C2C/SKYLINE: CLOSED FOR THE SUMMER. COME BACK IN OCTOBER.

[cynthia23]

Today's Desert Sun paper reported on a rescue of some extremely foolish hikers who took the tram up and then attempted to hike DOWN Skyline. They experienced heat exhaustion and dehydration at 2500 feet and had to be airlifted off the mountain. (if somebody can post the link to the article, please do?) Idiotic and irresponsible though their actions were, it is useful in illustrating one hard, basic fact: you can't hike back down Skyline right now. If you start C2C/Skyline, you are going to finish it, or you are going to die. All attempts to do the hike now are COMMITTED hikes. That means you can't turn back. Let's do the math: Temps this week and last have been 102 to a 106, with nightly LOWS at seventy nine. Even if you start out at 4 am (a late start) the temps will ALREADY be eighty degrees. Let's say you hike up four hours--with temps rising every hour--then at 8 a.m., when you're at five thousand feet (despite the superfast people who post on here, the average time up Skyline is closer to seven to eight hours) you twist your ankle, have food poisoning from last night's Thai food, or simply feel too dizzy, exhausted and nauseated to continue up--a real possibility when you are exercising at maximum capacity and your overworked CVS has to expend much of its energy to keep your core temps at 98.5. There are still four thousand feet and five miles ahead of you and you simply can't continue up. Guess what? It's now too late to turn back. So what are you going to do?? Hello, there's no Plan B! Not only can you not go up: you can't go down. Daily highs this week are 106. If you descend, by ten or eleven it will be close to a hundred degrees, yet you'll still have two hours of hiking ahead of you, getting ever hotter. No matter how much water you have, and despite the fact that you are hiking downhill, you WILL get heat stroke. I am a local, trust me on this. You can't walk around in a park for an hour at noon here and not get heat stroke, let alone descend Skyline.

Even worse, we are having a horrific May in which the average daily temps have been ten to fifteen degrees above our normal low nineties. Every day this week has been well over a hundred. It's only going to get hotter. IMHO (and those of all rescue personnel) no one should do C2C/Skyline anymore this season (unless, maybe, you are a highly experienced and superfit local like Bluerail, who does Skyline virtually every week and understands its risks.) I realize some have planned out a late May C2C, thinking it would still be safe, but IMHO conditions are ripe right now for a heat death tragedy like the one that occurred a few years ago, in which a twenty eight year old man set out to do C2C in mid May and was dead less than twelve hours later. Are you totally, one hundred percent sure you can make it up Skyline? If you have never done it before, don't even think about doing until temps have cooled down. If you did it once or twice before, but during cooler temps, don't even think about it. And if you have done it during high temps, do you understand that you were simply lucky to make it, that you dodged a bullet, and that something as simple as a blown bunion would have resulted in you needing a rescue helicopter? The general rule of thumb is that Skyline should never be attempted when daily high temps are over 92 and lows are over sixty five. We're now fifteen degrees over that and yet many appear to still be planning C2C's, not understanding that while it's springtime in San Diego or Seattle or wherever they are, it's full on Hell Summer here. Don't do it folks, wait until late October or early November. And always, always, always: check the weather forecast.

[bluerail]

Yea Cynthia, I don't know if you noticed my comments about the rescue buried in another thread...but I got called about the rescue Sunday evening, an PSMP asked if I would go up and mark out the landing zone for chp.. I guess they are planning on more warm weather traffic on the trail....the guys that came down I'm Sunday were the strong invincible type that you can't get through to..you know, the ones that often call for a rescue or worse.

I live in the desert fulltime and I don't think I could carry enough fluids to do skyline in this heat.

[fern]

I took the tram up Saturday,and DOWN! If you want a workout in the heat just stay at the desert floor,and run there. Then take the tram up and enjoy the perfect weather.

[Cy Kaicener]

Excellent post Cynthia, I found this link

http://www.mydesert.com/article/2012051 ... ntpage%7Cs

[cynthia23]

Thanks for linking Cy! I knew I could count on you. Hi Bluerail, yes, I did see your previous post--typical of the Desert Sun to not get around to reporting it until two days later. And speaking of not reporting stuff: does anyone other than me think it's weird that neither the DS or the local news stations have reported on the fact that April/May temps have been ten to fifteen degrees! above average?? Whether it's climate change or just a natural cycle (last year was wetter and cooler than average), weather this extreme seems worthy of a news report! But they never want to report on anything negative that might cause a tourist to have second thoughts and go to San Diego instead. The local media's self-censorship is really irresponsible in this case because hiking/biking tourists are unaware that heat conditions are much worse/more dangerous than usual. As others have posted, in April a guy died while mountainbiking on a trail. It was 107! I just hope there won't be more deaths.

If even the burly superathletes like Bluerail and Fern won't go up Skyline now: folks, that tells you all you need to know.

Do Not Attempt Skyline/C2C now!

[Cy Kaicener]

Here is another rescue a few days before this one

http://idyllwildtowncrier.com/2012/05/1 ... now-creek/

[Florian]

There are 7 (!) police cars parked in the museum parking lot as i left work today at 5p and no officers anywhere to be seen. Didn't see anyone up the trail either. My first thought was a Skyline rescue but odd so many cop cars and no SAR or paramedics. There was one car, parked with motor and AC running, with a police dog in the back seat.

-Florian

[cynthia23]

Well, whatever has happened, be it hiking or homicide, we can take comfort in the fact that three or four days from now, the Desert Sun will print a garbled and grossly inaccurate report--maybe. Thank goodness we have this board to give us actual news.

[ziplinesd]

Hey, thanks for the warning! I was Planning on C2C this saturday. NOAA calls for a 61 degree friday overnight low and a saturday 93 degree daytime high.......Is this too hot?

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.ph ... d2=-116.54

[zippetydude]

From one zip to another:

Yes. Way too hot. Certain death. Check your pm.

z