My new backpacking guidebook, hot off the Amazon press

After six-plus years, several thousand kilometres on foot and countless hours chained to a computer keyboard, I’ve finally finished my latest (last?) guidebook, Best Backpacks in the Canadian Rockies.

Random camping, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, northern B.C.

The book provides all the information you need to plan for and undertake more than 50 gorgeous backpacking trips, mostly in the Canadian Rockies. They range from world-famous classics—like Jasper National Park’s Skyline Trail and Kootenay’s Rockwall—to those no one’s heard of, like southern Alberta’s Cabin Ridge or Banff’s Sawback Range Loop. They range from one-night trips, especially for families and novices, to week-long treks featuring long stretches of trailless travel. They range, geographically, from the Montana border to northern British Columbia, where the Rockies’  peters out.

Window Mountain Lake, High Rock Trail, southern Rockies

So why this book? After completing the summitting of all the 50-plus 11,000-foot peaks in the Canadian Rockies (and writing a history and guidebook of those 11,000ers), I found myself doing more and more backpacking and far less mountaineering. The good news is the backpacks took me through equally spectacular terrain, without the toil and exposure to loose rock and receding glaciers of going up big peaks.

Opal Range Traverse, Kananaskis Country

The other reasons for embracing backpacking are tied to two trends. One is the widespread availability of lightweight gear (tents, sleeping bags, packs… you name it), that sheds some 10 pounds off the load you’re carrying and puts a spring in your step, even on a week-long journey.

The other trend (partly tied to this lightweight revolution), is the booming popularity of long-distance treks like the American Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails and the Alberta-B.C. Great Divide Trail, which take months to organize and complete. Which got me thinking: Why not divert some of that long-distance focus to the multitude of gorgeous, much shorter trips in our mountain backyards? Especially the many trips that don’t require booking six months in advance; just show up and go.

Monkman Trail, northern B.C.

I’m probably most proud of the routes in this book that are off the beaten path— in places like the southern Rockies, including Alberta’s magnificent Kananaskis Country, and northern B.C.’s Monkman and Stone Mountain Provincial Parks.

Incredible line of hoodoos, Wokkpash Circuit, northern B.C.

Will a more detailed description of such places make them more crowded? Perhaps. But I like to think we need as many enthusiastic backpackers as we can to advocate for preserving these special landscapes.

And I believe some marvelous destinations will never attract much attention. Like an off-piste trip this summer, one valley removed from a popular highway, where we saw one other group in two days.

Panther Lake, Sawback Range Loop, Banff National Park

Best Backpacks in the Canadian Rockies is self-published and is available online through Amazon.ca (paperback) and Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo (all ebooks).