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Hiking The ALps

For years, retired French chemical engineer Maurice Chazalet dreamed of an Alps thru-hike. But traversing the length of the range from the roof of the Balkan Peninsula, in Slovenia, through Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Italy, France, and down to the beaches of Monaco required a veritable library of guidebooks. The prospect of slogging thousands of miles with 30 pounds (14 kilograms) of literature in a backpack is one that no hiker would relish.

But in the summer of 2005, Chazalet's three-month expedition finally became feasible. That's when the eight-member Alpine Convention officially unveiled the completed signage for the Via Alpina, Europe's first trans-Alps trail.

Suddenly, tiny Slavic villages and tucked-away French farms, rustic vineyards in Liechtenstein, and Italian patron-saint festivals (previously unknown to all but the most punctilious guidebook readers) became accessible to the average hut-to-hut trekker along the range's main trails.

"I now have a much more global view of the Alps," says Chazalet, 67, who navigated 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers) from the Adriatic Sea to the Mediterranean entirely with maps downloaded from the Via Alpina Web site (www.via-alpina.org). "While hiking in Austria, I saw a father and his daughter reaping a field by hand on a very high slope. Nobody in France works land like that anymore."

Conceived in 2000 and established in 2002, the Via Alpina is the brainchild of France's No�l Lebel, then general secretary of the Alpine Convention. His goal was to preserve the cultures and character of a range facing the corrosive threats of global warming and automobile traffic. The 6.3-million-dollar plan, funded jointly by the European Union and the eight Alpine states, resulted in five new international trails covering more than 3,100 miles (4,989 kilometers). Its main artery, the Red Trail, which Chazalet hiked, crosses borders 44 times and traverses the Alps in 161 distinct stages.

Map: The Alps' Via Alpina

Alpine trekking is a perennial classic, drawing millions of summer hikers who prowl old Roman roads and medieval footpaths among glaciated peaks, wildflower-carpeted meadows, plunging valleys, and quiet mountain villages. While roughing it is always an option, the Alps trekker is more likely to dine on local delicacies�Swiss fondue, French p�t�, German pilsner�at comfortable village lodges and well-established hut systems along the way.

What the Via Alpina brings to this formula is cohesion, providing a center of gravity to an otherwise disparate number of itineraries. It stitches together some of the region's most famous routes: the Tour du Mont Blanc in France, the Triglav Lakes Valley Circuit in Slovenia, and the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard between Switzerland and Italy, among them. But more than just marking out a navigable thruway, the Via Alpina organizers have also designed the most comprehensive Web site ever assembled for Alps trekking, a one-stop shop in five languages with detailed information on trail stages, hiking distances, GPS coordinates, challenge levels, and lodging options from huts (or refuges, in Alpine parlance) to chalets.

For trek-it-alone types, the trail system makes it easier to tailor an ideal two- or three-section expedition. If you prefer a trip where the way is guided and the heavy loads are portered ahead, the VA's database can help you personalize an itinerary so you can tell outfitters exactly where you want to go. Today, even a novice trekker can be as informed about the route underfoot�and the paths less traveled�as the wiliest of Alpine veterans. 

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