Tracks

Mountains

It is in your arms that I feel relieved.

From a desperate longing for movement

To always wanting to be where I am not.

The wild heart that beats inside me never seems to rest.

With your majestic peaks surrounding me,

I come to a halt.

My restless heart tells me to stop here for the night.

Filled with gratitude I wonder in awe about your beauty.

I smile.

For my heart seems to be pleased.

As you take me into your merciless purity,

I let myself fall into the calm.

Closing my eyes to welcome the night.

Welcome, hikers, trampers, trekkers, mountaineers of all levels including those who are just getting started!

Being outdoors, specifically the mountains, is one of the things I live for. Strapping on my backpack and heading out excites and calms me all at the same time. But let's get right to it. You'll find an overview of tracks I've done, sorted by country, right here.

One thing before you dive in. For a quick overview I've come up with a personal rating system. How it works and how you can best use it for yourself will be explained in the following paragraphs. Enjoy!

My personal rating system for hikes

…or the SB scale as I like to call it. That's right, it's cool enough to have it's own name.

Well actually, the major reason for the scale is to give you a better idea of how to judge if a tramp is something for you or not. By the way, tramp is another word for track/hike. I may use it here and there. To have something general to refer to for every tramp I created this scale. It aims to help you to put different walks into perspective.

The rating is solely a difficulty rating. It doesn't say anything about if I personally liked a track or not. For this you can check out the My Experience section. Every track will have this section, a short summary and a rating.

The rating ranges between 1 and 10, 1 being the easiest and 10 the most difficult type of hike.

Every rating will include these categories:

Category A: General

This category includes general factors, such as distance, trekking time and elevation gain.

Category B: Terrain

This category describes the terrain of the hike. Terrain conditions can have quite an influence on how a hike can turn out. Anyone who has ever walked in mud, dry sand, across a river, on rocks, gravel, paved ground compared to nice forest ground probably knows what I mean. For the rest…
You really need to get out there and spend some time in nature! But better late than never.

Category C: Weather

Oh my, I cannot emphasise enough how much of a difference weather can make for a hike! Rain, snow, hail, wiiiiiind can make any hike awfully draining and dangerous. Hypothermia is a keyword here. Burning rays of sun without a single cloud in the sky don't do much for joy either. Sunstroke is another keyword.

Category D: Special Conditions

Conditions such as altitude or doing a hike with a simple day pack rather than a huge backpack are no small factors to rating the difficulty of a track. Doing an easy hike at sea level or at 5000m has major effects on the body. It is also important what kind of gear is needed or if the hike requires actual climbing. So, the factors gear, special clothing, type of backpack, altitude and if actual climbing is required will make up the rating in this category.

Category E: Individual Condition

In this category I will give a short overview about my personal condition during the hike. This is to put the level of subjectivity into perspective. Bad preparation, fitness, mood or a sickness can turn a hike into a very specific experience. An easy track will still be horror when done with a headache or having forgotten that extra chocolate bar, if you know what I mean.