Trekking Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Objective
• Game Setup
• How to Play
  • A. Movement Phase
    • Rules for Placing Route and Rest Cards
    • Vignettes
    • Route Cards
    • Rest Cards
  • B. Summit and Animal Tagging Phase
  • C. Energy Indicator Update Phase
  • Example of a Turn
• End of the Game
• Card Effects
  • Rest Cards
  • Narrative Cards
  • Refuge Cards
  • Weather Cards
  • Summit Cards
  • Orography Cards
  • Fauna Cards
• Solo Mode
  • Solo Components
  • Solo Setup
  • Solo Gameplay
  • Solo End of the Game

Components

• 9 double-sided map tiles (the back of each tile carries a table of tile letters).
• 4 double-sided GPS boards (basic and advanced sides).
• 20 summit tokens.
• 70 animal tokens.
• 4 hikers.
• 1 green bag.
• 1 blue bag.
• 4 energy tokens.
• 65 route cards.
• 15 rest cards.
• 5 summit cards, 10 weather cards, 5 orography cards, 5 fauna cards, 5 refuge cards.

Objective

In Trekking you take the role of a hiker on a 12-hour route through the mountains. On your turn you can choose which paths to follow, observe wildlife, reach summits and even rest and enjoy the scenery. Your goal is to make the best route of the day compared with the other hikers in the area, to obtain the best score at the end of the 12 rounds of play. The player with the most Victory Points according to the route plan shown on the board is the winner.

To avoid getting lost and to be able to remember your feat, you have a GPS where you record everything you have done: the climbs, the descents, the animals you have seen, the summits you have reached and the times you have needed to rest. It is important that you manage your energy well to get the most out of the day.

Game Setup

1. Build the map. Follow these steps in order. Choose 1 map tile at random. Look at the table in the upper or lower left corner of the back of that tile and take the other 5 map tiles corresponding to the letters. Place the map tiles on the table in the same order as they appear in the table. The tiles of the first 2 columns (dark background) are placed face up to form the map, and those of the last column (light background), face down, to form the energy indicator, the route plan and the route card reserve.
   • If it is your first game, using map configuration E is recommended.
   • To form the board: create the map by placing the 4 tiles on the left face down and the energy counter with the two on the right face up.
2. Route cards. Shuffle the route cards separately by color of arrows (green, yellow and red) to create 3 decks. Divide each deck into 2 piles (the number of cards does not matter), turn 1 of the 2 piles over, and place each pile in the corresponding space of the reserve.
3. Rest cards. Shuffle the rest cards, divide the deck into two equal parts and place them face up, side by side, to the right of the reserve.
   • NOTE: Before shuffling the cards and creating the decks, check that all of them have the same face up.
4. Summit tokens. Take the summit tokens, put them all with the (back side) face down, and for each type of token create 1 pile in numerical order (with 1 on top) with as many tokens as the number of players.
5. Animal tokens. Put the green animal tokens in the green bag and the blue animal tokens in the blue bag. Then place on each animal space of the map 1 token of the corresponding color drawn at random from its bag, and leave the bags next to the board.
   • NOTE: The difference between one color and the other is the quantity of animals of each type.

How to Play

Games of Trekking have 12 rounds, divided between the morning (6) and the afternoon (6). In each round the players take their turn starting with the start player and continuing clockwise. Turns are divided into 3 phases, which must be carried out in the following order:

• A. Movement phase
• B. Summit and animal tagging phase
• C. Energy indicator update phase

A. Movement Phase

First, check your energy level: you cannot choose a path that you cannot pay for with your Energy Points. Then, choose 1 path adjacent to the space occupied by your hiker, or rest.

If you choose 1 path, compare the altitude of the space of your hiker with that of the space at the end of the path to determine whether it is an ascent or a descent, and take from the reserve the first card of the ascent or descent pile of the corresponding color. Then place the route card on your GPS board and move your hiker to the destination space.

If you choose to rest, take 1 rest card from either of the 2 rest piles, place it face up on your board and do not move your hiker. You immediately obtain the 2 Energy Points indicated by the card. On any turn, you can flip the rest card on your board to get its reward.

