Europe is home to many famous hiking trails such as the Camino de Santiago or Tour du Mont Blanc. And yet, for all of these trails’ beauty, they pale in comparison to the length, difficulty, and scope of American thru-hikes. In the world of long-distance hiking, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and Appalachian Trail (AT) loom above all else.
One outdoor brand, however, is on a mission to change that narrative. Jack Wolfskin, a European hiking, camping, and apparel outfitter based in Germany, recently opened the Wolf Trail, a 2,170-mile trek through six countries. After years of planning, engineering, and testing, Europe now has a premier thru-hike that may just challenge American trails’ hegemony.
What Is the Trail?
The Wolf Trail begins in Poland and then crosses through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy before ending in Slovenia. There are seven stages that range in length from 230 to 356 miles each, and are designed to be part of a thru-hike or function as a standalone, multiweek hike.
Ideally, hikers will traverse the trail from north to south. The flat, easy sections in Poland and northern Germany at the beginning allow you to acclimate and get your “trail legs.” As the trail goes on, the elevation gains and descents become more intense. In the final legs through the Alps, hikers will regularly climb up to 10,000 feet.
The highlights on the trail are numerous. In the northern part, hikers will traverse the pristine sand dunes in Poland’s Słowiński National Park and walk along the Baltic Sea. Around 1,340 miles, or over half the trail, lies in Germany, so if this country is on your bucket list, you’ll get to fully explore it, walking from the vast flower-filled Lüneburg Heath to the evocative Black Forest. In Italy, the trail passes through several all-star destinations, including the Dolomites and the Julian Alps.
At a length of 2,170 miles, it’s just barely shorter than the AT (2,197 miles) and not much behind the PCT (2,650 miles). The Wolf Trail does surpass other long-distance hikes like New Zealand’s Te Araroa (1,900 miles) and France’s Hexatrek (1,885 miles).
How Does It Work?
The Wolf Trail has a few pros and cons compared to American thru-hikes. While the PCT requires permits — which have become nearly impossible to get — no permits are required for the Wolf Trail.
GearJunkie spoke with Jason Isenberg, Jack Wolfkin’s senior director of marketing, about the character and planning of the trail. Crafting a 2,000-plus-mile trail in Europe poses a few challenges. The trickiest is where hikers will sleep overnight.
Unlike the U.S., which allows free dispersed camping on Forest Service and designated wilderness land, camping in European countries is highly regulated. In many places, camping, unless it’s in a fee-based public campground, is banned.
To figure out where hikers could sleep, Jack Wolfskin commissioned experienced thru-hikers to go out and actually test the trail. Along their journey, they found public campsites, farms, refugios, huts, and other places to sleep. The brand will gather all that information into a public guide identifying stays along the trail.
The athletes also gave feedback on the quality of the trail, which Jack Wolfskin incorporated. In the Baltic region, for example, the thru-hikers thought there was too much road walking, so the brand changed the direction to keep it more on trails. Jack Wolfskin has also talked with local land managers and organizations to ensure public access to trails. In the future, the brand will add more designated signage.
Isenberg described the trail as a mix of wilderness alongside time in small villages and towns. “It’s not like the American wilderness, but you’re still a bit more removed. I’d say it’s a really balanced trail … You do have access to towns and hostels, but you also do have a lot of time where you are quite disconnected,” he explained.
And that time in civilization is a feature, not a bug. Hikers will get to explore remote towns that would never be on a tourist itinerary and experience their culture and community. Locals have welcomed the brand’s thru-hiking team with open arms, teaching hikers how to milk goats, sharing armfuls of fresh fruit and cheese, and giving them a barn to sleep in during pouring rain. From a practical perspective, the proximity to towns and villages also makes resupply easy. There are no mailing boxes to post offices 6 months ahead, like on the PCT.
Recent reports estimate that it costs $10,000 to complete the PCT, which is comparable to the Wolf Trail. Isenberg estimated that with food and lodging, its athletes spent €55 per day. If it takes 6 months to complete the Wolf Trail, that’s a total cost of around €10,000, or $11,670, not that much higher than the PCT. Considering that hikers will get actual lodging and not just ramen on the Wolf Trail, it’s also a pretty decent value.
The Why
The Wolf Trail is a mishmash and combination of many pre-existing trails, but it was still no small feat for Jack Wolfskin to set it up. It’s spent years working with local land managers, and the brand financially and logistically supported multiple thru-hiking athletes to make sure the trail was up to snuff.
Isenberg cited several reasons behind the inspiration for the trail. First, it’s part of the brand’s return to its roots. “For the last probably five or six years, it’s fair to say we’ve kind of lost our way. We’re currently going through a brand transformation at the moment, and part of that transformation includes a focus on thru-hiking and long-distance hiking,” he said.
Germany is the home and a primary market of Jack Wolfskin, so having a long-distance trail through it is another way to pay homage to its origins.
Thru-hiking in Europe isn’t nearly as popular, widespread, or culturally relevant as it is in the U.S. Jack Wolfskin hopes that establishing the Wolf Trail and making it a well-regarded and accessible trail will change that.
To that end, the brand has held multiple free multiday backpacking trips for the public on parts of the trail. Up to 60 people have traversed sections of the trail in the Baltic and Black Forest, with Jack Wolfskin providing food, camping, gear, logistical support, and more at no cost.
Unsurprisingly, given the lack of thru-hiking culture in Europe, ultralight is not a big gear category here, either, and Jack Wolfskin hopes to fill that niche in the market. For the last several months on trail, its thru-hiking athletes have tested ultralight packs and apparel.
The gear is on par with the weight savings and quality of gear from Hyperlite, without the high price tag. The gear will balance weight savings, durability, and affordability, and launch in the European market soon.
If you want to be a brand associated with long-distance hiking, you have to walk the walk — literally. There’s no better way to show that you really do care about thru-hiking culture than to build one of your own.
“It’s always worth it as a brand to spend money in the community,” Kim Felicia Klingebiel, senior manager of partnerships, told GearJunkie. “It needs to be real people, not AI or something.”
