Books for Hikers and Backpackers (2024 Edition)

The fifth iteration of the “Hiking Books Guide” has been up to date and expanded to incorporate greater than 90 works divided into eight classes: 1. Educational; 2. Guidebooks; 3. Humour; 4. Inspirational; 5. Literature; 6. Memoirs; 7. Philosophy, and; 8. Ultralight.

All of the books have a spot on my conventional, cyber, or audio bookshelves, and the featured authors embody a number of the most skilled and educated hikers and/or outdoorsy people on the planet.

Outdoorsy bookshelf at Casa Honan.

1.   Educational

• Auerbach, Paul. Medicine for the Outdoors (seventh version, 2023): I first picked up a replica of this guide within the late ’90s. Excellent reference textual content. According to Richard Carmona, seventeenth Surgeon General of the USA, Auerbach’s guide is the “most comprehensive and authoritative work in the field.”

• Burns, Bob. Wilderness Navigation (third Edition, 2015): Clearly written, helpful for inexperienced persons in addition to veterans searching for a refresher. Includes helpful sensible workouts behind the guide. Written by the co-author of the ‘Navigation’ chapter of the basic, “Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills.” (see beneath).

• Curtis, Rick. The Backpacker’s Field Manual (2005 version): Arguably nonetheless essentially the most complete “how to” backpacking information in the marketplace. An glorious reference guide that deserves a spot on each hiker’s bookshelf.

• Gonzales, Laurence. Deep Survival (2003): After listening to about this guide for a decade, I lastly bought round to studying “Deep Survival” throughout the pandemic. I discovered it to be a extremely readable mixture of survival tales, sensible recommendation, and the psychology of how individuals cope with excessive adversity. On the not-so-great aspect, it felt somewhat disorganized and repetitive at occasions.

• Gooley, Tristan. The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs (2015). An informative and entertaining information to channeling your inside Sherlock Holmes out within the wilderness. Gooley particulars use Mother Nature’s indicators to find out every thing from the route of journey to climate patterns to animal behavioral patterns.
  

  “Randomness is not a great survival strategy, so it is rare in nature.” – Tristan Gooley

• Hansen, Derek. The Ultimate Hang (2024): Highly regarded illustrated information to hammock tenting. Recommended by serial thru-hiker and long-time hammock devotee Brian “Beardoh” Ristola, who wrote Hammocks for Thru-Hiking for ‘The Hiking Life’ web site in February 2018.

• Lichter, Justin. Trail Tested (2020; 2nd Edition). Lightweight backpacking strategies and kit recommendation from a man who has walked the stroll for over 40,000 miles, together with winter thru-hikes of the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trails and pioneering routes within the Himalaya, New Zealand’s South Island, and Mexico’s Copper Canyon Region (with yours actually).

• Magnanti, Paul. How to Survive Your First Trip into the Wild: Backpacking for Beginners (2019). Full of sensible, to-the-point recommendation, How to Survive Your First Trip into the Wild is good for these trying to make the transition from day hikes to in a single day backpacking excursions. Magnanti’s many years of subject expertise, mixed with an typically humorous writing type, make this guide not solely an awesome useful resource for inexperienced persons but in addition brings residence the truth that so long as you might be properly ready, heading out into the woods is an expertise to be loved, somewhat than merely endured.

• Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills (tenth version, 2024): This basic mountaineering textual content (first printed in 1960) additionally has a lot of data related to hikers and backpackers (e.g., snow expertise, wilderness first help, knots, and navigation).

• Skurka, Andrew. The Ultimate Hiker’s Gear Guide (2017; 2nd Edition). An intensive overview of light-weight backpacking gear and strategies from one of many sport’s main authorities.

• Tazz, Iron. Hike It: An Introduction to Camping, Hiking, and Backpacking within the USA (2024). Written by fellow PCT 2012 alumni Iron Tazz and illustrated by Martin Stanev, Hike It is a superb introductory information to the world of climbing and backpacking geared toward younger adventurers aged 7 and up. The guide showcases a few of America’s most beautiful landscapes whereas additionally pertaining to vital topics equivalent to navigation, LNT, wildlife encounters, climbing your personal hike, and poop within the woods.

“Hike It” by Iron Tazz.

• Thomas, Liz, Mastering the Art of the Thru Hike (2017). Over the previous decade, Liz “Snorkel” Thomas has hiked many long-distance trails round North America, together with the Triple Crown (i.e., PCT, CDT, and AT). That properly of ambulatory expertise mixed with spectacular consideration to element has resulted in a guide stuffed with sensible, hard-won recommendation, which took out the National Outdoor Book Award in 2017 (Instructional Category).