Example: Guillem's hiker is on a space at 900 m and he wants to move it to a space at 1100 m along a yellow path. Guillem takes 1 yellow ascent card from the reserve, loses 2 Energy Points and moves his hiker to the space at 1100 m.

Example: Cristina's hiker, on the other hand, is on a space at 1300 m and Cristina prefers to rest because she has little energy left. She takes the binoculars card from one pile, places it on her board and obtains 2 Energy Points. In addition, Cristina will get 2 Victory Points for leaving the GPS board vignette visible.

Rules for Placing Route and Rest Cards

• You must place route and rest cards on your board from left to right.
• On your first turn, you must place the route card in the first column (between 7:00 and 8:00), so that the start of the mountain matches the altitude of your refuge at the beginning of the game.
• On later turns, you must place route or rest cards in the column adjacent to the last card placed, so that the starting altitude of the new card matches the final altitude of the previous card.
• When you place cards on your board, the horizontal lines of the board must line up with the dashed lines of the cards, not with the lower and upper edges of the cards. Also remember that the mountain has to match as well.

Vignettes

The GPS boards include vignettes that represent memorable moments. When you place a card in the corresponding column of your board, it will grant you Energy Points at that moment or Victory Points at the end of the game (depending on the vignette). A vignette is considered covered if a card covers at least half of the vignette.

Route Cards

Route cards have an ascent side and a descent side. The color of the arrow indicates the color of the path and the difference in height: 100 m for the green arrow, 200 m for the yellow and 300 m for the red. The energy icon indicates how many Energy Points you lose (when descending you do not lose energy). The binoculars space is where you can place 1 animal token that you obtain in phase B.

Rest Cards

Rest cards have one side that shows the reward and another "empty" side. The reward side indicates the Energy Points you obtain when drawing the card and the effect of the card, which you use when you decide to flip it on your board.

B. Summit and Animal Tagging Phase

Tag on your GPS the summits reached and the animals you observe along the way.

Summits: When you reach a summit for the first time, take the first summit token from the corresponding pile and place it face down on the last route card of your board. You cannot take more than 1 token of the same summit. At the end of the game, the summits grant the Victory Points indicated by the summit card of the route plan (see "Card Effects").

Animals: You can tag 1 animal adjacent to the path you traveled on your turn. To tag an animal, your energy level must be equal to or higher than the position that the image of that animal occupies on the energy indicator. Then, take the animal token from the map and place it on the binoculars of the last route card of your board.

Animals removed from the board are replenished at certain hours according to the number of players:

• 2 players: They are not replenished.
• 3 players: At 13:00, place animals at random in the empty spaces.
• 4 players: At 11:00 and at 15:00, place animals at random in the empty spaces.

IMPORTANT: Animals are not replenished until all players have played the round, and they must be drawn from the bag of the corresponding color.

NOTE: If the animals in one bag run out, draw from the other bag.

C. Energy Indicator Update Phase

Move your energy token on the indicator according to the total Energy Points you have obtained or lost on your turn. The following elements of your board and of the route plan indicate the Energy Points you obtain or lose:

• Route and rest cards: Ascent cards subtract between 0 and 4 Energy Points. Descent cards neither grant nor subtract Energy Points. Rest cards grant 2 Energy Points.
• Refuge card: If you reach a refuge, you obtain the Energy Points indicated by the refuge card of the route plan (see "Card Effects").
• Weather cards: Some weather cards add or subtract energy. During the first 6 rounds (morning) only the effect of the left weather card applies, and during the remaining 6 rounds (afternoon) the effect of the right card applies. (See the specific rules for the weather cards of the game in "Card Effects").
• Vignettes: If you do not cover a vignette with the Energy icon when placing a GPS card in the corresponding column of your board, you obtain 1 Energy Point.

Example of a Turn

Movement. Ferran (red) chooses the yellow path to the left, so he takes 1 yellow ascent card to climb from 800 to 1000 m, which costs 2 Energy Points. As it is his first turn and his hiker is in a refuge at 800 m, the ascent card is placed so that the left part of the mountain matches the altitude of 800 m on the board.

