First: this is NOT directed at the regulars. Who is a regular? A regular is a person who does Skyline/C2C at least four times a year, every year. But most actually do it twenty or more times a year. You Regulars are a bunch of crazy Phreaks who really need to get a life
, but I'm not (so) worried about you. (It's more your mental health that I worry about )
Who is NOT a regular? A not-regular is 1. Someone who has never done Skyline/C2C. 2. Someone who did it once, four years ago. 3. Someone who did it once, four months ago. (and me? Years ago I was briefly kinda regular, but now am most certainly a non-regular.)
So: Regulars are people who do it very frequently, AND very recently. Is that clear? So, non-regulars: DON'T EVEN FREAKING THINK ABOUT DOING SKYLINE/C2C NOW!!! You are putting your life, and the life of others, at severe risk.
Here's some of the things I hear non-regulars telling me about why it's okay for them to attempt it in the summer:
1. It's okay, because. .... I'm going to leave very early.
2. It's okay, because .... I'm going to carry a lot of water.
3. It's okay, because .... I do triathalons every month back home.
4. It's okay, because .... I did it last October in four hours.
5. It's okay, because ... there's some people on this board who do it in summer, and I'm just as fit as them.
6. It's okay, because ... I'm a total stud.
Unpacking these various forms of denial, starting with excuse number one: the most important thing people don't get about summer and Skyline is that there is a ticking clock. Like the kind attached to a bomb. You have an extremely limited window of time in which you can safely turn back. This isn't true in November. I ran into some guys last November at four thousand feet. They had muscle cramps. It was around noon. No problem--they went back down. If it had been June? They would have had no option but to call for a rescue helicopter.
If you are going to turn back, you have to do it soon enough that you'll be back to ground level before 9.a.m. If ten a.m. finds you hiking downhill at let's say two thousand feet--you're toast. You WILL get some form of heat stroke. You may think a super-early start will protect you, but what if you miscalculate by only an hour? Suppose you get to six thousand feet and you just can't go any further? Btw, this is a common occurence! Even if you started at midnight, it's likely six a.m. by now. (If you can't go on, it's because you're not well conditioned enough, and if you're not that well-conditioned, it's likely your pace is average to slow--i.e. six hours to six thousand feet.) At that point, it will be way too late to go back down--way too late! Way too late at six a.m. You will be descending in temps well over a hundred degrees for at least two or more hours. You may think descending isn't much of a cardio workout, but your heart will still be working fairly hard, because even descending Skyline is strenuous. Combine that workout with temps over a hundred, for more than thirty minutes, and it will definitely begin to cause heat illness and then stroke. The guy who died in 2010 started at 3.45 a.m,, turned around at 6.45 with heat cramps, and (apparently) was dead by 11 a.m.
The second part of this "but I'm going to start super-early!" idea is a mistaken notion that it will be cool at an early hour and that as soon as you get a few feet above the valley floor, temps will drop. In summer, neither are true. In July, the 'coolest' temp of the day is usually 90. 90 degrees at four in the morning. Given that as you rise, so does the sun, it will generally stay right around that 90 degrees right up to seven thousand feet. There's no shade at all, and the granite holds enormous amounts of stored heat. It's like climbing up an overheated pancake griddle. Have you ever worked out strenuously for seven hours at ninety degrees? No? Then how do you know you can?
Excuse number two: I'm going to carry a lot of water. Water is not a magic fairy elixir that will protect you from heat stroke. Think about it--no matter how much Gatorade you drank, could you survive thirty minutes in your oven with Grandma's sizzling pot roast? Heat illness and dehydration are two separate issues. Of course being well-hydrated is helpful, but it can't protect you against severe heat. The guy who died in 2010 was found with a full bottle of water. He died of heat stroke, not thirst.
Excuse number three: It's okay because I do triathalons every month back home. In a triathalon or marathon or bike race--you can stop. If you get sick, pull a muscle, get cramps--you can drop out. Here, there's no support car to pick you up, no taxi, no bus, no friendly corner bar. And there sure ain't no elevator down. If you have a problem--any problem, no matter how minor--you're either going to have to crawl on UP somehow, or you're going to get out your cell phone and call somebody to come in a helicopter to get you. BECAUSE YOU CANNOT GO BACK DOWN.
Excuse number four: It's okay because I did it last October and did really well. If you don't live here and regularly work out strenuously in temps above 90, you simply don't understand how dramatically the temps will affect your ability to exercise. It's huge. The bulk of your cardiovascular system will be given over to a desperate attempt to cool down your core. You'll have almost nothing left for the actual hiking, and your progress will be stunningly slow, further endangering you.
Excuse number five: It's okay because there's people on this board who do it. Yes, they're the REGULARs. Comparing yourself to them is like saying, "Hey, I see these people on TV surfing Mavericks. It doesn't look that hard, I'm getting my boogie board and gonna try those forty foot waves." The Regulars are people who: do Skyline every week. Do Skyline as their 'easy' workout. Live locally, many native to the desert, and many of them do hard physical labor in the desert summer for a living. Some are people who do Badwater, run hundred milers in the desert. They are highly trained athletes who are really well-adapted to this extremely harsh environment.
Excuse number six: It's okay because I'm a total stud. What can I say? Some people are firmly convinced they're 'special'. And so you will be, when the TV news cameras film them taking your body off the copter and loading it into the morgue van.
O yeah, just remembered Excuse Number seven: But I did it last year in the summer and I was just fine! Yes, it can be done, and even I did it one summer, several times. I thought I was being smart and careful with early starts and carrying six liters of fluids--i.e. excuses one and two. But on trip number four I found out halfway that I'd picked up some form of food poisoning. At 9 a.m. I found myself at four thousand feet, sick as a dog. (I'll spare you the visuals, but it wasn't pretty.) That was when I realized (I'm kinda slow) that I'd done a totally stupid thing--that it was too late to go down--and that hiking in summer is incredibly risky and there IS NO WAY TO MAKE IT SAFE. Somehow I dragged myself up--literally holding onto trees to stay upright at times--but I could easily have fainted, hit my head, and died. I honestly, seriously think that it was some kind of divine intervention that saved me because I can't otherwise understand how I made it. It was that trip that made me realize that hiking Skyline in summer truly is Russian Roulette--you're perfectly okay until the day you hit the chamber with the bullet in it. Then you're dead, Fred.
OK, I'm done. My final words: if you ignore this post and somehow find yourself at four thousand feet with heat cramps at 10 a.m.--whatever you do, don't go down. Everyone who has died, died because they attempted to go back down. Call for help immediately, find a north-facing rock with a bit of shade, stay still, and say your prayers ....
