With bandits, molten lava and wild animals posing a threat, blisters are the least of your worries on the world’s most dangerous hikes
From trekking across the treacherous, windswept mountains of South Georgia to picking your way along the rickety walkways of Mount Hua Shan in China, these hikes are not for the fainthearted.
10 of the world’s most dangerous hikes
Dizzying heights may be the least of your worries on the world’s most dangerous hikes. Instead, you have to plan for extreme weather, erupting volcanoes and ferocious wildlife on these hair-raising hikes.
Abuna Yemata Guh, Ethiopia
Biggest danger: Narrow ledges, deep chasms and hiking in bare feet
This rock-hewn church in the Gheralta region of Ethiopia is carved into the side of a vertical spire of rock with 200m (650ft) drops on all sides. To reach it, hikers must scale a sheer wall of rock and inch along a precipitous ledge, all in bare feet as footwear is not allowed in Ethiopia’s holy places. In fact, Abuna Yemata Guh is said to be the world’s least accessible place of worship.
The first part of the hike is relatively gentle: steep but perfectly doable. However, soon enough, hikers encounter a sheer section where ropes are required. It’s here that climbers must remove their shoes. Finally, a precariously narrow ledge which dips into a hole in the cliff face must be overcome before entering the world’s least accessible church with triumph.
Further reading: Vertical Ethiopia, Climbing Toward Possibility in the Horn of Africa
Shackleton’s Route, South Georgia Island, South Atlantic/Antarctica
Biggest danger: Exposure, crevasses and a very remote location
On 20th May 1916, Sir Ernest Shackleton and two others stumbled into the whaling station on South Georgia Island, starving, exhausted and suffering from extreme exposure. They had just made the first ever crossing of South Georgia Island. Shackleton and his team’s classic story of survival has come to symbolise this period of heroic Antarctic exploration.
Today, guided expeditions retrace one of the world’s most dangerous hikes traversing this treacherous, windswept and mountainous remote island. The trek comes in the form of a “self-contained” expedition where clients must carry their own clothing, food, fuel and tents. No sherpas here!
Further reading: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible…
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