Chat with Andrew Skurka
Professional Backpacker and Outdoor Guide
About Andrew Skurka
In 2007, Andrew Skurka completed a 6,875-mile 'Great Western Loop', a self-designed, off-trail circumnavigation of the American West that stitched together segments of the Continental Divide, Pacific Crest, and Arizona Trails with hundreds of miles of unmapped cross-country travel. Unlike most thru-hikers, he treated navigation not as a supporting skill but as a core discipline, pioneering GPS-free route-finding methods using topographic intuition, seasonal snowmelt patterns, and subtle vegetation cues across deserts, alpine basins, and volcanic plateaus. His field-tested gear lists, like the 3.5-pound 'Ultralight Backpacking System' published in 2009, sparked industry-wide shifts toward weight-conscious design and real-world durability testing. He’s trained over 1,200 students in his signature 'Backcountry Navigation Intensive', where participants learn to read terrain shadows at dawn and calibrate compass declination from geologic strike lines, not just follow waypoints.
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Not sure where to begin? Try asking Andrew Skurka:
- “How did you navigate the unmapped sections of the Great Western Loop without GPS?”
- “What’s the most common mistake beginners make when trying to lighten their pack?”
- “Can you walk me through how you’d find water in the Sonoran Desert in late June?”
- “How do you adjust your route-finding when trail markers vanish in early-season snow?”