Ryder Walker Alpine Adventures General Information and Maps

pecializing in treks and inn-to-inn hiking adventures throughout the Alps

GENERAL INFORMATION -THE EUROPEAN ALPS

The crescent shaped European Alps arc over 600 miles from the Mediterranean Sea in the south of France through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. Formed during the Eocene period when the African and European tectonic plates collided, the Alps were dramatically carved by glaciers during the Quaternary period and today represent a text book of alpine geology. U-shaped valleys, expansive glaciers, seracs, snowfields, hanging valleys, plummeting waterfalls, horn-shaped peaks, knife-edged aretes and enormous cirques typify these mountains, which include over twenty unique ranges from the Maritimes to the Julians.
Culturally, the Alps have always represented a barrier, but numerous high passes have allowed people to herd, trade, fight and immigrate from time immemorial. Despite the challenges of the terrain, certain cultural groups, including the Ligurians, Celts, Walsers, Rhaetians and Romans permeated the mountains to leave recurring ethnographic pockets throughout the alpine lands.

These people had an influence on the land as profound as the underlying geologic strata. As population pressure in Europe drove settlers higher and higher into the alpine valleys, they learned that in order to gather enough fodder to winter their livestock and produce adequate amounts of cheese, it was necessary to clear high pastures and move into temporary summer lodgings so their animals could graze in the mountains all summer and return to the valley below to exist on fodder from the valley pastures through the winter. The high pastures cleared by grueling manual labor are called alps, and the traditional way of life associated with the annual inalpage and the making of cheese has formed not only the culture but the scenery we so much enjoy. Many of the high meadows of the Alps date back beyond the Common Era by hundreds of years.

Tourism has completed the work of forming the scenery and culture of the modern Alps, and you can not travel there without recognizing its impact. Cable cars, funiculars, chairlifts and cog railways run up the sides of mountains to allow access to the high terrain for hikers, skiers and mountaineers. Extensive systems of hiking trails have taken advantage of the routes through the mountain passes used by ancient traders, herders and pilgrims, and of the local trails connecting alps, chapels and mountain hamlets. Because the Alps are so populous and heavily used in comparison to the American mountain wildernesses, a system of alpine club huts has grown to supplant camping as the only ethical approach to sleeping high in the mountains, and that too has contributed to the ease of accessing the high alpine environment. Below, the complexion of the villages and their way of life has also changed to support the love of the Alps that has become an enduring passion for so many, and tourism instead of cheese making has become the principal industry of those once small herding and farming communities.