Book aims to inspire backcountry travel

With no introduction, The Aspiring Hiker’s Guide dives right into the nitty-gritty indispensible information any aspiring backpacker will need in its Chapter 1: Backpacking Equipment.

Indeed, an ill-fitting pack is likely to ruin a backcountry trip quicker than a sudden hail storm and more effectively than a swarm of mosquitoes. Ditto for poorly fitting boots.

Marching steadfastly onward with tips and suggestions for choosing clothing from pants to socks to rain gear, tents, sleeping bags and pads, cook stoves, pots and water containers, this guidebook dispatches some valuable information. Each item is described not just according to facts, but with some helpful extras, such as the advantages and shortcoming of leather boots versus synthetic, or aluminum versus stainless steel or titanium cooking pots.

Forging forward, its second chapter outlines tips and guidelines for backcountry campsite management, including key info on campsite selection, tent set-up, cooking, eating and cleaning. With subsequent chapters on scrambling and first aid, by the fifth chapter readers will be eager and prepared to embark on their first trip.

At this point the reader, however, might take notice that the first destination listed, a 20-kilometre hike to the spectacular Amethyst Lakes Campground in Jasper’s Tonquin Valley, is appropriately rated a “five peaks” in backpacking difficulty, rendering it an ambitious destination for most novice backpackers.

An introductory chapter sharing suggestions about how a beginning backpacker might choose destinations according to distance and elevation gain and descent, plus instructions for interpreting the book’s difficulty ratings as well as an explanation as to why the author chose to include the selected assortment of hikes he did, might be appreciated.

Fortunately, a thorough exploration of its pages will uncover a wide variety of hiking and scrambling destinations suitable for a range of abilities, fitness and desire.

And, with ample colour photos, history sections for each outing, maps to trailheads, a bibliography, place names index and glossary to such backcountry specific terms such as bear pole, privy, scree and tarn, this book might just entice readers to do what its title suggests—become aspiring hikers.

The Aspiring Hiker’s Guide 1: Mountain Treks in Alberta, 224 pages, $26.95 is published by Rocky Mountain Books.