![\"viewpoint\"](\"\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/viewpoint.jpg\")
I guess it’s not uncommon for those of us who live on this side of the Pond to occasionally borrow words from our transatlantic cousins, a trend that appears to have grown considerably since the Second World War when many American military troops were stationed in the UK.<\/p>\n
And more recently we adopted the word \u2018backpacking\u2019 from the US, a term that describes the activity of walking for a period of time, usually several days or weeks or even months, whilst carrying everything you need to survive carried in a pack on your back.<\/p>\n
I seem to recall the word first began to appear in the UK in the late sixties and particularly in the early seventies when the term was embraced by a bunch of Southern England walkers-cum-campers as the name of their new club. The Backpackers Club was born in 1972.<\/p>\n
Within a very short space of time the word was being used widely in the outdoor equipment trade and I recall thinking that backpacking had well and truly arrived when Graham Tiso hoisted a new sign above his shop in Leith \u2013 Graham Tiso, Mountaineering and Backpacking Equipment. It couldn\u2019t have had a better endorsement.<\/p>\n
Sadly the word has been hijacked by the gap-year crowd who \u2018backpack\u2019 to exotic locations like Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia rather than Fort William, Keswick of Llanberis, and despite the populist use of the word by the international media I\u2019m delighted the Backpackers Club is still going strong and indeed, I\u2019m still President of it after some 20 years or so. My good buddy Chris Townsend is Vice-President.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/DSCF8517.jpg\")
<\/a>Backpacking across Iceland’s landscapes<\/p><\/div>\n
There is another Americanism I would personally like to see in wider use when referring to that most fundamental of human motion that readers of this website enjoy. I\u2019ve never been comfortable, and I haven\u2019t the slightest notion why, in telling people I\u2019m going \u2018walking\u2019 at the weekend.<\/p>\n
For me a \u2018walking holiday\u2019, for some obscure reason, conjures up images of guys with a pipe and corduroy breeches held up by thick braces, wandering along a country road with their \u2018bergan\u2019 filled with dainty cucumber sandwiches and a flask of hot, sweet tea.<\/p>\n
\u2018Walking\u2019 is simply our basic mode of travel but the word \u2018hiking\u2019 appears to have more of a recreational feel to it. You don\u2019t \u2018hike\u2019 down to the local shop to buy the morning paper. You walk down, or amble down, or here is Scotland you might take a wee \u2018dander doon\u2019 to the newsagent. Hiking has more of a point to it, it feels like a word that describes a rough, even tough, journey and conjures up images of sweat and toil.<\/p>\n
For the past number of years I\u2019ve felt much more comfortable telling those who ask that I\u2019m going hiking at the weekend. I\u2019m aware that not everyone is comfortable with the word, and it certainly has resonances of walking down the side of the route trying to thumb a lift from passing motorists, but for me it has a beefier, more earthy feel to it than walking or, God forbid, rambling.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Hiking? Scotland’s hills<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019ve never liked that term. Indeed when I became depute editor of Climber & Rambler magazine just over 30 years ago the editor, the late Walt Unsworth, was determined to drop the latter element in the title. We were producing what was fundamentally a climbing and mountaineering magazine, and The Great Outdoors had just been launched (40 years ago exactly) to cater for the ramblers and the err, walkers.<\/p>\n
Uncle Walt always felt Climber & Rambler sounded as though it should have been a rose-growers magazine!<\/p>\n
So we dropped the word Rambler but that didn\u2019t please everyone, particularly our advertising department. The ads people began a long campaign to add another word to the title, to widen the selling scope from just climbing, and so Climber & Hillwalker was born, another title that many of us felt uncomfortable with. It was clumsy and when the company eventually sold the magazine to another publisher the Hillwalker element was immediately dumped.<\/p>\n
I have a suspicion that Climber & Hiker might have worked better\u2026<\/p>\n
Of course you might argue that the Ramblers Association, as it was, was very successful but I can tell you there have been frequent moves by members to change the name \u2013 but what too? The Walkers Association just doesn\u2019t sound right so eventually an expensive marketing company was given the task of coming up with a new and modern name. Their solution was, believe it or not, The Ramblers.<\/p>\n
I wish I made my money as easily as that.<\/p>\n
However, there was a point to it. For much of its existence the Ramblers Association was seen as a very successful campaigning organisation that fought for, amongst other things, rights of way and better access to the countryside.<\/p>\n
As a campaigning group the Ramblers struck fear into the hearts of many politicians and were regarded at the highest levels of political power as a formidable opponent. From a marketing point of view, the words, The Ramblers, were too good to lose, however embarrassed many of their members may have been (particularly the younger members) at describing themselves as \u2018a rambler.\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/a>Winter<\/p><\/div>\n
I\u2019m happy to describe myself as a hiker and backpacker, or even a hillwalker. When I\u2019m in the North of England I\u2019m relatively happy to be regarded as a fellwalker, although that term appears nowadays to be particularly resonant of auld Wainwright, but for me the word \u2018hiking\u2019 defines the collective activities that I enjoy \u2013 backpacking, hillwalking, trekking, coastal walking or simply going to the woods for a stroll.<\/p>\n
Wikipedia sums it up pretty well: \u201cHiking is a preferred term, in Canada and the United States, for a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails (footpaths) in the countryside, while the word walking is used for shorter, particularly urban walks.\u201d Mmm, couldn\u2019t have put it better myself so I\u2019m off hiking this weekend. Maybe see you on the trail\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I guess it’s not uncommon for those of us who live on this side of the Pond to occasionally borrow words from our transatlantic cousins, a trend that appears to have grown considerably since the Second World War when many American military troops were stationed in the UK. And more recently we adopted the word \u2018backpacking\u2019 from the US, a term that describes the activity of walking for a period of time, usually several days or weeks or even months, whilst carrying everything you need to survive carried in a pack on your back. I seem to recall the word…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18079"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18087,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18079\/revisions\/18087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Read more ›<\/div>\n