On 10 September we rolled into Monaco, the final country and final destination of the Via Alpina.

Some stats and facts about our journey:

• Distance more than 2,000km*, the equivalent of walking Adelaide to Brisbane or Calgary to Thunder Bay
• Elevation gain more than 110,000m* (so many Alps in the European Alps see the list below)
• 87 days on the trail including nine rest days (no rest days in a row which was a new experiment)
• We walked every single metre – not one gondola, bus, train or chairlift (thanks to Mike’s determination and goal setting style ha!)
• Average calories burned a day including basal calories by Mike 4,200 and Kristy 4,400
• Average number of croissants consumed in France, and silserkranz in Switzerland, or pretzels in Austria and Germany to offset the calorie deficit per day: countless
• Most loved beverages: IsoSport Sola in Slovenia and Crodo Limon in Italy and Austria
• Number of crocs stolen by an animal and found the next morning after hours of searching: 1 of 2
• Number of salamanders dodged: countless
• Number of snakes seen: a dozen including asps
• Number of marmots encountered: at least 3,647 😆

*Exact stats we need a laptop to get the Coros data and crunch the numbers… Mike also has his Strava for each day.

Via Alpina harder than Great Himalaya Trail?

People have asked if this was harder than the Great Himalaya Trail last year in Nepal… This was a response I wrote to a friend:

This trail wasn’t mentally as tough as the Himalaya, and culturally more similar to home and also way more oxygen, but the distances and elevation each day were the challenge. I think our biggest day was 2730m gain and 36km, not crazy but adds up with similar days before and after! Who knew Switzerland was so hilly 😂 

Also having set times to be at some huts meant I hiked faster than I have before. Nothing like some constraints to reveal some strengths…

We met some wonderful people hiking too, which we had less of in Nepal due to the time of year we went, and funnily enough 2 Aussie couples were also doing the whole Via Alpina so the skippies are keen on long Europe trails apparently. 

There were two FKTs (female and male) set on the trail this summer as well! So having nuts fast pro trail runners in my mind doing 70km a day compared to our 30km helped for motivation!

List of alps we crossed (east to west)

We had no idea how many alps we would cross IN the Alps!

• Julian Alps (Slovenia)
• Karawanken (Slovenia/Austria)
• Carnic Alps (Italy/Austria)
• Dolomites (Italy)
• Zillertal Alps (Austria)
• Tuxer Alps (Austria)
• Karwendel (Austria/Germany)
• Wetterstein (Germany/Austria)
• Lechtal Alps (Austria)
• Allgäu Alps (Germany/Austria)
• Rätikon (Austria/Liechtenstein/Switzerland)
• Silvretta (Austria/Switzerland)
• Rhaetian Alps (Switzerland)
• Lepontine Alps (Switzerland)
• Valais Alps (Switzerland)
• Bernese Alps (Switzerland)
• Chablais (Switzerland/France)
• Mont Blanc massif (France)
• Graian Alps, Vanoise (France)
• Dauphiné, Écrins (France)
• Cottian Alps, Queyras/Monviso (France)
• Maritime Alps, Mercantour (France)

Some pics from the last 7 days on the trail

There is so much to share and some interesting stories, so in time we hope to share them! I also took short videos the entire way and plan to develop them into a pretty raw lightly edited “train journey” where people can throw it on in the background and have scenery and animals and food from across the European Alps. Realistically an early 2027 project!

Thanks to our family and friends for the messages (audio and written) along the way and most of all to the wonderful fellow Via Alpina and Switzerland crossing hikers we met in person and shared parts of the journey with…

Olivier, Christian, Sabine, Laurent, Laurence, Simon, Ella, Cam, Steph, Mike, Cian, and Christoph – thanks so much for the laughs, the conversations, the sharing of challenges – you are all amazing and kind people we feel lucky to have met.