Christine Thürmer

Christine Thürmer (born 1967 in Forchheim ) is a German long-distance hiker and non-fiction author . According to her own statements, she has covered more than 58,000 kilometers on foot and is therefore the "most hiked" woman in the world. In the Thruhiker scene she is known as German Tourist .

Life

Professional background

Christine Thürmer grew up in Forchheim and studied social and business communication at the Berlin University of the Arts . After completing her studies, she worked for a management consultancy . After losing her job and a friend died, in 2007 she said that she would change her life and devote herself exclusively to long-distance hiking, biking and paddling. Today she lives from her savings and what she earns from lectures and books.

Christine Thürmer got to know thruhiking in Yosemite National Park in the USA, that is, walking through a long-distance hiking trail in one continuous tour. Thürmer pursues the concept of ultra-light hiking with the least possible luggage. According to her own statements, her professional skills as a manager benefited her when planning and organizing her trips: “Cost optimization, logistics concepts, Excel tables. In the end, all of this helped me a lot, because coping with a long haul depends to a large extent on the logistics and planning. The fitness is traveling on its own ... I changed, not dropped out . I've always enjoyed my job. I switched because I wanted to know what else there is in life. "

In her books, which were on the Spiegel bestseller list , she gives impressions and experiences of her numerous trips as well as tips for thruhics. In 2017 Thürmer won the ITB Book Awards for her book Laufen. Eat. Sleep. excellent, in which she described her hikes on the three great North American long-distance hiking trails and that, among other things. has also been translated into Russian and Korean. At the El Mundo Festival 2019 she was awarded the first prize of the Discovery Days 2019 for the best lecture and the audience award.

Christine Thürmer claims to be the “most hiked woman in the world” with more than 54,000 kilometers covered, but has also cycled more than 30,000 kilometers and paddled 6,500 kilometers . When she is not on the road, she lives in Berlin .

Entry as a long-distance hiker

In April 2004 Christine Thürmer walked the Pacific Crest Trail in the USA -  4,277 kilometers from Mexico to Canada - and thus found a start as a Thruhiker. It took her 5 months and a day to cover this distance. In June 2007, she hiked the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) south. After this trail, which she finished in November 2007, Thürmer returned to Germany to start a full-time hiking career, recorded by regular blog reports. From then on she was known in the international hiker scene under the name German Tourist .

Thürmer dissolved her apartment and stored her property in a storage room in order to start her first trip around the world in spring 2008 with a bike tour on the Eurovelo 6 through Europe. In June 2008, she flew to the United States to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT) south. Christine Thürmer received the Triple Crown of Hiking from the US Association for Long Distance Hiking in November 2008 after completing the Appalachian Trail . Less than a hundred people had done this feat of hiking all three major US trails by then.

Travel (selection)

In December 2008 she traveled to Australia to hike the Bibbulmun Track . There she met a British cyclist with whom she cycled for seven months from January to September 2009 through Australia, New Zealand , Japan and South Korea . The second world tour in January 2010 began with a hike along the entire Florida Trail, followed by the Arizona Trail in spring 2010. She traveled to the southwest of the USA by bike on a six-month visa. In July 2010, she flew on to Australia to cycle the Stuart Highway and hike various long-distance trails such as the Larapinta Trail , Great South West Walk, Heysen Trail , Hume and Hovell Track, and Bibbulmun Track for the second time. On the return trip, Thürmer spent the first quarter of 2011 backpacking in Singapore , Malaysia and Brunei . In the summer of 2011, she started paddling more intensely by paddling through the Yukon . After returning to Germany, she traveled through Great Britain from John o 'Groats to Land's End in autumn 2011 . On her travels, she mostly sleeps in a tent .

Awards

• 2008: US Association of Long Distance Hiking Triple Crown of Hiking
• 2017: ITB Book Awards 2017 for Laufen. Eat. Sleep.
• 2019: First prize of the Discovery Days for the best lecture

Hikes and tours (selection)

on foot

• Pacific Crest Trail : 4,260 km
• Continental Divide Trail : 5,000 km
• Appalachian Trail : 3,340 km
• Bibbulmun Track (2 ×): 2,000 km
• Florida Trail: 1,770 km
• Western European Traverse: 4,500 km
• Országos Kéktúra ( Hungary ): 1 100 km
• Israel National Trail : 300 km
• E4 through Crete : 550 km
• Via Transilvanica (Romania): 1400 km

by bike

• Eurovelo 6: 2,500 km
• Scandinavia: 5 500 km
• Baltic States / Finland: 7,900 km

by boat

• Yukon River: 2,200 km
• Mississippi: 3,000 km
• Across Sweden: 900 km

factories

• To run. Eat. Sleep. - One woman, three trails, and 12,700 kilometers of wilderness . Malik , Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-89029-471-1 (also as an e-book with ISBN 978-3-492-97383-0 and as an audio book with ISBN 978-3-451-35175-4 , spoken by Barbara Stoll).
• Hike. Cycle. Paddle. - 12,000 kilometers of adventure in Europe . Malik, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-89029-484-1 (also as an e-book with ISBN 978-3-492-99044-8 ).
• Hike long distances - experiences and tips from 45,000 kilometers on foot . Malik, Munich 2020, ISBN 978-3-89029-525-1 (also as an e-book with ISBN 978-3-492-99536-8 and as an audio book, spoken by Katrin von Chamier).

Web links

• Literature by and about Christine Thürmer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Homepage of Christine Thürmer
• Own Facebook page with regular reports from their travels
• Author portrait at Piper

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christine Thürmer long-distance hiker. In: berlintravelfestival.com. I Love Travel GmbH, accessed October 5, 2021 . 
2. ^ Author profile Christine Thürmer. In: diebuchagenten.de. Retrieved October 31, 2021 . 
3. ↑ Ulrike Timm: The hiking extremist. In: deutschlandfunkkultur.de. Deutschlandradio, May 17, 2021, accessed on October 5, 2021 . 
4. ↑ Christoph Dowe: When I started walking, I was still a vegetarian. In: zeit.de. Contact Verlag Zeit Online GmbH, July 16, 2016, accessed on October 5, 2021 . 
5. ↑ Everything you need to know about long-distance hiking. In: piper.de. Piper Verlag GmbH, accessed on October 13, 2021 . 
6. ↑ Malik author Christine Thürmer and Piper author Thomas Blubacher selected for ITB Book Awards 2017. In: piper.de. January 23, 2017, accessed October 5, 2021 . 
7. ↑ Christine Thürmer. In: explora.ch. Explora Events AG, accessed October 13, 2021 . 
8. ↑ Marius Buhl: "Omit underpants and toilet paper". Retrieved September 21, 2021 . 
9. ↑ Lea Hajner: Christine Thürmer: "45,000 km on foot are not enough". Retrieved September 21, 2021 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Christine Thürmer: Trips. In: /christine-on-big-trip.blogspot.com. Retrieved October 6, 2021 . 
11. ↑ Maria Menzel: This woman covered 33,000 kilometers on foot. In: welt.de. Axel Springer SE, April 1, 2016, accessed on October 6, 2021 . 
12. ↑ Antje Blinda: blood, sweat, tears. And pure happiness. In: spiegel.de. Der Spiegel GmbH & Co. KG, April 9, 2016, accessed on October 6, 2021 .