Is Skyline The Greatest Elevation Gain?

[AlanK]

Getting back to the original question: C2C is sometimes advertised as having the greatest elevation gain of any day hike in the US. That is not such an unreasonable claim. C2C is almost always done as a day hike and one is hard pressed to beat the elevation gain.

Of course, the Badwater to Telescope Peak hike has more elevation gain. I know people who have done it as a day hike and intend to get around to doing it myself. However, it is certainly not usually done as a day hike and the temptation to make it one is unlikely to grab all that many people.

One should also consider the difference between net elevation gain (the height of the summit minus the height at the trailhead) and total elevation gain (the sum of the elevation gains of every component of an up and down hike). We did a Baldy 9 Peaks day hike last summer that had close to 12000 feet of elevation gain and people have posted reports of hikes with total elevation gains much larger than that. [/b]

[CXP777]

Hello to all!

I am new to this forum, but have been reading it for over a year now. I have done C2C once before, and am addicted. In regards to total elevation gained on the hike: I have seen several posts that list it between 10,384 (Summit minus museum elevation) to 10,700 (total elevation with the up and down). Does anyone know approximately what total elevation gained is if you were to hike from the museum to the summit? If I missed it in a previous post, my apologies.

Perry: Thank you for the forum and web site.

AlanK and Ellen: Your pictures on your respective web sites are great. Thank you!

Cy: I hope to meet you someday. You are a legend.

Perry: Thank you for the forum and web site.

Everyone else: Thank you for your posts.

[magikwalt]

I use one of the newer Garmin 60csx units and I put the number total elevation gain as 10,340'. That comes from 10,804' peak elevation minus trail head elevation of 464'.

[AlanK]

The 10340' figure is fine for the net gain (bottom to top). I know that some people still like to quibble about a few feet on the height of Mt. San J, but I am not one of those.

For the total elevation gain, I can look at my past traces, but there is not much downhill between Ramon Dr. and the summit. I would think that the answer is in the 10500' - 10700' range.

[CXP777]

Would the 10,500-10,700 range include the sidewalk to the tram station?

[Cy Kaicener]

I would think that 10,550 ft would include the concrete ramp which is only about 150 feet but seems a lots more. I am grateful for the handrail at this point.

[AlanK]

I thought about it a bit more and would go with 10700' including the concrete walkway.

You can't, after all, forget the walkway.

[Cy Kaicener]

I thought about it some more and am revising my figure to 10,624 ft total gain.

[AlanK]

Cy -- I did not see your post before I made my last one. It does look like we're going back and forth. I'll let you have the last word. No new estimates from me until I have done more C2C's than you. Which would be... never?

[zippetydude]

Here's a surprising number for you. When I did the PCT up to the peak last year, I found that the total elevation gain worked out to 13295! There was a lot of up and down during the middle section, with some lengthy, very steep descents, so even though the Snow Creek trailhead is a bit higher than the museum, the total elevation gain actually exceeded C2C. One caveat: although it was a dayhike, it was not anywhere near as steep. The elevation gain was spread over 31 miles, not 16-17.

I'm going to go from the I-10 crossing up the PCT up to the summit of San G this fall - I wonder what the total elevation gain will be there. That would be a bit of up and down as well, as the trail climbs up to a ridge, then drops down to the Whitewater area, then back up to San G (11,502).

For now, anyway, I'd say C2C is one amazing route, and a surprisingly enjoyable challenge.

z