The Big Trip
Classic Alps
THE THIN AIR ABOVE CLOUD LEVEL. THE VIEWS OVER SNOW-TIPPED MOUNTAINS. THE CLIMBS OVER BOULDER AND SCREE, AND THE FIRST GASP OF SHOCK JUMPING INTO A FREEZING LAKE. THE ALPS LE AVE YO U BREATHLESS IN EVERY WAY IMAGINABLE.
WORDS: KERRY WALKER
Mother Nature had one of her wildest moments shaping the Alps, which thrust up millions of years ago when the African and Eurasian tectonic plates collided. These peaks rip across Central Europe for 700 miles in a whirl of limestone turrets, glacier-frosted summits, dense forests and misty waterfalls. As they do, they run through eight countries —Monaco, France, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany and Slovenia —and around mighty rivers like the Rhine and Po.
These mountains’ rugged terrain and ever-changing weather once struck fear into those who had to cross them. Hannibal led his Carthaginian army and 37 elephants across rocky, icy heights to invade Italy in 218 BCE. Countless blizzard-battling troops, blister-footed pilgrims, and farmers and traders tugging mules and sleighs followed.
Then, the nature-loving Romantics triggered a fascination with the region in the late 18th and 19th centuries; it had that blend of savage wilderness and stormy weather they so prized. Poets, writers, painters and composers flowed in, from Goethe and Shelley to Wordsworth and Strauss.