Reach Your Peak
Forget the gym! Here’s why mountain adventures are all you need to maximise your physical and mental health.
Health and wellbeing experts uncover the many ways you can maximise your mountain experience!
“WALKING IN THE HILLS IS GREAT FOR OUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH. IT’S SOOTHING, CALMING, RESTORATIVE, AND MAKES YOU FEEL MORE PRESENT”
RHIANE FATINIKUN, BLACK GIRLS HIKE FOUNDER
If absence really does make the heart grow fonder, there are millions of us all over the world right now, sitting at home, staring lovingly at photographs of mountains, desperately counting down the days until we feel ‘that’ feeling again. You all know the one. Standing on a pointy mountain summit, valleys and lakes melting away beneath your feet; the only sound to snap you out of your daydream the cronking call of a gliding raven, the rustle of breeze through grass, or the steady rumble of a distant waterfall.
We all know that mountains are good for us, because they make us feel good about ourselves. But have you ever thought about them beyond that? Have you ever considered the profound impact they have on our physical health, or the healing powers they have on our over-worked minds?
This quote from John Muir, the godfather of US National Parks, was written way back in 1901: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilised people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity.” Add the non-stop attention demands of smartphone swiping, Zoom quizzes, 24-hour news alerts and COVID-19 lockdowns into our current 21st century overload, and the need for all of us to walk in wild places and connect with nature feels greater than it ever has been in human history.
That’s why we’ve turned this into Trail magazine’s first ever wellbeing issue – a celebration of why getting out there and climbing mountains is so great for us physically and mentally. Over the next 12 pages we speak to a selection of mountain professionals, personal trainers, sports physios, nutritionists, endurance athletes and nature wellbeing experts to explain how you can turn your hillwalking adventures into so much more. And why you could potentially add many more long, happy and active years to your life by doing it.
So, let’s get started…