Wanderlust Nordics: Exploring Trails in Scandinavia

Through the web site’s latest hiatus, I hiked, traveled, dabbled in excessive ironing, and wrote two books. The primary of these titles was Wanderlust Nordics: Exploring Trails in Scandinavia.*

Launched late final yr, it’s a 300-page espresso desk guide that showcases 26 of the best hikes from Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Finland, Sweden, and the Faroe Islands. From family-friendly day hikes to difficult multi-week treks, there’s something to curiosity everybody, from learners to skilled vets. The featured trails embody established classics such because the Kungsleden, Arctic Circle Path, and the Laugavegur, together with lesser-known excursions similar to Lengthy Crossing of the Lofoten Islands, Saskun to Tjornuvik Path, and the island-spanning Iceland Traverse. 

Cowl picture by Cody Duncan.

Wanderlust Nordics marked my fifth guide with Gestalten Publications. As with the opposite titles within the collection, it was very a lot a collaborative effort. The guide options pictures from an array of fantastic photographers, Florian Bayer offers the illustrations, Bureau Rabensteiner takes care of the map design, and the crack modifying group at Gestalten (led by Robert Klanten and Anna Diekmann) places all of it collectively. Yours actually was answerable for the writing, cartographic analysis, and chipped in with an help on the modifying entrance.  

Overview map for Wanderlust Nordics

From a private perspective, Wanderlust Nordics was an ambulatory journey virtually 1 / 4 of a century within the making. In 2000, I made my first go to to the area within the type of a prolonged journey round Iceland. Since that preliminary journey, I’ve traveled again to this magical a part of the world on a number of events, repeatedly drawn by a Viking treasure trove of mountain climbing prospects. From sweeping Arctic tundra to iceberg-dotted coastlines and from yawning fjords to lost-in-time villages, it’s an space to which superlatives and images can by no means actually do justice, although hopefully, in Wanderlust Nordics, we give it a very good crack! 

Nordic Adventures by the years (clockwise from backside proper): 1. Skaftafell Loop, Iceland, 2000; 2. Kungsleden, Sweden, 2009; 3. Saskun to Tjornuvik, Faroe Islands, 2022, and; 4. Lengthy Crossing of the Lofoten Islands, 2016.

Together with the flight-search-inspiring pictures, every Wanderlust Nordics hike options path descriptions, background historical past, logistical data, and sensible suggestions. Like the opposite editions within the Wanderlust collection, the guide isn’t an in depth planning information that hikers will take with them out on the path (Trace: It weighs virtually 2 kg/4.4 lbs). Moderately it’s an concept generator for many who prefer to expertise pure locations on foot, with all the things they want on this planet on their backs.

And with that, I’ll depart you with some extra pictures from every of the guide’s 5 chapters:

Ponds and meadows dot the geothermal panorama close to Landmannalaugar on the Laugavergur and Iceland Traverse. (Picture Credit score: p.214 (backside) – Tomáš Zrna/ northernadventures.co, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

Turf-roofed farmhouses close to the start line of the Skafatell Loop, Iceland (p.175 – Paddy Dillon/ paddydillon.co.uk, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

Rapadalen Valley in Sarek Nationwide Park (Picture Credit score: P. 58-59 – Cody Duncan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)(Observe: I extremely advocate Cody’s web site. It has a few of the most superb pictures I’ve ever seen from Northern Scandinavia).

The village of Sisimiut, the western terminus of Greenland’s Arctic Circle Path (p.132-133 – Paddy Dillon, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

Ingesting in a crimson dawn with icebergs floating by / Oqaatsut Path, Greenland (P.126 – Cam Honan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

Mykines is the one and solely village on its namesake island. It consists of round 40 homes, of which solely six are occupied year-round (P.98-99 – Cam Honan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

Yours actually gazing out from Cape Enniberg (Faroe Islands), the world’s highest promontory (P.119 – Cam Honan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

Fall foliage on Finnish Lapland’s Bear’s Ring Path (P.293 – Cam Honan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023).

Aurora Borealis over Horseid Seashore in Norway’s Lofoten Islands (P.276 (backside) – Cody Duncan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023

Mountain climbing Norway’s Rondane Triangle (P.238 – Cam Honan, Wanderlust Nordics, gestalten 2023)

*The second guide referenced within the opening paragraph is Wanderlust Mediterranean, which has simply come out in Europe and will likely be launched all over the place else on October 1, 2024.

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