A waymark shows the path ahead
Walking hut to hut since 2014. A waymark is a marker left where a path fades on rock or scree, often a small pile of stones, so the next walker can find the line. We do the same for a route, day by day and in numbers, before you book a place on it.
Julian Alps Traverse
7 days · 86.6 km · 6,397 m up · Grade 4 of 5
- 018.8 km515 m up
- 0212.5 km933 m up
- 0315.7 km1,322 m up
- 0413.9 km1,072 m up
- 0512.5 km699 m up
- 064.9 km787 m up
- 0718.3 km1,069 m up
Kendal office, guides in the valleys
Waymark is a small firm that leads guided hut-to-hut walks in the Alps. The office is in Kendal, on the edge of the Lake District, and it takes the enquiries and books every hut. Four of our guides live in the valleys they lead through, in Italy, Austria and Slovenia.
Ruth Calder founded Waymark in 2014 after eight seasons of guiding. Every trip comes with printed route notes, carrying the elevation profile and the numbers for each day. The notes reach you before departure, with the train and bus timetable to your start village.
- 6routes of three to seven days
- 3regions, each with two routes
- 5guides, including the founder
- 23departures in the 2027 season
How we lead a group in the mountains
Group size
Groups of 4 to 10, with a second guide from seven walkers. Most walkers book alone or as a pair and join a group. On a narrow path, everyone stays close enough to hear the guide in front.
Pace
Your guide walks in front and sets a pace the slowest walker can hold all day, with stops on the long climbs. We meet at 9am on the first day and walk into the afternoon of the last, finishing around 3pm.
Huts
Your nights are in huts and guesthouses, on half board: dinner, a bed in a shared dormitory and breakfast. We book every night before the season starts. You carry your own rucksack from hut to hut.
Weather
Every route has a bad-weather line. Your guide decides on the morning, and the price stays the same. That line runs lower than the main route. It is planned before the season and ends where the main line ends that day.
The guides who walk in front
Four of the five guides are International Mountain Leaders. Matteo Dallago, who leads the cabled High Dolomites Hut Route, is an IFMGA mountain guide. Ruth Calder walks every departure of the Julian Alps Traverse herself.
Matteo Dallago
IFMGA mountain guide
He grew up in the hut his parents kept.
Chiara Pescosta
International Mountain Leader
She carries a hand lens and stops below the Grava Pass to show the group the gentians on the scree.
Lena Gruber
International Mountain Leader
She ran the kitchen of a 60-bed hut for four summers, so she knows when dinner is served and why.
Žiga Kralj
International Mountain Leader
He spent eight winters in the mountain rescue service of his valley.
Ruth Calder
International Mountain Leader
She drew the first route notes by hand on her kitchen table in Kendal, and she still writes every set.
Owen Pryce runs the office
Owen Pryce reads every enquiry and calls you to talk through the route. He walked all six routes himself before he took a booking. He also keeps the chart of beds in every hut for the season. When you ask whether a date has room, he is the one who checks.