• Townsend, Chris. The Backpackers Handbook (4th Edition; 2011). An glorious backpacking useful resource written in a private, down-to-earth type by a person who positively is aware of his stuff. Over the many years Townsend has printed greater than 20 hiking-related books, and since 1991 has been the Equipment Editor for The Great Outdoors (TGO) journal.

• Wall Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding Sweetgrass (2015). An insightful and provoking guide really helpful to me by serial long-distance hiker, Kate “Swept Away” Pickett. Weaving collectively botany, spirituality, and Indigenous knowledge, Braiding Sweetgrass examines and celebrates our innate connection to the pure world whereas nudging the reader to acknowledge and act upon the teachings which are typically ‘hiding in plain sight.’

“In the Western tradition there is a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top—the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation—and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as “the younger brothers of Creation.” We say that people have the least expertise with stay and thus essentially the most to study—we should look to our lecturers among the many different species for steerage. Their knowledge is clear in the best way that they stay. They train us by instance. They’ve been on the earth far longer than we have now been, and have had time to determine issues out.”

• Waterman, Guy & Laura. Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of Wildness (1993). This guide was really helpful to me by Paul “Mags” Magnanti (see above). I discovered it to be a well-written, balanced, and fascinating examination of the moral questions round how we use wilderness. Its themes are extra related right now than ever earlier than.

“But the most astonishing thing about trees is how social they are. The trees in a forest care for each other, sometimes even going so far as to nourish the stump of a felled tree for centuries after it was cut down by feeding it sugars and other nutrients, and so keeping it alive……..A tree’s most important means of staying connected to other trees is a “wood wide web” of soil fungi that connects vegetation in an intimate community that permits the sharing of an unlimited quantity of knowledge and items. Scientific analysis geared toward understanding the astonishing skills of this partnership between fungi and plant has solely simply begun. The motive timber share meals and talk is that they want one another. It takes a forest to create a microclimate appropriate for tree development and sustenance. So it’s not shocking that remoted timber have far shorter lives than these dwelling related collectively in forests.”

2.   Guidebooks

• Cicerone Press Guidebooks: For greater than 5 many years, Cicerone Press has been producing extremely regarded guidebooks for climbing, trekking, climbing, and biking. Traditionally, their focus has been on the UK (the place they’re primarily based) and Europe; nonetheless, in latest occasions, they’ve been more and more that includes different areas around the globe, such because the Himalayas, Andes, and Atlas mountains.

Four of my Cicerone Guides from the 90s and 2000s.

A screenshot of the Cicerone Kindle guides I utilized in 2018/19 for journeys to the Scottish Highlands and the Alps.

• Falcon Guides: One of the biggest publishers of out of doors guidebooks within the United States. Their in depth climbing catalogue consists of Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, and Arizona.

• Lonely Planet Hiking Guides: Among its tons of of titles, the famed journey guide writer has additionally put out scores of helpful climbing/trekking/strolling guides. Regions lined embody the Nepal Himalaya, New Zealand, and Patagonia (Note: Many of the LP climbing guides are presently out of print, however with a little bit of looking out, you possibly can typically discover used copies and/or eBook variations).

• Trailblazer Guidebooks: Along with Cicerone Press, the principal climbing guidebook firm for the UK and Europe over the previous couple of many years. As with their counterpart, they’ve additionally expanded their geographic horizons in recent times and now function books for South America, Asia, and different locations across the globe.

3.   Humour

• Bryson, Bill. A Walk within the Woods. The famed journey author’s account of his time on America’s most iconic long-distance pathway. Some thru-hikers complain about what this guide isn’t (i.e., the story of somebody who hiked the entire Appalachian Trail) somewhat than specializing in what it’s – a witty and infrequently insightful account of an AT part hike by an excellent author.

“I know a man who drives 600 yards to work. I know a woman who gets in her car to go a quarter of a mile to a college gymnasium to walk on a treadmill, then complains passionately about the difficulty of finding a parking space. When I asked her once why she didn’t walk to the gym and do five minutes less on the treadmill, she looked at me as if I were being willfully provocative. ‘Because I have a program for the treadmill,’ she explained. ‘It records my distance and speed, and I can adjust it for degree of difficulty.’ It hadn’t occurred to me how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this regard.”

• Burns, John D. The Last Hillwalker (2017). A love letter to the hills. I picked up this totally gratifying account of 4 many years’ value of adventures within the British mountains (and past) throughout my 2018 journey to the Scottish Highlands. On the identical journey, I additionally learn Burns’ glorious Bothy Tales – an ode to the characterful mountain huts that dot the Scottish Highlands.

