The full story of my Alps fastpacking journey, plus Christmas book orders
Links to all of my published work about my Alpine fastpacking journey in summer 2022.
Hot on the heels of my last email, all of my Sidetracked stories about my 900km fastpacking trip across the Alps have now been published online and are free for all to read. Here are the links. I hope that you enjoy them!
Attitudes and Altitude: Mountains of the Mind. This is an extended version of my print feature, and covers some of the complex interlocking ideas that followed me across the Alps: body image, self-perception, glacial retreat, the future of adventure. I’ll have more to write about this in due course, as I’m planning a book, but this won’t see the light of day for a couple of years or so. For now, this is it! As a Sidetracked-exclusive project, I won’t be writing about this trip elsewhere.
How to Go Fastpacking. A skills guide, imparting a few tips and tricks that I’ve picked up over the last year of this uniquely fun learning curve.
Gear Guide for Alpine Fastpacking. Gear tips! Montane and LEKI sponsored the trip, so both brands are well represented here, but don’t think that I’ve compromised myself in any way – I would have chosen Montane equipment for this journey even if they hadn’t been financially supporting me. In the past my sponsored trips haven’t always been such a good fit (*cough* Cape Wrath Trail *cough* SPOT-X) but this time it all worked out splendidly.
Gear review. An honest look at the equipment I relied on. I’m picky these days when it comes to my gear, but most of the items I took with me performed very well.
Destination Guide to the Grande Traversata delle Alpi. My guide to fastpacking the GTA – Italy’s answer to the better-known GR5 on the French side of the range.
Christmas book orders
Apologies in advance for the commercial message here!
I know that it’s only November, but if you’d like to order one of my books for a Christmas present then it’s a good idea to start thinking about this now. My UK publisher, Vertebrate Publishing, anticipate disruption due to postal strikes. I currently have The Farthest Shore, Wanderlust Europe, and Wanderlust Alps in stock in small quantities here at home, and am willing to send them out to UK addresses – if you’d like a signed copy, please reply to this email.
The Farthest Shore is my story of hiking the Cape Wrath Trail in winter, and also a journey through anxiety, connectivity, and grief. It’s been shortlisted for a couple of awards and I keep hearing glowing praise from readers, but it must be said that it does not contribute that much to keeping a roof over my head, so if you’d like to support this writer then please do buy a copy. The Wanderlust books are well worth considering for presents, too – visually stunning, and just the thing to inspire, well, a bit of wanderlust.
More information on these books, plus links to order them direct from my publishers:
The Farthest Shore – signed copies direct from Vertebrate Publishing (£14.95)
Wanderlust Europe and Wanderlust Alps – non-signed copies direct from gestalten (£35 respectively)
While I’m promoting my work, you could also think about a gift subscription to either Sidetracked or The Great Outdoors. They’re both wonderful examples of why print is still so important in outdoor and adventure writing.
Until next time,
Alex
Header image © James Roddie