Story on risks of hiking the Skyline Trail

[NathanBrown]

Thanks to everyone who gave their input or was willing to be quoted for my story on the risks of hiking the Skyline Trail in the summer. The story is now online: http://www.desertsun.com/story/news/201 ... /30886951/

Feel free to leave questions or comments here or in the comment section of the story, and please share it with as many folks you think would be interested.

-Nathan Brown

[Ed]

I read the article, and thought it was excellent. Threaded the needle, you might say.

[Wildhorse]

It is a great article. Thank you Nathan and Desert Sun for this story.

I read the article first without watching the videos. As I read, I started to feel hot and thirsty and frightened and wanted to find a dark cool place to sip iced water. At the very end, I started feeling cooler and finished reading with the idea that maybe it is not really that bad, except for old people from out of town. Then I watched the videos and my confidence grew. It did not seem like such a hard hike. And one really does not need to carry as much water as I imagined. My final impression is that Skyline is really quite doable, and with the right preparation, even in the summer, maybe even if one is really old like the man who died. I was left with a few other impressions: The scenery is the same as riding the tram (without the music, of course.) Skyline hikers annoy the rescue workers, some of whom cannot take the heat. The hike is a little harder than Whitney and only a little less difficult than Everest. (Everest. Wow. What a hike that would be.)

[Ed]

The video did make a summer hike of Skyline seem safer and more routine than it would be for 99% of us. I think the keys were (a) he had already done the Skyline in 6 hours around Memorial Day, which is not exactly the cool season and (b) it was an average day for summer temperatures.

[zippetydude]

I read the article, and thought it was excellent. Threaded the needle, you might say.

I agree completely. The title and the first page, which is all most people read in news articles, placed heavy emphasis on the danger involved and made it clear that doing the route in the summer won't make you anybody's hero. As it continued, and I would guess that most serious hikers would continue reading, it offered a balanced perspective and spoke of the need for previous experience on this trail specifically and the importance of proper preparation. At least for me, that's the most effective form of discussion. If I hear both the risks and how to manage them, then I am better equipped to decide if I want to chance it and much more informed as to how to mitigate the risks if I decide to go ahead with it. That has the potential to avoid rescues and perhaps even save lives. Nice.

Also, props to Nathan. We have all had a few laughs at the Desert Sun when their reporters couldn't figure out the difference between Idyllwild and Whitewater. Nathan proved to be both competent and thorough and provided an example that I wish all their reporters would follow. He researched the entire topic thoroughly, talked to multiple sources, and then actually went ahead and put in the time and effort to do the trail himself. That's going to give an in-depth perspective that no other method of research can provide. Well done sir.

Only a couple kind of picky points that I might have clarified:

1) Nathan is an athlete in excellent shape who can knock out a marathon in about 3 1/2 hours. His first couple of Skyline trips still took a bit over 5 hours, so an average hiker who has never done Skyline can expect it to take a lot longer than that. I imagine he didn't want to brag about how fit he is, but the reader might not realize that Nathan's perspective is very different from someone who hikes a lot but thinks that running a 5k is insanely difficult. The ability to sustain a high level of exertion is crucial in doing Skyline in the summer.

2) I think you should only do summer ascents if you are sure you will be able to finish in about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. This is important because it means the air will get cooler as you go. By leaving at 4:30 you can be up a couple thousand feet before the sun rises and the temperature will have dropped around 6 degrees due to the adiabatic lapse rate. By the time the sun gets a little higher in the sky the temps will actually be about 15 degrees cooler as you approach Flat Rock. If a hiker who is in pretty good shape were to take it slow so as not to overheat and ended up on the trail for 7 or 8 hours, they wouldn't get the benefit of the dropping temperatures...but would bake instead, and that's a very long time to be out in the sun on a hot day. I don't think I would spend that much time sitting in a chair by a pool on a hot day, much less grinding my way up Skyline. So no matter how well you prepare with gear, you also shouldn't take it on in the summer unless you can minimize your total time of exposure.

Oh, one other detail. I think when he mentions Wallace later in the article he is referring back to Cynthia Williams. If I am wrong, lmk. If not, Nathan - if you are reading this, you don't want to make Cynthia mad! She just might start a thread in all caps about reporters who can't get people's names right! JK of course. Cynthia, if you are reading this I had never heard your story of getting ill partway up. That sounds horrible. You really stuck it out under horrible conditions. I didn't know you were so tough! Impressive.

z

[Ed]

I imagine he didn't want to brag about how fit he is, but the reader might not realize that Nathan's perspective is very different from someone who hikes a lot but thinks that running a 5k is insanely difficult.

I agree. Nathan is one of the superfit, but did not want to emphasize it. Could make the video misleading for some people.

[NathanBrown]

Thanks to everyone on your input (including Stan on the name catch...I had it wrong in my rough draft and made corrections for the print edition, but I asked our online person to make the fixes and I guess he forgot...the fix has been made.)

Anyways, I'm glad those of you who have left your comments feel that it's fairly balanced. I know that there was some concern when I initially posted that the story would draw people to do the hike, which wasn't my hope. I hope that people who read this in the future can see how much prep it does take to hike the trail in the summer if they choose to do so. It wasn't my place to firmly tell anyone not to, but I hope the warnings are clear.

I also should have mentioned my marathon-type fitness in the video, but I overlooked that. Was a bit scatter-brained and speaking off the top of my head doing all of that live, but I hope some of it was insightful.

Thanks again for all your help and feedback, and I hope to get to meet more of you while hiking around here in the future.

[tekewin]

Great article! I agree with the previous comments that it was balanced with a focus on preparation and understanding the hike. Well done.

Also, kudos to Perry and this board for doing the same thing, promoting safety and knowledge of the Skyline Trail. The hiking guide and quiz show up near the top of web searches and were helpful to me and I'm sure many people.

[Wildhorse]

The importance of preparation is what I took away from the article. This theme ran through the narrative, and was effectively the final thought or moral of the story.

It will be interesting to read Cynthia's assessment. The article is morally neutral in some respects, in the way that journalistic writing often is, except that the emphasis on preparation can be taken as a moral stance (rather than merely a practical one.)

It would be interesting to think of other ways the story might have told, even while Nathan's story is a fine way. I imagine that Cynthia would have framed things in a different interesting way, as would I, and as Zippetydude has.

If I were to write the story, I would explore the question, "Is this a good hike in summer, assuming one is fit for it?" Using the word good, I am thinking about aesthetics and the effects on my feelings and those of my friends who would go with me.

[halhiker]

I'd like to see Nathan update the video on the next 118 day°. It's not the relatively mild days that people get in trouble. It's the brutal ones when people don't change their plans. It's also the people who don't make it and start to hike down.