New Trend? Hiking in the Nude

Baby, it’s cold outside. But the early-spring chill doesn’t deter Thomas B. from taking a brisk walk along Appenzell’s hilly trails to enjoy the green landscape of this rural canton in northeast Switzerland.

There’s a good reason why Thomas, 24, doesn’t give out his last name: he is concerned that his bosses at a nearby bank may not like his unconventional hiking attire, consisting of shoes, socks, a backpack — and nothing else. Thomas isn’t just some nature nut in a birthday suit — he’s one of a growing number of hikers who make the pilgrimage to Appenzell specifically so they can trek in the nude. (See pictures of skiing.)

Hiking in the buff might shock Thomas’ bosses, as well as some of Appenzell’s 15,000 inhabitants, but it’s no skin off his back. “Hiking in clothes is too constrictive,” he says, adding that he has never had any negative reactions from the fully clothed hikers he meets on the trails. “I like to feel comfortable. There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?”

Fellow nude hiker Puistola Grottenpösch agrees, saying that the allure of walking naked “is all about freedom.” For the past three decades, the 54-year-old engineer from Zurich has been unabashedly hiking in the altogether, in all kinds of climatic conditions, with no incident. “I wouldn’t do this in Afghanistan,” he concedes, but he insists on his right to walk naked on the trails of his own country, where public nudity — as long as it is not lewd — is perfectly legal.