Episode 59 - Grand Alpine Arc Traverse with Ben Bardsley, Es Tresidder and Jon Morgan

I speak with Es Tresidder, Ben Bardsley and Jon Morgan about our week-a-year traverse of the Grand Alpine Arc, from the Mediterranean to Vienna.

Starting in 2016 at Menton near Nice, we have skied together on 9 iterations of this 'Speedy Tours' project where we utilise skimo racing kit for big mountain travel.

February 2026 was our final week of the traverse - restarting at our 2025 finish point at Seeweisen we finished out a further 6 days to finish at St Stephen's Cathedral at the heart of Vienna.

Reflecting on the project a few days later we discuss our tactics and tribulations. Some of the best memories from this long term project relate to working as a team towards a common goal - the moments of shared adversity or critical decision-making forging a bond between us.

The project took 61 days over 9 weeks across 10 years, with only one of these days as a full stop with no forward progress due to weather conditions. We skied on every day of the traverse except the very first day, and the very last. Total distance was 1788km, 104,000m ascent and 504hrs.

For more on Speedy Tours please see Episode 26 which was recorded with Ben Bardsley and Jon Morgan from a bivi hut on year 6 of the project. Also see my Speedy Tours videos on my Youtube channel (finlay wild).

David Hamilton's website which we found particularly useful as a planning resource is at highadventure.org.uk/introduction.html

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