Читать книгу Walking in Austria. 101 routes - day walks, multi-day treks and classic hut-to-hut tours онлайн

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With more than 40,000km of paths to choose from, the principal objective of each walk is to enable you to enjoy a day’s exercise among some of Europe’s best-loved mountains. But to gain the most from a walking holiday in Austria, it is advisable to be reasonably fit before you go, for most routes described here involve considerable uphill effort.

If you’ve never walked in the Alps before, avoid being too ambitious in your plans for the first few days until you’ve come to terms with the scale of the terrain. A rough guide in terms of time, distance and height gain and loss is given at the head of each walk description, which should aid the planning of an itinerary.

Grading of walks

The walks fall into three categories, graded 1–3, with the highest grade reserved for the more challenging routes. This grading system is purely subjective, but is offered to provide a rough idea of what to expect. Grade 1 walks are fairly modest and likely to appeal to most active members of the family, while the majority of routes are graded 2–3, largely because of the nature of the landscape which can be pretty challenging. The grading of walks is not an exact science and each category covers a fairly wide spectrum. Inevitably there will be overlaps and variations and, no doubt, a few anomalies which may be disputed by users, but they are offered in good faith and as a rough guide only.