interesting....

[Ellen]

Howdy All

I remember when I met Brett and gave him a ride back to the museum before he set his JMT record. Should have asked for his autograph

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

[bdog]

Ellen, that was you who gave me a ride?!? Wow, what a small world! Do you know what year that was? I don't think I knew this message board existed prior to 2009. It seems like so long ago. I know I have met you at Grubbs Notch since then as well.

Back then I didn't know the route well--that may have been my first ascent--and I kept going straight up at the point where the traverse begins. I remember I had to do some rock climbing in order to make it.

[Perry]

It sounds like a mix-up between two different rock cairns. Are the painted rocks even that close to the current trail?

I'm not sure what to think.

[ultrademus]

Conditions look great, very little to absolutely no snow on the trail at the moment. Current weather for Saturday is projected to be 55 degrees at the Tram Station and a cool 77 degrees in Palm Springs. I've scoped out the trail twice before (very slowly at around 4hrs and 30mins to the ascent...once back in august which was a horrible idea...).

I've ran with Brett at Barkley before, and no doubt about it he is a phenomenal athlete so attempting his record should be pretty fun. I've studied his record and done some average's. He ascended at a rate between 12:40's and 13:20's min/ mile on the way up took down about 3,226ft per hour...which is pretty killer.

I've been training nothing but elevation gain since August now for the HURT 100 in Hawaii and want to use this ascent record attempt as a litmus test for my training. Weekly mileage for the last three months has been about 60-70 miles with 15,000-20,000ft of gain per week. At a hard effort I can cover about 3,500ft of gain in 45mins on non-technical terrain, so we'll see what I can tear up here.

Plans are as follows:
-Start the run at roughly 6:30am from the Museum
-11-13 min/ miles up until about mile 4 where the ascent starts to undulate with that downhill/ flat terrain Brett described in his report
-Miles 5-6 are that weird up/ down/ flat stuff, so hopefully I can move at a 8-9min/ mile
-Miles 6-11 get wicked steep, so I really want to aim at conserving and hit it hard on that last chunk, there is currently no snow on the trail according to the posts/ weather conditions I've read so things should be good.
-Hoping to hit Grubs Notch in ~2:20'ish and the Tram station in under 2:30

What I'll be carrying:
-Fanny Pack
-Cell phone
-$13.00
-2x water bottle 1 with 400cal. Carbo Pro mix
-2x Gu (100cal)
-6x Salt Pills
-iPod
-basic t-shirt, shorts
-Inov8 roclite's (shoes)

Should be a fun time! I have a slight desire to see if I can descend from the Tram station to the Museum in under 1:30...but that just kinda sounds bad for my knee's...

-Nick

[Florian]

What I'll be carrying:
...
-$13.00
...

Not enough. If you buy a beer you'll only have about $5 left and the ride down is $10.

-Florian

[Florian]

Oh, you're hiking up and back down. Nevermind.

-Florian

[bluerail]

Best of luck to you, seems I picked an off weekend to be in DV.

Btw...there's absolutely no snow....and perfect weather

[Fresh]

hey Ultrademus, I am planning on doing the Skyline Trail, specifically the C2C2C on Saturday as well. Maybe I'll see you "out there"?

[cynthia23]

Not sure if you already know Ultrademus but there has been a lot of discussion and concern on the board about the use of the shortcuts and the erosion damage they are doing. Are you planning on running the regular trail? Tthat's what Perry (the original record holder) did. IMHO all subsequent runners should do the same. Some of the shortcuts (not all) decrease the distance, if not the gain. Leaving aside for a moment the issue of the increasing enviromental damage-- if the route is not fixed, this is a meaningless competition.

[ultrademus]

Yesterday's conditions were perfect! My stamina..we'll it's nice to say that mountain no matter who you are Mt. San Jacinto always seems to serve up a nice big piece of humble pie...I didn't manage to bag Brett's record but I learned that I can run 10 out of the 11 miles up the mountain and that I am in good shape for the HURT 100. Here are my splits:

Started at 7:23am (ironically)
Picnic Benches: 00:11:40
Long Valley Sign: 00:15:00
First Rescue Station: 00:32:35
Second Rescue Station: 1:41:14
Tuna Can/ Flat Rock: 1:52:10
...then I stopped running (mistake) and slowly shuffled up this steep section...
Coffman's Crag (huge boulder before 31 switchbacks of doom): 2:30:05
Grubb's Notch: 2:40:00
Tram Station (top of first floor): 2:44:40

In response to Cynthia23, I followed the most used trail the entire way up, I didn't want to risk cutting any switchbacks or taking any shortcuts for fear of getting lost.

I was told by another runner that if you cut and take certain switchbacks it can cut about 5-10mins off your time, its tempting but I completely agree with you, its the skyline TRAIL record...but a lot of others say that the only thing that matters is that you start at the Museum and end at the Tram station...What was the original record by the way? Something like 2:45 right? I am tempted to just go back there next weekend...

Does anyone know then if Brett's 2:32 stayed on the trail or cut switchbacks? I mean no disrespect to Brett as he is better than me because he is a great hiker/runner and top notch navigator

And thanks to everyone out on the trail that day for being kind and letting me by! There was a surprising amount of people hiking up, which again made it nice for me because I knew I was on the main trail.