On his second turn he decides to move his hiker along a green path to a space at 1100 m. Since he is going to climb 100 m, he takes 1 green ascent card. Then he places the green ascent card on his board adjacent to the previous route card, so that the starting altitude of the mountain matches the final altitude of the previous mountain.

Tagging. Next to the green path there are foxes and deer. His energy token is above the fox icon of the energy indicator, so he decides to tag it on his GPS board. He takes the fox token adjacent to the path and places it on the binoculars of the route card he has just played. In addition, he reaches a summit space. He takes the summit token and places it on the final altitude of the route card he has played.

Update the energy indicator. On his second turn, Ferran had played a green ascent card; therefore, he now loses 1 Energy Point and moves his energy token 1 space down on the indicator.

Ferran ends his turn and it is the turn of the player to his left, who will begin with the movement phase.

End of the Game

The game ends at the end of the 12th round, when all players have completed their GPS board.

Then, each player consults the route plan and their board to calculate their final score following these steps:

1. Add the Victory Points of the animal tokens on their board.
2. Add the Victory Points of their animal tokens according to the fauna card of the route plan.
3. Add the Victory Points of the summits on their board (those that show the side with the +2).
4. Add the Victory Points of their summit tokens according to the summit card of the route plan.
5. Add the Victory Points of the orography of their board according to the orography card of the route plan.
6. Add the points of the visible Victory Point vignettes of their board.

The player with the most Victory Points wins the game. In case of a tie, the tied player with the most animal tokens wins. If the tie persists, the players share the victory.

Card Effects

Rest Cards

All rest cards immediately grant you 2 Energy Points when you place them on your GPS board. In addition, you can flip them on your turn to activate the effects described below.

• Drink water: You obtain 1 Energy Point.
• Energy bar: You obtain 2 extra Energy Points. You can only activate this effect when you are going to make an ascent, to save part of the corresponding energy cost.
• Wildlife: You can pay 1 Energy Point to tag a second animal on the same turn (instead of 1 per turn). You must meet the rest of the requirements in the usual way.
• Binoculars: You can tag 1 animal adjacent to the destination space, instead of adjacent to the chosen path.
• Searching through the undergrowth: Instead of taking the animal token adjacent to the chosen path, draw 1 token from either bag.

Narrative Cards

These cards are arranged on the board in such a way that they generate a narrative sentence with the objective of the day. This order will always be weather-weather-summit-orography-fauna-refuge and will set different objectives and variations.

Example: For their first game, Cristina and Silvia decide to use the recommended configuration of narrative cards, obtaining the following sentence: A day of cold and with a storm, climbing Peñalara and investigating a species with friends.

Refuge Cards

Each time you reach a refuge, you obtain the reward indicated by the refuge card of the route plan.

• With the refuges closed: You do not obtain any Energy Points when you reach a refuge.
• Telling tall tales of animals: You obtain 1 Energy Point. If you have tagged an animal that same turn, you obtain 3 Energy Points instead.
• With friends: You obtain 2 Energy Points. If there is already another hiker in the refuge, you obtain 3 Energy Points instead. (Card text: +2/+3 if you meet someone and have a coffee.)
• With unexpected encounters: You obtain 1 Energy Point. If there is already another hiker in the refuge, you obtain 4 Energy Points instead.
• Telling tall tales of the summits: You obtain 2 Energy Points. If you reached a summit 2 hours ago or less, you obtain 4 Energy Points instead. (Card text: +2/+4 if in the last 2 hours you have reached a summit.)

Example: Clara reaches a refuge at 12:00 and on a previous turn had placed 1 summit token on her board at 10. She only recovers 2, because it was 3 hours ago that she reached that summit.

Weather Cards

• With hail / Cloudy / Hot: Each route card of the indicated color costs you 1 more Energy Point. (Card text: -1 on ascents or on yellow descents.)
• Sunny: You obtain 1 Energy Point each time you play 1 descent card. (Card text: +1 on descents.)
• Snowy: You lose 1 extra Energy Point each time you play 1 descent card. (Card text: -1 on descents.)
• With wind: You obtain 1 Energy Point each time you play 1 ascent card. (Card text: +1 on ascents.)
• With rain: You lose 1 extra Energy Point each time you play 1 ascent card. (Card text: -1 on ascents.)
• Cold: When you reach a refuge, you obtain 1 extra Energy Point (in addition to those you obtain from the refuge card). (Card text: +1 in refuges.)
• With a storm: When you play a rest card, you obtain 1 extra Energy Point. (Card text: +1 when you rest.)
• With fog: When you tag an animal, you lose 1 Energy Point. (Card text: -1 when you tag 1 animal on your GPS.)

