full Skyline Trail (without tram)

[jamesgiel]

I'm interested in doing the entire Skyline Trail, but not relying on the tram for the return down the mountain. I've done Mt. Whitney in a day and R2R2R (Grand Canyon) about six times in the past two years with a combination of trail running (downhill and flats) and power hiking (up North Kaibab and South Kaibab). My best time for R2R2R (42 miles/10,000 feet of altitude gain) is 12.5 hours. I'm from Phx and generally used to the heat and I would plan to do the round-trip Skyline in early-May. Also, I'm comfortable hiking in the dark and would probably start around 3:30am. Finally, I use hiking poles for the uphills and very familiar with my water and nutrition needs on long hikes.

Do you see any problems with my plan or can you offer a comparison to R2R2R?

Thanks, Jim Giel

[63ChevyII]

I think one of the main concerns with descending Skyline is the steepness of the trail. It seems that you can certainly handle it conditioning-wise, I would just be worried about a slip and a fall on the traverse or any portion of the trail above Dry Falls.

I can try to post a image showing the trail's incline if you are interested in seeing it.

[baldyrunner]

Your plan is sound. I would say the trip down would be like doing 2 south kaibab downhills. overall easier than a R2R2R

[jamesgiel]

Yes, I'd appreciate seeing any pictures that show the steepness of the Skyline Trail. I realize that I've been spoiled doing most of my long-distance day hikes on the somewhat manicured corridor trails of the Grand Canyon. Thanks for your input.

[zippetydude]

The main reason most of us don't do the downhill is that it offers little in the form of conditioning and is fairly tedious. I've done it both directions, but honestly it's more of a nuisance than a challenge coming down. Wait til you've done it, you'll get what I mean. From Flat Rock to the bottom is maybe 2 - 3 hours of slow, exceptionally easy hiking. You can run the flats and mild downhills, but the steep parts are like stairs, so you find yourself slowly making your way back....ho hum...boooooorrrrriiiiinnnnngggg. A great trail and a fun experience for any given experience, but the downhill is too slow and offers too little challenge for repeated adventures. For this time, I think you'll have fun and it will be new and different. Once you've done it, I bet you'll agree and mostly do just the up portion. If not, good for you and have fun! Best part is, you can't really lose if you come in well trained and will take the challenge as it presents itself to you. Hope you have fun!

z

[tekewin]

Jim,
I think the steepness of Skyline is overblown and the main Mt. Whitney trail isn't on the same difficulty scale as doing C2C2C.

Except for the altitude. Big difference between 14,500' and 10,800'. Altitude is a completely different factor.

[63ChevyII]

FWIW, if anything...

somwhere between Flat Rock and the Traverse
[url=http://hikinggeek.com/resources/maps/skyline_trail/landmarks/010-11_IMG_0147.JPG]
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on the Traverse
[url=http://hikinggeek.com/resources/maps/skyline_trail/landmarks/011-12_IMG_0188.JPG]
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on the Traverse
[url=http://hikinggeek.com/resources/maps/skyline_trail/landmarks/011-12_IMG_0190.JPG]
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For me, C2C is easier than Mt. Whitney. One my last Skyline trip, there were 7 of us. Out of our group of 7, 5 have hiked Mt. Whitney. Everyone in the group, except for me, said that Skyline by itself (one way) is harder than Mt. Whitney. One hiker said he’d rather hike Whitney twice than hike Skyline once! I get hit pretty hard by altitude (my weakness) and my strength (relatively speaking anyway) is conditioning.

[63ChevyII]

my $.02 on difficulty for some 'local' hikes, as well as Mt. Washington, NH. These were the toughest I had completed over a 16 month period.

[url=http://hikinggeek.com/resources/infographics/2012-2013_Hardest_Hikes/Hardest_Trail_Profiles_2012-2013_COMBINED_1800.jpg]
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click for larger image

[cynthia23]

My three cents is that you sound conditioned enough to do fine both up and down. My main concern is temps, as we have been having extraordinarily high temps. I would advise 'up' and skip the 'down' if the predicted temps in Palm Springs are going to be much above 92--which, given that it was 98 yesterday, it likely will be. Descending into the heat can be sickening (literally.) Also, as Zip said, descending is really unpleasant and tedious--take it from one (that would be me!) who does mostly 'halfways' and spends a lot of time descending.

[bamm321]

Hey Chevy, it seems like those charts would be a nice sticky at the top of the forum for people to get some trail difficulty comparisons.

It was nice running into you on skyline the other weekend also