Field journal · Shot on the trail
getinspired
2017 to 2024
Every frame: our own
One climb, stitched from every trip
No stock photos. No borrowed views. Every frame here was shot on the trail, early alarms, wet boots and all.
What follows is one long climb, stitched together from every journey we've made. Valley to summit and back into the light. Somewhere in here is the trail you'll book next.
Chapter I · The valley
It starts in the valley
Alt 400 to 1,100 m · Villages, meadows, last coffee
Stone towers, hay meadows and a church bell that tells you it's time to start walking.The valley
A yurt with the kettle on. The best coffee is the one you drink at altitude.Basecamp
Follow the paint. It knows the way better than your phone does.
Field note · Above the valley
Chapter II · The climb
Earn your altitude
Alt 1,100 to 2,000 m · Forest, sweat, first views
The first two hours are all forest and sweat. Then the trees give up and the views begin.Through the treeline
Red heather, one walker, and no sound except boots on the path.High moor
However often I walk on them, these hills hold astonishment for me.
Nan Shepherd, The Living Mountain
Along the way
The company you keep
Ibex, keeping distance
Pika on the watch
Local traffic
Chapter III · Above the treeline
Where the lakes live
Alt 2,000 to 2,600 m · Cirques, cols, colour
Lakes up here don't do subtle. That colour is straight off the glacier.Glacial lake
Wildflowers to the knee, limestone walls a kilometre wide.High meadows
Half the map was cloud. We walked in anyway.
Field note
Chapter IV · The high line
Stone, ice, silence
Alt 2,600 m and up · Snow in August
Fresh snow on the col. Every step gets its own soundtrack.First light
The summit cross appears out of the white like it was waiting.Summit day
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
William Blake
From the archive
Between the stages
Trail markers vary
Corsican granite
Standing stones at the pass
Winter came early
Taking five, somewhere high
Camp, end of day
Salt in the air one week, first snow in the larches the next. The archive doesn't sort neatly.Where the trail meets the sea
Some mornings the cloud sits on the cliffs and the lake goes black. You walk anyway.Cloud ceiling
Fresh snow on the boulder field in the middle of July. The cairns go quiet under it.High summer, high up
Your turn
The next photo is yours to take
Every journey on this page started as a browser tab and a rough plan. Pick a route, sort your kit, and go make your own field journal.