It isn’t ecstasy, that leap out of the self that makes man like a god. I’m not out of myself, however in myself. I’m. To know Being, that is the ultimate grace accorded from the mountain.”

Yours actually mountain climbing within the Cairngorms in September 2018.

5.   Literature

• Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). A cult traditional. Set within the desert wilderness of America’s southwest, The Monkey Wrench Gang follows the radicalized adventures of 4 environmentally-conscious misfits within the face of business growth.

• Snyder, Gary. Turtle Island (1974) & The Observe of the Wild (1990): Thought-provoking poems and essays. I didn’t get into Snyder till my early 30s, once I randomly got here throughout a duplicate of ‘Turtle Island’ in a used bookstore in Queensland, Australia. I’ve been an enormous fan of his writing ever since:

“Strolling is the good journey, the primary meditation, a apply of heartiness and soul main to humankind. Strolling is the precise stability between spirit and humility.” (The Observe of the Wild).

• Tolkien, JRR, The Lord of the Rings (1954). The story of a various bunch of fellows who went out for a multi-month stroll had numerous memorable adventures, met some cool path angels, took some zero-days, had some variations of opinion concerning route choice, misplaced considered one of their members on account of chest pains, break up into separate teams, stood by one another when instances have been robust, completed their journeys at totally different termini, and, lastly, all met up for celebratory beers on the Subject of Cormallen at journey’s finish.

“I wish to see mountains once more, Gandalf, mountains, after which discover someplace the place I can relaxation. In peace and quiet, with out plenty of family members prying round and a string of confounded guests hanging on the bell.” (Bilbo Baggins, “The Fellowship of the Ring”)

The Fellowship of the Ring.

• Wallis, Velma. Two Outdated Girls (1993). An Inuit legend of braveness and survival. I first learn this guide whereas spending a summer season up in Alaska in 1998. Not about mountain climbing and backpacking per se however as an alternative about how spending time within the wilderness can remind us that when given no different selection, many people are able to greater than we consciously understand.

6.   Memoirs

(Notice: In earlier iterations of this submit, just a few people have famous that I don’t record thru-hiking memoirs reminiscent of Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild.” It’s no nice thriller or slight; as I discussed earlier than, that individual sub-genre is simply not my cup of tea).

• Abbey, Edward, Desert Solitaire (1968): Passionate, thought-provoking vignettes about life within the wilderness of America’s Southwest:

“Wilderness is just not a luxurious however a necessity of the human spirit, and as very important to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little stays of the wild, the spare, the unique, is chopping itself off from its origins and betraying the precept of civilization itself.”

• Fletcher, Colin. The Thousand-Mile Summer time (1964) and  The Man Who Walked Via Time (1968): Over the previous couple of a long time, there was an ever-increasing quantity of books about long-distance backpacking. None that I’ve learn are as compelling, thought-provoking, and inspirational because the works of Colin Fletcher. His guide, River, a few multi-month rafting journey down the Colorado River, is equally excellent. If I needed to choose simply considered one of Fletcher’s works, it might in all probability be “The Man Who Walked Via Time,” which chronicles his pioneering journey by means of the Grand Canyon. I learn this unimaginable guide throughout my Pyrenean Haute Route thru-hike in 1999:

“There’s a highly effective human compulsion to go away issues tied up in neat little bundles. However each journey besides your final has an open finish. And any journey of worth is above all a chapter in a private odyssey. Its finish is just not a lot a purpose attained as one other level in a seamless course of. And the vital factor on the finish of a journey – or of a guide – is to maintain shifting ahead, refreshed, with as little pause as doable.”

Mike “The Gambler” Towne on the Nankoweap Granaries throughout the Hayduke Path (March 2012). Fletcher slept in these cliff-hugging granaries throughout his 1963 journey by means of the Grand Canyon.

• Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums (1958). Probably my favorite Kerouac novel. I first learn it within the late Nineteen Nineties, not coincidentally throughout the identical interval I found the writing of Gary Synder, who was the inspiration for one of many guide’s primary characters, Japhy Ryder.

“I felt like mendacity down by the facet of the path and remembering all of it. The woods do this to you, they all the time look acquainted, lengthy misplaced, just like the face of a long-dead relative, like an outdated dream, like a chunk of forgotten track drifting throughout the water, most of all like golden eternities of previous childhood or previous manhood and all of the dwelling and the dying and the heartbreak that went on 1,000,000 years in the past and the clouds as they cross overhead appear to testify (by their very own lonesome familiarity) to this sense.”

• Matthiessen, Peter. The Snow Leopard. (1978). I picked up a battered paperback model of this traditional guide whereas trekking in Ladakh in 2008. Recounting the writer’s seek for the elusive Himalayan ‘ghost cat’ all through Nepal’s Dolpo area, “The Snow Leopard” is in the end a ‘journey of the center’, that vividly captures the abiding high quality of the Himalayan vary and its folks:
  
  “I develop into these mountains like a moss. I’m bewitched. The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, the sound of earth and heaven within the silence, the requiem birds, the mythic beasts, the flags, nice horns, and outdated carved stones……….Additionally, I really like the frequent miracles – the murmur of my mates at night, the clay fires of smudgy juniper, the coarse boring meals, the hardship and ease, the contentment of doing one factor at a time.”

