Chris Townsend is a writer and photographer passionate about mountains, wilderness and long-distance walking. Chris has hiked 1250 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats; the 2,600 mile Pacific Crest Trail; the 3100 mile Continental Divide Trail; the 800 mile Arizona Trail; 1300 miles south to north through Norway and Sweden; 1,000 miles south to north through the Yukon Territory; 1600 miles along the length of the Canadian Rockies, the first time this walk had been done; 1600 miles over all the Munros and Tops (another first); the 1200 mile Pacific Northwest Trail; the 700-mile Scottish Watershed; 500 miles from Yosemite Valley to Death Valley via Mount Whitney and Telegraph Peak; the GR5 through the Alps from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean; and most recently 400 miles on the Continental Divide Trail in the Colorado Rockies, a section where snow forced him to take a lower route in 1985. Chris writes regularly for British hiking magazine TGO (www.tgomagazine.co.uk) and has a blog at http://www.christownsendoutdoors.com. Chris has led ski tours in Norway, Spitsbergen, Greenland, Lapland, the Yukon, the High Sierra and other areas and led treks in Nepal. Chris is involved with several outdoor and conservation organisations and has served as the President of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. He is currently a Trustee of the John Muir Trust. Chris lives in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. Chris has written 25 books on the outdoors, including the award winning The Backpacker’s Handbook (now in its fourth edition); Scotland in Cicerone’s World Mountain Ranges series; Crossing Arizona, the story of a hike along the Arizona Trail; Walking the Yukon, the story of his walk through the Yukon Territory; The Munros and Tops, the story of his continuous round; A Year In The Life of The Cairngorms, a photographic study; Grizzly Bears and Razor Clams, the story of his Pacific Northwest Trail hike; Rattlesnakes and Bald Eagles, the story of his Pacific Crest Trail hike; Out There: A Voice from the Wild, a collection of essays on walking, conservation and nature; and, most recently, Along the Divide, the story of his Scottish Watershed walk.