• Grinter, Lawton. I Hike (2012) and I Hike Again (2019). Collections of quick tales derived from greater than 15,000 miles of climbing on a few of America’s most interesting trails. Funny, poignant, thought-provoking, and entertaining, studying Grinter’s books makes you’re feeling like you might be sitting round a campfire, swapping yarns with a bunch of long-distance hikers over a beer or three.

• McFarland, Boots. On the Trail with Boots McFarland (2019): Long-distance hikers are a quirky bunch. And not often have these eccentricities been higher captured than in Boots McFarland’s great cartoons. Whether it’s our questionable consuming habits, debatable hygiene practices, or just the loopy notion that folks would wish to stroll 1000’s of miles only for the enjoyable of it, Boots’ illustrations are a chafe-and-all celebration of what makes hikers tick.

• Newby, Eric. A Short Walk within the Hindu Kush (1958). The (mis)adventures of a trend govt and his mate who works for the British Foreign Service, who journey from London to Afghanistan with the objective of scaling a hitherto unclimbed peak (Mir Samir) within the Hindu Kush. One of essentially the most entertaining books about climbing and trekking I’ve learn.

“I was heavily involved on all fronts: with mountaineering outfitters, who oddly enough never fathomed the depths of my ignorance; possibly because they couldn’t conceive of anyone acquiring such a collection of equipment without knowing how to use it.”

• Twain, Mark. Roughing It (1872). Personal recollections and tall tales from the writer’s wanderings round America’s Wild West. My favorite of Twain’s journey narratives, simply nudging out The Innocents Abroad. It’s not precisely a wilderness guide, however what the hey, I like Mark Twain, I like the American West, and his tales by no means fail to deliver a giant smile to my face.

4.   Inspirational 

• Berger, Karen. America’s Great Hiking Trails (2014): An exquisite espresso desk guide that includes America’s 11 National Scenic Trails. One of Berger’s earlier works, “Hiking America’s Triple Crown” (2001), launched me to the concept of tackling the massive three of American long-distance climbing (i.e., the Appalachian, Pacific Crest, and Continental Divide Trails), which I finally did in 2012.

• Honan, Cam. Wanderlust: Hiking on Legendary Trails (2017), The Hidden Tracks: Wanderlust off the Beaten Path (2018), Wanderlust USA (2019), Wanderlust Himalaya (2022), Wanderlust Nordics (2023), and Wanderlust Mediterranean (2024). Odes to the wonder and surprise of experiencing the pure world on foot. Each work within the Wanderlust sequence options roughly 30 of the best trails and routes from across the globe, together with Tibet’s Mount Kailash Circuit, California’s Lowest to Highest Route, Peru’s Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit, and the legendary Haute Route between Chamonix and Zermatt. The books comprise background historical past, path descriptions, overview maps, and, most notably, scores of spectacular wilderness images.

The six Wanderlust books I’ve written since 2016/17.

• Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild (1996): The cautionary, enthralling, and tragic story of Chris McCandless, an idealistic younger man who walked alone into the Alaskan wilderness. I learn this guide throughout my very own three-month journey in Alaska and the Yukon in 1998. From the time of its publication, the guide polarized readers, with McCandless being painted as every thing from a tragic hero to a reckless narcissist. Ultimately, his story stands as a grim reminder of what can happen within the wilderness when desires and idealism aren’t balanced by objectivity and the data and expertise essential to securely negotiate your chosen atmosphere.

• McDougall, Christopher. Born to Run (2009). Informative and inspirational, this guide options the unimaginable Tarahumaras (Raramuri) of Mexico’s Copper Canyon. The space and its individuals maintain a particular place in my climbing coronary heart. Between 1995 and 2013, I undertook 5 prolonged journeys there, the final of which was a 381 mi (613 km) traverse that linked collectively the six main canyons that represent the Copper Canyon Region (along with Justin Lichter).

Justin “Trauma” Lichter on the base of Basaseachic Falls (246 m/807 ft excessive), the start line of the Copper Canyon Traverse (2013).

• Macfarlane, Robert. The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (2012):  In “The Old Ways,” Macfarlane traces the traditional pathways of Britain and past and explores the connection between individuals, time, and landscapes. As with the writing of Nan Shepherd (see beneath), you get the sensation that the writer walks into landscapes somewhat than up and over them. I learn this extraordinary guide throughout my Alps journey in 2019, and as quickly as I had completed, I ordered Macfarlane’s first two works – “Mountains of the Mind” and “The Wild Places” (that are additionally glorious).

The one and solely Grandma Gatewood.

