Snowshoeing & Winter Walking Holidays

This is a brilliantly simple way to discover a winter wonderland, whatever level of challenge you’re after. Far less technical than skiing, you will master it in minutes and then the opportunity for winter exploration is endless. We provide the snowshoes, walking poles and, on the tougher treks, avalanche transceivers, the only specialist equipment you will need.

Snowshoeing
Walking through snow with the aid of snowshoes is an excellent way to travel through the winter landscape without needing the technical skills of a skier. Snowshoes work by distributing your weight over a larger area so that your feet don’t sink completely into the snow. Most modern snowshoes are made of light metal or plastic, the heel is left ‘free’ as on cross-country skis, as this makes walking easier. The only additional equipment used are ski or walking poles (to help with both rhythm and balance), these are provided on all of our trips. If you can walk, then you can snowshoe – it really is as simple as that!

Our Pyrenees Winter Walk and Snowshoe combines the two styles, but we will aim to use snowshoes as much as possible. Due to the long season, there may be weeks when snowshoes are used on an occasional basis.

Snowshoe grades
All our winter walking and snowshoe holidays are graded for difficulty and level of fitness required. We have easy trips for those who like a gentle walk through rolling terrain, and demanding trips, more akin to mountain trekking, that will take you high into the snowy peaks.

Winter Walking
Welcome back to Winter Walking! Former Waymark clients will have noticed that we dropped winter walking from last year's brochure. However, by popular demand, we have brought it back. Waymark old-timers will know and love the small Tyrolean village of Trins; also Asiago is a great new area of high plateau and undulating trails. Both these holidays have cross-country trips running alongside the Winter Walking weeks, so it's possible for a couple to book on either trip and share a room. 

Winter Walking is ideal for those who want an active week in magnificent winter scenery, but are not tempted by snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. The emphasis is on relatively gentle walking at a relaxed pace, with plenty of time to admire the scenery. We walk mostly on paths and forest tracks. Many are cleared or rolled after new snowfall. While there may be some walking in unprepared snow, winter walking weeks do not use snowshoes.

Find out more about the history of snowshoes

Comparing summer and winter walking grades
Our grading system works the same in the summer as the winter, as we take the terrain into account when calculating the grades. So if you are a B-grade summer walker, choose a B-grade winter trip. See our Walking Grades page for more information.

Our Winter Activities 2012/13 brochure is currently out of stock. However, you can still view the brochure online!