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GR20 – Some time ago I went down a rabbit hole researching "Europe's toughest trail" and couldn't stop
I've never done the GR20 but I've been mildly obsessed with it for weeks. Started with a YouTube video, ended up reading trip reports until 2am.
A few things that genuinely surprised me:
**The history is wilder than I expected.** The route was basically sketched out by one guy in the 1950s from an armchair, then another guy turned it into a real trail in the 60s by just... walking it through the mountains with paint. The villages around it were depopulating. The trail essentially saved them economically.
**The Cirque de la Solitude used to exist.** A narrow chasm with chains and metal rungs, considered the trail's most iconic — and most dangerous — section. In 2015 a rockslide killed 7 hikers there. The official route was rerouted afterward. I had no idea. Most of the content online still romanticises it as if it's still accessible.
**The FKT numbers are absurd.** 180 km, \~28,000m of elevation. Kilian Jornet ran it in under 33 hours in 2009. It's been pushed down to around 30h since. Most people take 10–16 days. Let that gap sink in.
**June is the sweet spot** apparently — long days, manageable heat, snow mostly cleared from the northern cols. But "mostly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
I wrote up the history and the physical reality of the trail if anyone wants more context: gettrail.quest/blog/gr20 https://gettrail.quest/blog/gr20
Has anyone here actually done it? Curious how the reality matched the reputation.
#activity #hiking
I've never done the GR20 but I've been mildly obsessed with it for weeks. Started with a YouTube video, ended up reading trip reports until 2am.
A few things that genuinely surprised me:
**The history is wilder than I expected.** The route was basically sketched out by one guy in the 1950s from an armchair, then another guy turned it into a real trail in the 60s by just... walking it through the mountains with paint. The villages around it were depopulating. The trail essentially saved them economically.
**The Cirque de la Solitude used to exist.** A narrow chasm with chains and metal rungs, considered the trail's most iconic — and most dangerous — section. In 2015 a rockslide killed 7 hikers there. The official route was rerouted afterward. I had no idea. Most of the content online still romanticises it as if it's still accessible.
**The FKT numbers are absurd.** 180 km, \~28,000m of elevation. Kilian Jornet ran it in under 33 hours in 2009. It's been pushed down to around 30h since. Most people take 10–16 days. Let that gap sink in.
**June is the sweet spot** apparently — long days, manageable heat, snow mostly cleared from the northern cols. But "mostly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence.
I wrote up the history and the physical reality of the trail if anyone wants more context: gettrail.quest/blog/gr20 https://gettrail.quest/blog/gr20
Has anyone here actually done it? Curious how the reality matched the reputation.
#activity #hiking
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MSR elixer 1 innertent
Good day,
I have the MSR Elixir 1. My inner tent is damaged, so I need to buy a new one. I was wondering whether I could use a non-MSR inner tent instead, since the original ones are quite expensive.
Does anyone have experience with this? Or any advice on which inner tent might be compatible?
Thank you.
#activity #hiking #camping
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Good day,
I have the MSR Elixir 1. My inner tent is damaged, so I need to buy a new one. I was wondering whether I could use a non-MSR inner tent instead, since the original ones are quite expensive.
Does anyone have experience with this? Or any advice on which inner tent might be compatible?
Thank you.
#activity #hiking #camping
source
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Andorra early october
My husband and I will be in Andorra early october and are looking for some possible hikes. Know it’s quite late in the year in terms of weather but hoping there is some possibilities. We can’t change dates - as my husband is running in Spain we thought we’d extend our trip a bit to visit Andorra.
We are used to hiking! Anything from 10-30km is great - assuming multi day hikes are a bit limited in October. We won’t have a car
Thanks in advance
#hiking #activity
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My husband and I will be in Andorra early october and are looking for some possible hikes. Know it’s quite late in the year in terms of weather but hoping there is some possibilities. We can’t change dates - as my husband is running in Spain we thought we’d extend our trip a bit to visit Andorra.
We are used to hiking! Anything from 10-30km is great - assuming multi day hikes are a bit limited in October. We won’t have a car
Thanks in advance
#hiking #activity
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What are the logistics of planning a backcountry camping trip?
Hi all, I've never backcountry camped before and I wanted to go to Monongahela National Forest for my first time camping overnight. I want to find a trail that I can hike and just find a spot out there in the wild to set up a tent and sleep for the night, rather than a campsite where a bunch of other people are also camping. I've been trying to use the website to find anything related to that but I think it just keeps sending me to established campsites so is it more of just something I have to go and look for myself? How exactly does backcountry camping work in terms of making sure I'm camping in a place I CAN camp, and are there permits that I would need? Any advice would be helpful, again this would be my first time so I'm not sure what else I should look into!
#hiking #camping #activity
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Hi all, I've never backcountry camped before and I wanted to go to Monongahela National Forest for my first time camping overnight. I want to find a trail that I can hike and just find a spot out there in the wild to set up a tent and sleep for the night, rather than a campsite where a bunch of other people are also camping. I've been trying to use the website to find anything related to that but I think it just keeps sending me to established campsites so is it more of just something I have to go and look for myself? How exactly does backcountry camping work in terms of making sure I'm camping in a place I CAN camp, and are there permits that I would need? Any advice would be helpful, again this would be my first time so I'm not sure what else I should look into!
#hiking #camping #activity
source
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