• Shepherd, Nan. The Living Mountain (1977): Nan Shepherd was a Scottish poet and nationalist who’s commemorated on the nation’s five-pound notice. “The Living Mountain” is Shepherd’s superbly written testomony to the thrill and wonders of strolling in nature, particularly in her beloved Cairngorm mountains:

“I believe that I now understand in some small measure why the Buddhist goes on pilgrimage to a mountain. The journey is itself part of the technique by which the god is sought. It is a journey into Being; for as I penetrate more into the mountain’s life, I penetrate also into my own. For an hour I am beyond desire. It is not ecstasy, that leap out of the self that makes man like a god. I am not out of myself, but in myself. I am. To know Being, this is the final grace accorded from the mountain.”

Yours actually climbing within the Cairngorms in September 2018.

5.   Literature

• Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). A cult basic. Set within the desert wilderness of America’s southwest, The Monkey Wrench Gang follows the radicalized adventures of 4 environmentally-conscious misfits within the face of commercial improvement.

• Snyder, Gary. Turtle Island (1974) & The Practice of the Wild (1990): Thought-provoking poems and essays. I didn’t get into Snyder till my early 30s, once I randomly got here throughout a replica of ‘Turtle Island’ in a used bookstore in Queensland, Australia. I’ve been a giant fan of his writing ever since:

“Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility.” (The Practice of the Wild).

• Tolkien, JRR, The Lord of the Rings (1954). The story of a various bunch of men who went out for a multi-month stroll had a lot of memorable adventures, met some cool path angels, took some zero-days, had some variations of opinion relating to route choice, misplaced one in every of their members as a result of chest pains, cut up into separate teams, stood by one another when occasions have been robust, completed their journeys at completely different termini, and, lastly, all met up for celebratory beers on the Field of Cormallen at journey’s finish.

“I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains, and then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a lot of relatives prying around and a string of confounded visitors hanging on the bell.” (Bilbo Baggins, “The Fellowship of the Ring”)

The Fellowship of the Ring.

• Wallis, Velma. Two Old Women (1993). An Inuit legend of braveness and survival. I first learn this guide whereas spending a summer season up in Alaska in 1998. Not about climbing and backpacking per se however as a substitute about how spending time within the wilderness can remind us that when given no different selection, many people are able to greater than we consciously understand.

6.   Memoirs

• Abbey, Edward, Desert Solitaire (1968): Passionate, thought-provoking vignettes about life within the wilderness of America’s Southwest:

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”

• Fletcher, Colin. The Thousand-Mile Summer (1964) and  The Man Who Walked Through Time (1968): Over the previous couple of many years, there was an ever-increasing quantity of books about long-distance backpacking. None that I’ve learn are as compelling, thought-provoking, and inspirational because the works of Colin Fletcher. His guide, River, a few multi-month rafting journey down the Colorado River, is equally excellent. If I needed to decide simply one in every of Fletcher’s works, it will most likely be “The Man Who Walked Through Time,” which chronicles his pioneering journey by means of the Grand Canyon. I learn this unimaginable guide throughout my Pyrenean Haute Route thru-hike in 1999:

“There is a powerful human compulsion to leave things tied up in neat little bundles. But every journey except your last has an open end. And any journey of value is above all a chapter in a personal odyssey. Its end is not so much a goal attained as another point in a continuing process. And the important thing at the end of a journey – or of a book – is to keep moving forward, refreshed, with as little pause as possible.”

Mike “The Gambler” Towne on the Nankoweap Granaries throughout the Hayduke Trail (March 2012). Fletcher slept in these cliff-hugging granaries throughout his 1963 journey by means of the Grand Canyon.

• Kerouac, Jack. The Dharma Bums (1958). Possibly my favorite Kerouac novel. I first learn it within the late Nineties, not coincidentally throughout the identical interval I found the writing of Gary Synder, who was the inspiration for one of many guide’s primary characters, Japhy Ryder.

“I felt like lying down by the side of the trail and remembering it all. The woods do that to you, they always look familiar, long lost, like the face of a long-dead relative, like an old dream, like a piece of forgotten song drifting across the water, most of all like golden eternities of past childhood or past manhood and all the living and the dying and the heartbreak that went on a million years ago and the clouds as they pass overhead seem to testify (by their own lonesome familiarity) to this feeling.”

• Matthiessen, Peter. The Snow Leopard. (1978). I picked up a battered paperback model of this basic guide whereas trekking in Ladakh in 2008. Recounting the writer’s seek for the elusive Himalayan ‘ghost cat’ all through Nepal’s Dolpo area, “The Snow Leopard” is finally a ‘journey of the heart’, that vividly captures the abiding high quality of the Himalayan vary and its individuals:
  
  “I grow into these mountains like a moss. I am bewitched. The blinding snow peaks and the clarion air, the sound of earth and heaven in the silence, the requiem birds, the mythic beasts, the flags, great horns, and old carved stones……….Also, I love the common miracles – the murmur of my friends at evening, the clay fires of smudgy juniper, the coarse dull food, the hardship and simplicity, the contentment of doing one thing at a time.”

