20 years of hiking with Alpine Exploratory

Alpine Exploratory exists as a way to explore selected areas of the mountains - primarily the European Alps - and to translate this exploration into fabulous holidays.

Like me (Simon writing) Alpine Exploratory began its life in London, UK. This was in July 2005, when I incorporated Alpine Exploratory Limited in England and Wales. The idea for Alpine Exploratory, really for the company that would be Alpine Exploratory, came to me slowly over the preceding 5 months, this being a time I had spent snowshoeing and walking my way around the Alps, and mountain biking around the UK.

I left, and I took those 5 months off, and I refined my ideas up and down the footpaths of Europe's mountains...

... and eventually Alpine Exploratory was born.

We look back over our 20 years. We have been writing about each year, since many years ago.

History - our 20-year history, year by year

Alpine Exploratory has always sought to be a lovely place to work. We have always taken pride in our work environment and in how long people tend to stay. They really do! Our first employee was Chrissie Hickling who joined us in 2010 - in the years 2005-2010, Simon worked by himself, increasingly frantically, Ailsa helping with ideas.

Quite simply, here we list Alpine Exploratory's people in the order that they joined. A red border shows a current team member.

Simon Stevens
2005-present

Ailsa Gibson
2005-2015

Chrissie Hickling
2010-2017

Lucy Harvey
2012-present

Ollie Boyd
2015-2020

Steph Ward
2018-present

Suze Connolly
2016-2016

Rachel Law
2017-2020

Hannah Wright
2018-2021

Hannah G
2020-2021

Nicky Mount
2020-2026

Dan Needham
2022-2023

Rob Rannard
2022-present

Evie Butler
2023-2026

Ben Hughes
2024-present

Amy Gallehawk
2024-2026

Ione Gildroy
2025-present

Caoimhe McKearney
2025-2026

Eve Fawcett
2026-present

Skylar Brown
2026-present

Katy Thomson
2026-present

Of course, we are proud of the destinations to which our fabulous people have gone on. Naming no names, these include forestry in Scotland, law in London, the wider travel industry, map-making, health policy, manufacturing, and doctoring!

People - our team!

In our first year, 2005, we offered the Tour du Mont Blanc and the Julian Alps Hut-to-Hut, both of which trips are still running strongly. In the case of the TMB, over time we have added variants to the main route, and in the case of the Julian Alps, our exact route has changed over time.

As well as these two trips, in 2005 we offered a trip that we called the Swiss Valais that was a week-long exploration of the Val d'Herens that is crossed by the Walker's Haute Route - clients taking daywalks in this very Alpine area. We also, at that time, offered our first, only, and short-lived, trip to the Costa Blanca in Spain, essentially to the mountainous area (the Sierra Aitana) inland of Benidorm and close to Alicante. A super area. We dropped the Sierra Aitana and focused on the Alps.

In 2007 I was walking with a friend in the Lake District, England, and he said to me that Alpine Exploratory should offer UK holidays in case, one dark day, everything went wrong with the international flights to which we have all grown so accustomed. This idea appealead to me and I quickly walked, or re-walked, trips like the West Highland Way, Scotland, and various circuits in the Lake District, England that over the years have resulted in our popular Lake District Tour.

A major development came later, in 2018, when for the first time Alpine Exploratory offered a trip outside the Alps or the UK. Norway! Quite simply, we were captivated by the landscape of Norway and we wondered whether a hut-to-hut trip could work there. We looked in detail and for a long time at the Jotunheimen national park, the highest and mightiest of the Norwegian national parks. After a while and after a trip or two, a week-long loop became evident to us, and Alpine Exploratory is lucky that the huts work wonderfully, giving walkers bed and board for a super week of walking... and all reachable from Oslo, reasonably easily. Thus, the Alpine Exploratory formula was broadened out to Scandinavia as well as the Alps.

Later, really after Covid, we opened routes in Sweden (the Kungsleden) and Ireland (the Kerry Way). The heart of Alpine Exploratory will always be in the Alps, however, and we have masses more to explore here. We are particularly excited at the moment by our expanding base of Dolomites trips (Italy) including the AV1, the AV2: North, the AV9 and, new for 2025, our Dolomites Highlights.

Holidays - links to all our holidays on one page

For its first 5 years, the life of Alpine Exploratory was in Simon's home. At first this was in London, and then at Simon's parents' home in Yorkshire (North of England), then Wigan (also Northern England) and then in Settle, North Yorkshire.

Me: 'Best coffee shop in Settle'
Computer: 'The 3 best coffee shops in Seattle... (Did you mean Settle?)'

In Settle, Alpine Exploratory took on its first employee, and in fact its first and second employees: Chrissie and Lucy. It was 5 years later, in 2015, that we moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, and took on our fourth employee who was Ollie. We started out in Edinburgh with a lovely office high above Princes Street. It was hot and noisy during the Edinburgh Festival, which happens each August.

After 3 years on Princes Street we moved for reasons of space around the corner to George Street, where until our move in 2025 we had a delightful office with notably high ceilings. We loved that place.

Now in 2025, as 10 people in total, we have moved to Rose Street North Lane which is just off Rose Street in the heart of Edinburgh's New Town and right in between Princes Street and George Street. We are in an old building and up one flight of stairs, with - at last - plenty of space! We are a 5-minute walk from Edinburgh Waverley station, with trains to Milngavie for the start of the West Highland Way and with buses arriving from Edinburgh Airport every few minutes.

Contact us - get in touch!

A few years ago, Alpine Exploratory found itself branching out to explore, interpret, and hopefully explain the broader worlds of travel in which we find ourselves - the hotels, the rail routes and the various aspects that might be of interest to those in search of the mountainous routes.

Travel - our main page for these travel aspects

Someone with whom I was in contact recently, looking for someone else, put it beautifully. "It does sound very much as if she (and you all) are following your dreams, enjoying a rare bond with our beautiful planet." We hope that we are.

Please come and have a cup of tea with us!

Thank you.