Time calculation to hike the Skyline and your time

[Rick M]

There are some great things said about the amount of time needed to hike the skyline on numerous topics & posts. Torben put up one such post on the "Snow on Skyline?" topic that would be great to review at other times without having to search for and seeing the various times required by others might give first time hikers an idea of the time that might be needed.

With Torben's permission, I'd like to quote from his post:

Here are some numbers to see how you are doing on the trail. The average slope on the trail is about 15%. But the first section to the Picnic Tables and the last section from the traverse to the Crest are both 24% [that means for every 100 feet forward the trail climbs 24 ft]

The trip from Museum to the crest of the trail as you enter Long Valley is about 9.8 miles which we will count as 100%.

The distances to various landmarks are roughly:
8% Picnic tables
49% Cairn at 4,300 ft
80% Flat Rock
92% Gateway to traverse [long burned log hangs over the trail]

If you memorize those numbers, you will have a good idea of how far you have come and how far to go.

Your time to the Cairn should be about SIX times your time to the picnic tables. So if you are at the picnic tables in 40 minutes, you should be at the Cairn in 6*40=240 minutes or 4 hours

Your time to Flat Rock should be about TEN times your time to the picnic tables. So if you took 50 minutes to get to the Picnic Tables you should be at Flat Rock in 10*50=500 minutes or 8 hours and 20 minutes.

The time from Flat Rock to the Crest is ONE QUARTER of your total time to Flat Rock. So if you were at Flat Rock in say 8 hours you have an additional 2 hours to go.

and a quote from Cy

My time is as follows -
Picnic Tables - 800 ft gain in one mile - 35 minutes
Cairn at 4300 ft - 3800 gain in 5 miles - 3 hours 30 minutes
Flatrock at 5900 ft - 5500 ft gain in 9 miles - 6 hours
Long Valley - 8200 ft gain in 11 miles - 8 hours.

To help first timers estimate their time, could others post their condition, time of year and time(s) if known for your hike up?

I've seen wonderful information put up by the people on this board but it is scattered over many topics.

[lee]

06-24-2007

http://shim1.shutterfly.com/procgserv/4 ... YtWThm3bMe

[Kellaroo]

Last Sun (4/13), my friend Vickie and myself attempted to go from museum to tram for the first time. Our goal was to hike as high as we felt safe, especially regarding the icy sections we had read about. No crampons or ice axe but we did find the icy sections to have enough footholes to traverse safely. Sometimes we lost the trail in the snow but we always managed to find enough leading foot tracks to get us back on trail. We made it to the tram in about 11.5 hours.

Picnic Tables - 45 minutes
Cairn at 4300 ft - 4 hours 30 minutes
Flatrock at 5900 ft - 7 hours 30 minutes
Long Valley - 11 hours 30 minutes

We met Tinaballina and Bivouac a little before Flat Rock and Torben (with saw in hand!) before Coffman's Crag.

Great route (trail)! We had a good time and will be back to improve our time and go for the summit. Thanks for all the useful posts to help us plan our adventure.

[magikwalt]

I spent a fair number of trips on the route wearing a heartrate monitor and used it to experiment with how best for me to work the hike. Thanks to ZippetyDude for some early advice. Basically I try to take the mean sections more slowly. Duh huh! I have a tendency to push through them too hard and then pay for it with a lack of legs later in the hike.

Specifically I move up to the picnic tables slower than feels normal. After that I pick it up to a normal pace. Coming out of a slot at 2200ft or so, just shy of the shady area, I slow it down again until I am through the shady area. After that I am back up to normal.

Prior to 5,000ft there is a climbing portion that I dislike due to having slipped twice in loose scree. I go slow now. And then going up from Flat Rock Cy taught me to cut my steps a little and it really helped me to keep a steady pace.

From the end of the traverse to the crest is all blurry but I know my legs don't like it.

I like the math that has been put forward. It is a great tool to help people understand the pacing. The only thing I would add it that the time you spend getting to the picnic tables needs to be a "talking pace".

[hvydrt]

7 hours to tram, 10.5 to summit in cool fall weather.

[Tim Le]

I did C2C last October. This was a first time solo trip.

6.5 hrs to tram, 0.5 hrs rest, 3.5 hrs to summit, 2.5 hrs to descend, 13 hrs total

My pace isn't particularly fast. I just try to not stop often--maybe once every 2 hrs to reapply sunscreen and grab a bite to eat. I started at 7am. Temps that day were 90° at the museum and still about 90° at 3000 ft. It didn't cool off significantly until 5,000+ ft.

[KathyW]

When I pushed and the trail is clear of snow last year I made it up to Long Valley in 7 hours. I'd like to get down closer to 6 hours, but I don't know if I ever will. This past Saturday I got up Iron Mtn (8007') in the San Gabriels in 5.5 hours, so that was 1200 feet gain/hour, which is about the same amount of gain per hour that I do on Skyline. I tend to think in terms of elevation gain per hour and not mile per hour.

Once I get up above 10,000 feet elevation my gain/hour goes down and by the time I get above 12,000 feet elevation I might only be gaining 500 feet/hour. The thin air zaps me.

I might not get up the Skyline Trail until May this year, but maybe the trail will be nice and clear then and I can go all the way to the summit of San Jacinto.

[Rick M]

It's been 30 years since I did the Skyline so this afternoon (6pm) I hiked up to the picnic tables. Somehow I was thinking a good time was 25 minutes and I was busting butt just to make it in 27 minutes. I don't think I could have kept that pace all the way to the tram. I think Cy's pace would be more to my liking.