Route, trail & area guides
In a recent photo essay in Trail Runner, Sunny Stroeer gave a hearty endorsement of the Pfiffner Traverse, for which she set a 55-hour fastest known time (FKT) last summer: “The Pfiffner Traverse is a mountain runner’s dream: miles of smooth, gentle singletrack that flow through high mountain meadows and across infrequently traveled passes along the…
As a distraction from more time-sensitive and critical work, recently I began drafting the Yosemite High Route Guide, which I’m planning to release in late-winter. This first edition will be about 90 percent right; it will need a revision after double- or triple- checking my work and field-researching some minor areas of interest in summer 2019.…
This morning I put the final touches on the First Edition of the Pfiffner Traverse Guide. It was a monstrous project and I’m thrilled to finally have it out there. The Guidebook alone is 23,000 words; the package also includes Mapsets and Datasheets for the Primary Route and for seven Section-hikes. Thankfully I enjoy the…
Years ago I was turned on to Cedar Mesa by Alan Dixon, but needed inspiration this spring from the roamings of Paul Magnanti to plan a trip of my own there. It was a perfect couples trip for Amanda and me: the wilderness that I needed after a winter inside, with an additional and more unique dimension…
Melissa, who is undertaking the Wind River High Route this August, asks: Wireless coverage along the Wind River High Route — and in the Wind River Range, more generally — is poor but possible. Your odds are best from high vantage points with unobstructed views to the high plains east or west. I’m thinking of specific…
Where We Camped, Approximate Daily Mileage Just past “Campsite tr rejoins”. 2m “Protected camps in krumholtz”. Fished. 12m Lake 11,185 below West Gully. 4m Down in the trees just past “Legal camps on trailside benches”. 8m Just past “PR-20” & “Grassy lateral moraines, krumholtz + rockfield clusters”. 9m Outlet of Bewmark Lake. Fished. 7m Just…
“The finest backcountry experience” – The scenery and raw mountain feel were absolutely amazing, but that was somewhat offset by the toll the terrain took on our joints (unstable talus, loose moraines, steep up, steep down, steep up, steep down). With my admittedly modest experience to draw from, I think a route in the High…
Permits To show my respect to this land’s native inhabitants whose way of life my ancestors annihilated, I OF COURSE carried a permit. This is the very least I can do as a visitor. For every soul, culture, and lands lost, for all that “The Res” means, I moved through their ancient home with humility…
“Climb to a high alpine pass, descend to a low point, and repeat.” That’s it. That is Skurka’s WRHR. This is what your body and mind will be doing nearly all day, every day. So want to do this. And consider that you’ll maybe take a little life off your knees. I certainly did because…
Skurka writes that the first 14 miles are, in part, an opportunity to “find your hiking legs”. My pre-trip prep was two weeks of day hiking on trails with pack weight in the Sierra. That in no way prepared my body for what comes quickly: the West Gully descent. I may as well have started…
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