Cambios

With the recently added extensions to the north (that extends the trail all the way to Santiago) and in the south (that stretches the trail all the way to edge of the Southern Icefield) the trail now spans about 3000 km in often difficult and slow terrain. With this extension the trail became too long to be safely [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thru-hiking thru-hiked ] in one season. An experienced thru-hiker may disagree as with 3000 km the trail is a bit shorter than the Appalachian Trail (AT) but the varried and unpredictable terrain makes this comparison inadequate.

From a thru-hiking perspective the GPT is less than a long distance trail. There is no clearly defined and well-marked trail to blaze along, there is no thru-hiking community to trail talk and there are no trail angles providing trail magic. On the GPT hikers have no domiciliary rights; they are just unexpected guests. And what might be the biggest disappointment for some thru-hikers on the GPT: nobody knows and understands the concept of thru-hiking and thru-hikers do not receive any special admiration.