Summit Cards

The summit card of the route plan indicates the Victory Points you obtain for your summit tokens at the end of the game.

• Taking photos at: You obtain 5/4/3/2 Victory Points if you are the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th to reach the summit. The position is indicated by the token you take on arrival. During the game, if you meet another hiker on a summit, flip the corresponding summit token after placing it on your board to add 2 extra Victory Points at the end of the game.
  • Example: Cristina has been the 1st to reach the summit of the mountain she is on, so she takes token 1. On her turn, Silvia also reaches the summit and takes token 2. Since both have met on the summit, they will add 2 extra Victory Points at the end of the game.
• Racing in: You obtain 7/5/3/1 Victory Points if you are the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th to reach the summit (according to arrival position).
• Suffering in: You obtain 5/4/3/2 Victory Points if you are the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th to reach the summit. During the game, if you reach a summit without having rested after reaching the previous summit, flip the corresponding summit token after placing it on your board to add 2 extra Victory Points at the end of the game. You also obtain those Victory Points if you manage to reach the first summit without resting. (Card text: +2 if you have not rested since the last summit.)
• Climbing: You obtain 4 Victory Points for each summit, regardless of the order of arrival.
• Taking shortcuts in: You obtain 5/4/3/2 Victory Points if you are the 1st/2nd/3rd/4th to reach the summit. You obtain 2 extra Victory Points if you reached the summit by playing a red route card. (Card text: +2 if you reach the summit by a red path.)

Orography Cards

The orography card of the route plan indicates the Victory Points you obtain at the end of the game for the placement of the route cards on your board.

• Mulhacén (Andalusia): You obtain 2 Victory Points for each 100 m of the longest uninterrupted descent of your board. Rest cards or cards that have a flat part do NOT interrupt the descent.
  • Example: If the longest descent is from 1200 m to 800 m, you obtain 8 Victory Points.
• Turbón (Aragón): You obtain 3 Victory Points for each 100 m of the longest uninterrupted ascent of your board. Rest cards or cards that have a flat part do NOT interrupt the ascent.
  • Example: If the longest ascent is from 900 m to 1400 m, you obtain 15 Victory Points.
• Peñalara (Madrid): You obtain 2 Victory Points for each 100 m of ascent on your board.
• Mallos de Riglos (Aragón): You obtain 2 Victory Points for each valley on your board. A valley is a descent card followed by an ascent card (with no rest cards in between). (Card text: +2 for each valley of your GPS (descent + ascent between 2 cards).)
• Valles Pasiegos (Cantabria): You obtain 3 Victory Points for each needle on your board. A needle is an ascent card followed by a descent card (with no rest cards in between). (Card text: 3 for each needle of the route (descent + ascent between 2 cards).)

Fauna Cards

In addition to the reward indicated by the fauna card of the route plan, you always obtain 3 Victory Points for the bears; 2 Victory Points for the eagles and the deer, and 1 Victory Point for the boars and the foxes on your board.

• Investigating a species: You obtain 1/3/6/10/15/20 Victory Points for the largest collection of 1/2/3/4/5/6+ identical animals on your board.
  • Example: Clara has 5 boars, 3 eagles and 1 bear. She adds 15 Victory Points for her collection of boars, which is the largest.
• Doing a micro-study: You obtain 4 Victory Points for each animal at the altitude with the most animals on your board. The type of animal does not matter, only the altitude at which it is.
  • Example: Ferran has 4 animals at 900 m and 2 at 1200 m. He obtains 16 Victory Points for the 900 m altitude.
• Seeing the adaptation of the fauna: You obtain 2 Victory Points for each altitude at which you have at least 1 animal. You only obtain 2 Victory Points for each altitude, regardless of the number of animals.
  • Example: Clara has animals at 700, 900, 1100 and 1300 m, so she obtains 8 Victory Points.
• Walking among foxes and boars: You obtain 3 Victory Points for each collection of 3 animals of value 1 on your board.
  • Example: Clara has 7 animals of value 1, so she obtains 6 Victory Points for the 2 collections and has 1 animal left over.
• Enjoying the variety of the fauna: You obtain 0/1/3/6/10 Victory Points for each collection of 1/2/3/4/5 different animals. Each animal token scores in only 1 collection. First add the collections of 5 animals and remove those tokens, then those of 4 animals, and so on.

