Where to look for wilderness?

You often ask how I find uninhabited areas, ask for links to portals that collect them. It's not that easy. If it were so banal, would these places still be wild? Exactly…

Whenever I look for an area for survival training, I look for a satellite photo of a selected mountain range on the screen, and I unfold a paper tourist map in front of me.

Then I narrow down the area to a section that meets three conditions:

1. No hiking trail network within a few kilometers.

An exceptionally lonely trail may cross my route, but I try not to follow its markings, forest paths are not a problem.

2. Varied and interestingly shaped terrain.

There is nothing more boring than struggling for hours through a uniform spruce forest. With the help of a satellite image, I chart a route based on interesting control points such as rocks, streams, exposed peaks, debris. Tourist maps do not include all the details.

3. The route is possible to pass.

An extremely important issue, and probably most often overlooked by novice explorers. As a result, the route, which they imagined as a pleasant walk, turns out to be over a dozen, and often several dozen meters high cliff. Therefore, before making my final selection, I have a look at the layout of contour lines (curved lines on the map, connecting points of the same height above sea level). To put it simply: The closer they are to each other, the steeper the terrain.

Of course, as far as possible, try to find information on blogs and in guidebooks. However, these are primarily focused on areas with a developed infrastructure and a rich tourist offer, and these are not places we are interested in when planning a survival and exploration trip.

Author: Kajetan Adventurer Wilczyński