Philip Werner, based in Bristol, Vermont, is an active hiking leader with the Bread Loaf Section of GMC. He enjoys hiking, backpacking, Nordic skiing, and Tenkara fly fishing, especially in remote mountain streams.
Philip’s first exposure to GMC occurred in 2007 when he attended a Wilderness First Aid Class at the Waterbury headquarters before section hiking the Long Trail in 2008. Completing the Long Trail sparked a love of hiking and backpacking and a sense of humor about hiking muddy trails in the rain.
Since then, he has section-hiked 1400 miles of the Appalachian Trail, hiked all 620 trails in the White Mountains National Forest twice, summited each of the 48 White Mountain 4,000-footers every month of the year, and backpacked coast-to-coast across Scotland twice. Currently, he’s hiking the Long Trail side-to-side list and beginning to section-ski the Catamount Trail.
Before moving to Vermont, Philip served as a volunteer four-season hiking leader with the Appalachian Mountain Club, mentored new leaders, and taught courses in map and compass navigation, winter hiking, and leave-no-trace wilderness ethics. He also served as Treasurer of the AMC’s Boston hiking and backpacking committee, has been a volunteer trail maintainer for the US Forest Service, a Master Educator for Leave No Trace, and was a professional backpacking guide in Andrew Skurka’s outdoor school.
Philip retired from the software industry in 2010 after 22 years overseeing software development, data center operations, product management, marketing, and customer service organizations. He is currently the founder and chief editor of SectionHiker.com, a popular hiking and backpacking website, now in its 18th year. He is also the author of a forthcoming book titled Hiking Over 60: A Hiking and Gear Guide for Active Adults.