• Muir, John. My First Summer within the Sierra (1911) and The Yosemite (1912). The father of the conservation motion. I first learn Muir’s works as a teen rising up in Australia. More than thirty-five years later, he stays one in every of my favorite wilderness writers.

“After ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of Light.” (The Yosemite)

John Muir in his beloved High Sierra.

7.   Philosophical

• Graham, Stephen. The Gentle Art of Tramping (1927): A beautiful guide for wandering spirits and outside lovers. Written nearly a century in the past, it accommodates some memorable nuggets of knowledge, equivalent to:

“The less you carry the more you will see, the less you spend the more you will experience.”

• Fletcher, Colin. The CompleteWalker 3 (1984). I’ve re-read CW3 a few occasions over time. Whilst the gear sections are understandably dated, Fletcher’s dry sense of humour and his ardour for the pure world stays as contemporary and poignant as ever.

“If you judge safety to be the paramount consideration in life you should never, under any circumstances, go on long hikes alone. Don’t take short hikes alone, either – or, for that matter, go anywhere alone. And avoid at all costs such foolhardy activities as driving, falling in love, or inhaling air that is almost certainly riddled with deadly germs………And never, of course, explore the guts of an idea that seems as if it might threaten one of your more cherished beliefs. In your wisdom, you will probably live to be a ripe old age. But you may discover, just before you die, that you have been dead for a long, long time.” (The Complete Walker 3).

For followers of Fletcher’s work, I like to recommend choosing up a replica of “Walking Man,” a superb biography by Robert Wehrman.

• Gros, Frederic, The Philosophy of Walking (2014).  An insightful take a look at how the easy act of placing one foot in entrance of the opposite can have an effect on our mind-set and high quality of life. Gros examines the important position that strolling performed within the work of philosophers and writers equivalent to Thoreau, Kant, Rimbaud, Rosseau, and Nietzsche:

• Kephart, Horace. Camping & Woodcraft (1906): Although gear could have modified, the philosophy & expertise described on this wilderness basic are nonetheless related:

“To equip a pedestrian with shelter, bedding, utensils, food, and other necessities, in a pack so light and small that he can carry it without overstrain, is really a fine art.”  

Horace Kephart – one of many OG’s of light-weight backpacking.

• Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac (1949). One of the foundational works of the fashionable environmental motion. I extremely suggest Leopold’s basic guide to anybody within the nature of human relationships with the atmosphere (and I hope that encompasses most people who observe this web site). It’s a comparatively quick learn, and though it was first printed some 75 years in the past, the themes it examines stay extra related right now than ever earlier than.

• Thoreau, Henry David. Walden (1854) and Walking (1861): Thoreau makes essentially the most eloquent of instances for the bodily, psychological, and non secular advantages of spending time within the wilderness. I particularly take pleasure in studying Thoreau once I’m backpacking somewhat than once I’m indoors. The simplicity and directness of his phrases appear to resonate that little bit extra.

8.   Ultralight Backpacking

• Clelland, Mike. Ultralight Backpackin’ Tips (2011) 153 recommendations on going lighter, courtesy of the identical man who did the superb illustrations for Don Ladigan’s guide (see beneath). Practical data combined in with liberal doses of quirkiness and humour. Makes ultralight backpacking sound enjoyable and gratifying. Double thumbs up.

• Jardine, Ray. Beyond Backpacking (2001) and Trail Life (2009). Basically the identical guide with a special title. Jardine was the person who popularised the present motion in direction of going lighter within the early ’90s. Whilst a few of his concepts is probably not for everybody, there is no such thing as a denying that his revolutionary method is based upon in depth private expertise in a variety of environments.

The predecessor of Beyond Backpacking and Trail Life was Jardines: The Pacific Crest Trail Hiker’s Handbook, which got here out in 1991.

• Lichter, Justin & Forry, Shawn. Ultralight Winter Travel. In 2014/15, Lichter and Forry accomplished the first-ever winter traverse of the Pacific Crest Trail. The expertise and strategies they used to perform this superb feat are encapsulated in Ultralight Winter Travel, an informative information that addresses worse-case eventualities, climate patterns, subject repairs, and, in fact, enterprise safely into sub-freezing situations with out carrying the proverbial kitchen sink in your again.

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