Episode two of the Out and Back podcast drops today featuring thru-hiking legend the The Real Hiking Viking. In this episode, meet free-spirited and fun-focused Thomas Gathman, who picked up the Viking trail name due to his Norse-like beard and his warrior status as a former Marine Scout Sniper. Viking served two combat tours in Iraq before coming home, selling all his possessions in 2013, and hiking more than 20,000 miles on America’s longest trails. Tune in to hear Viking’s story about how he turned from sniper to pro hiker and never looked back.
Tag:
hiking
-
Gaia Topo just got even better. Discover the best trails and routes and easily find public lands anywhere in the US with two new updates on our flagship map. Now you can quickly see nearby routes to campsites, trailheads and more on gaiagps.com, plus view public land ownership easily with new color coding. Don’t forget to take Gaia Topo with you by downloading areas in seconds and entire states in minutes.
-
Last July, Andrew Baldwin set out southbound on the 2,190-mile Appalachian Trail thru-hike. His previous year, filled with untethered travel throughout the US, left Baldwin searching for a purpose. Determined to find clarity paired with unbridled challenge, he joined just three percent of hikers who choose to hike north to south on the AT. Along the way, he found his trail family, wrangled the voice inside his head, and emerged with a new outlook on his life.
Read more to meet the host of the new Out and Back podcast.
-
Get a snapshot of the amenities in any recreation area with new symbol groups on Gaia Topo. Now you can view hotspots, including campsites, viewpoints, trailheads, and more in symbol…
-
How Six Professional Mountain Athletes are Navigating the COVID-19 Pandemic
by Abby Leveneby Abby LeveneProfessional mountain athletes and guides are facing canceled races, maybe even entire race seasons, guiding trips, and speaking tours. Some of these outdoor experts are tapping into their resiliency in…
-
Winter hiking offers the ability to test out new skills, push your physical limits, and experience a landscape transformed by either snow or an open tree canopy. Plus, in many…
-
Strong navigation skills are crucial to any successful backcountry outing. A watertight navigation strategy is at the core of backcountry safety—if you know where you are, you can find your…
Knowing how to read a topographic map is the foundation to any backcountry adventure. Through the use of contour lines, topo maps bring a 3-dimensional element to a 2-dimensional paper map, allowing you to visualize the rise and fall of the land and “see” the depths of canyons, the location of boggy meadows, and the height and shape of mountain
America’s national parks make excellent winter destinations, offering the possibility of more solitude, dramatic snow-dusted scenery, and cooler, more comfortable temperatures in areas with extreme summer climates, like the Everglades…
Find the areas with the most snow coverage or avoid snow altogether with new Snow Depth map overlays. Backcountry skiers and riders can scout for snow-covered lines through couloirs, ridge-lines…