By Lambe Lamis 
The conditions look to be applied interchangeably on lots of web-sites and travel publications. It will become even far more complicated when some providers market their boots as ‘trekking boots’ and then progress to point out that they can be applied on long hikes. And when is a stroll a trek and when is it a hike? It results in being even far more perplexing when the word trekking is utilized to refer to the ascent of a mountain, like Island Peak or Mera Peak in Nepal, both equally over 6000m and the two necessitating the use of technical climbing gear. How can they be identified as ‘trekking peaks?’
The phrase ‘hiking’ is usually made use of to refer to working day walks in natural environment, on plainly marked paths. It is carried out for leisure, recreation and the intent of exercising. A compact day pack is employed to have drinking water, mild excess weight fleece and treats. In destinations this sort of as Canada and New Zealand, the term is normally applied interchangeably with rambling, hill strolling or tramping.
‘Trekking’, by distinction is deemed to be more strenuous, handles higher distances across various terrains, and involves camping over night and carrying hefty packs with food items, sleeping baggage and gear. The phrase is really derived from the Afrikaans get the job done, trek, which will come from the Dutch term, trecken, referring to a prolonged and arduous journey more than extensive distances and generally, unchartered floor. It is typically related with the migration of individuals across land from just one location to another.
Does this mean then that if a day hike is tough, more than tough ground and through thick forest with no paths, that it is a trek? In Australia, they would phone this bushwhacking, and in other places they call it stamping. When you check out the Mountain Gorilla in Rwanda or Uganda, it is a a single day hike, but via dense forest, about incredibly uneven and complicated terrain. No speculate there is so substantially confusion.
But let us not close the confusion there. Any one who has tried to acquire out journey insurance to deal with their ‘trekking’ or ‘hiking’ trip, will have found out that these actions are often mentioned as ‘hazardous pursuits’. In simple fact, some insurance plan corporations even lump phrases like hiking and mountaineering jointly as by means of they can be applied interchangeably or are synonymous The there are other corporations who classify any hikes more than an altitude of 2000m as mountaineering. Sorry Scotland, but it implies that your well-known peak, Ben Nevis (1352m), is not a mountain following all but just a trekking peak?
Probably the greatest way to search at it is that a trek is typically completed around various times manufactured up of climbing, hill walking, tramping and bushwhacking.
At the conclude of the day, does it actually make a difference? It is all about semantics and interpretation. The most vital factor is that you enjoy it.