• Muir, John. My First Summer time within the Sierra (1911) and The Yosemite (1912). The daddy of the conservation motion. I first learn Muir’s works as a youngster rising up in Australia. Greater than thirty-five years later, he stays considered one of my favorite wilderness writers.

“After ten years of wandering and questioning within the coronary heart of it, rejoicing in its superb floods of sunshine, the white beams of the morning streaming by means of the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of numerous waterfalls, it nonetheless appears above all others the Vary of Gentle.” (The Yosemite)

John Muir in his beloved Excessive Sierra.

7.   Philosophical

• Graham, Stephen. The Mild Artwork of Tramping (1927): An exquisite guide for wandering spirits and out of doors lovers. Written nearly a century in the past, it incorporates some memorable nuggets of knowledge, reminiscent of:

“The much less you carry the extra you will note, the much less you spend the extra you’ll expertise.”

• Fletcher, Colin. The CompleteWalker 3 (1984). I’ve re-read CW3 a few instances over time. While the gear sections are understandably dated, Fletcher’s dry sense of humour and his ardour for the pure world stays as recent and poignant as ever.

“When you decide security to be the paramount consideration in life it’s best to by no means, beneath any circumstances, go on lengthy hikes alone. Don’t take brief hikes alone, both – or, for that matter, go anyplace alone. And keep away from in any respect prices such foolhardy actions as driving, falling in love, or inhaling air that’s nearly actually riddled with lethal germs………And by no means, in fact, discover the heart of an concept that appears as if it would threaten considered one of your extra cherished beliefs. In your knowledge, you’ll in all probability stay to be a ripe outdated age. However you could uncover, simply earlier than you die, that you’ve got been useless for an extended, very long time.” (The Full Walker 3).

For followers of Fletcher’s work, I like to recommend choosing up a duplicate of “Strolling Man,” a superb biography by Robert Wehrman.

• Gros, Frederic, The Philosophy of Strolling (2014).  An insightful have a look at how the straightforward act of placing one foot in entrance of the opposite can have an effect on our mind-set and high quality of life. Gros examines the important position that strolling performed within the work of philosophers and writers reminiscent of Thoreau, Kant, Rimbaud, Rosseau, and Nietzsche:

• Kephart, Horace. Tenting & Woodcraft (1906): Though gear could have modified, the philosophy & abilities described on this wilderness traditional are nonetheless related:

“To equip a pedestrian with shelter, bedding, utensils, meals, and different requirements, in a pack so gentle and small that he can carry it with out overstrain, can be a positive artwork.”  

Horace Kephart – one of many OG’s of light-weight backpacking.

• Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac (1949). One of many foundational works of the fashionable environmental motion. I extremely suggest Leopold’s traditional guide to anybody within the nature of human relationships with the atmosphere (and I hope that encompasses most people who comply with this web site). It’s a comparatively brief learn, and though it was first printed some 75 years in the past, the themes it examines stay extra related right this moment than ever earlier than.

• Thoreau, Henry David. Walden (1854) and Strolling (1861): Thoreau makes essentially the most eloquent of circumstances for the bodily, psychological, and religious advantages of spending time within the wilderness. I particularly get pleasure from studying Thoreau once I’m backpacking moderately than once I’m indoors. The simplicity and directness of his phrases appear to resonate that little bit extra.

8.   Ultralight Backpacking

• Clelland, Mike. Ultralight Backpackin’ Ideas (2011) 153 recommendations on going lighter, courtesy of the identical man who did the wonderful illustrations for Don Ladigan’s guide (see beneath). Sensible data blended in with liberal doses of quirkiness and humour. Makes ultralight backpacking sound enjoyable and pleasurable. Double thumbs up.

• Jardine, Ray. Past Backpacking (2001) and Path Life (2009). Principally the identical guide with a special title. Jardine was the person who popularised the present motion in the direction of going lighter within the early ’90s. While a few of his concepts might not be for everybody, there is no such thing as a denying that his modern method is based upon intensive private expertise in a variety of environments.

The predecessor of Past Backpacking and Path Life was Jardines: The Pacific Crest Path Hiker’s Handbook, which got here out in 1991.

• Lichter, Justin & Forry, Shawn. Ultralight Winter Journey. In 2014/15, Lichter and Forry accomplished the first-ever winter traverse of the Pacific Crest Path. The talents and strategies they used to perform this superb feat are encapsulated in Ultralight Winter Journey, an informative information that addresses worse-case situations, climate patterns, discipline repairs, and, in fact, how you can enterprise safely into sub-freezing situations with out carrying the proverbial kitchen sink in your again.

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