Solo Mode

The Sunday hikers have arrived in the mountains and, as a mountain lover, it makes you a little nervous to see these people strolling aimlessly, yet they always end up with great anecdotes. You have a plan, you have been training and working on your routes for months, so you will do the impossible to make your excursion beat that of the Sunday hikers.

In solo mode you will play against the Sunday hikers (domingueros), who will move automatically and complicate your day in the mountains.

Solo Components

• 14 opponent cards (with a compass side).
• 4 Sunday hikers (domingueros).

Solo Setup

Set up the game as usual, with the following variations:

• Steps 7 and 8: Take only 1 GPS board and 1 energy token (the opponent does not count as a player).
• Place 1 Sunday hiker in each of the 4 refuges and choose the desired difficulty level:
  • Easy: Discard the corresponding Easy card (1) from the opponent deck, place the GPS board in front of you on the basic side, and you are the start player.
  • Hard: Discard the corresponding Hard card (2) from the opponent deck, place the GPS board in front of you on the advanced side, and the opponent is the start player.
• Shuffle the opponent cards, create a deck with them and place it next to the game board, with the side that shows the compass face up.

Solo Gameplay

The game is played over 12 rounds, alternating your turns with those of the Sunday hiker. Play your turn following the rules of normal mode. On the opponent's turn, follow these steps:

1. Draw 1 opponent card. Draw the first card of the opponent deck and place it face down to the left of the deck to form the discard pile. The card on top of the discard pile indicates which card is removed from the reserve and which Sunday hikers move, and the first card of the deck indicates how they move.

2. Remove 1 card. Remove from the game the first card of the reserve pile indicated by the card of the discard pile (1 green ascent card, 1 yellow ascent card, 1 red ascent card or 1 rest card).

3. Move the Sunday hikers. To move each Sunday hiker, look for a path adjacent to its space that meets the requirement of the first card of the opponent deck. Start searching in the direction indicated by the movement icon (north (N), south (S), east (E) or west (W)) and continue clockwise. Then move each Sunday hiker along the corresponding path. If no path meets the condition, it does not move this round.

   • NOTE: The destination of the Sunday hikers cannot be on another map tile. They can never leave the tile they are on.
   • Example: You flip the first card of the deck and place it on the discard pile (1). That card tells you to remove the first red ascent card from the reserve (2) and to move the 2 Sunday hikers on the 2 lower tiles of the map (3). On the other hand, the first card of the deck tells you that each Sunday hiker chooses the first path adjacent to the east of its space (4).

4. Tag animals and summits. Take the lowest-value animal adjacent to the path traveled by each Sunday hiker and place it in the opponent's reserve. If the 2 tokens on each side of a path have the same value, choose whichever you want. If there are no tokens adjacent to a path, nothing happens. If you move a Sunday hiker and it reaches a summit it has not previously visited, take the first summit token from the pile and place it in the opponent's token reserve. As in a normal game, 1 Sunday hiker cannot have 2 tokens of the same summit.

Solo End of the Game

At the end of the 12 rounds, calculate your final score following the rules of normal mode.

The opponent ignores the scoring criteria of the fauna, summit and orography cards of the route plan. Instead:

• Add the Victory Points indicated on the animal tokens and multiply them by 2.
• Add 4 Victory Points for each summit token.
• Add or subtract the Victory Points that appear in the upper right corner of the GPS board you used and those that appear in the lower left corner of the 6 route plan cards.

If you have managed to beat its score, you win the game. Otherwise, you now have an excuse to plan a new day of trekking.