The plan

I am setting off on May 1st to try to complete a continous, high level circuit of the Alps on foot, finishing by the end of October (or earlier - snow conditions permitting!). The starting point will be Bad Goisern in Austria: chosen in order to start and finish in the east where the route is generally lower, and therefore (potentially) less snow at the start and end of the season. From there the route will go southeast into Slovenia, west along the southern side of the Alps through Italy and France to Monaco, then back east along the northern side of the range through France, Switzerland, Germany, and back to the starting point in Austria.

Clearly if one took a strict definition of walking round the whole of the Alps, then one would most likely be walking along a motorway at sea level: not the intention! Therefore, to give the freedom to choose an inspiring route while remaining true to the concept, the route is defined as follows. It will pass strictly around each end of Alps; in the east the Hochschwab, being, slightly arbitrarily, the last major area of ground abve 2000m; in the west, Monaco, being, rather more definitively, where you run out of land. In between however, the route will be defined as I go according to the most aestetically pleasing, high level route, taking in as many of the key ranges as possible.

Having said that, I am anticipating that large parts of the route will coincide with the Via Alpina path network, so to get a good idea of what it could look like, see...

http://www.via-alpina.org/

...and visualise the largest loop that the trails shown here suggest.

Based on published information on the Via Alpina, the route could involve around 2,500 miles and 1,000,000 feet of ascent.

I'm planning to update this blog as much as possible as I go, in practice it is likely to be fairly intermittent depending on internet access along the way. In the meantime I will try to capture some of the aspects of a trip like this in the pages section, and then from next Friday, watch this space...