Mike Wells

Mike Wells has been walking long-distance footpaths for 25 years, after a holiday in New Zealand gave him the long-distance walking bug. Within a few years, he had walked the major British trails, enjoying their range of terrain from straightforward downland tracks through to upland paths and challenging mountain routes. He then ventured into France – walking sections of the Grande Randonnée, including the GR5 through the Alps from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean – and Italy to explore the Dolomites Alta Via routes. Further afield, he has walked in Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Norway and even Chilean Patagonia.

While working for a travel company he made frequent trips to the Austrian Tyrol, getting away whenever he could to walk in the mountains. It was on one of these trips that he first encountered the ‘Adlerweg’, a project to create a long-distance path stretching across the Tyrol from St Johann to St Anton. Subsequent visits enabled him to walk the entire path a number of times.