High routes
Chris Barrett, Paul Bennett, and I met on one of Andrew’s guided trips in 2015. Out of a group of eight, the three of us seemed to really hit it off. By the trip’s last day I was already lobbying for us to meet up again on one of Andrew’s trips the following year. Unfortunately,…
A panorama from the Gannett Glacier Last summer I attempted to thru-hike the Wind River High Route with Douglas Wahl and Chris Austin, traveling north from Bruce Bridge Trailhead outside of Lander. We made it to Dinwoody Creek — the start of Section 4, which is considered the crux of the route — in four days, but an…
By Rud Platt, Krishna Dayanidhi, and Nathan Roseberry We met in Alaska in 2013 on a guided trip with Andrew and Alan Dixon, and have gone on several backpacking excursions in the lower 48 since then. This year we opted for Loop 8 of the Wind River High Route, reportedly one of the hardest and most spectacular section hikes. That proved to be…
For my next trip on the Glacier Divide Route, what should I remember from this past one? Logistics The drive to Glacier National Park from Colorado is intimidating — about 15 hours, depending on the final destination. But it wasn’t terrible, and it’s eye-opening to know that I can reach Glacier in 1.5 days even if I’m…
When I first saw Dave’s sketch of a high route through his beloved Glacier National Park, its appeal was not immediately obvious to me. Unlike more familiar lines (Roper’s, Winds, Kings Canyon), which generally hug major watershed divides by hopping between lightly traveled basins via off-trail passes, Dave’s line appeared to be a contrived ribbon…
Earlier this month I completed the Wind River High Route, a project that I’d been working on since 2008 and that I left frustratingly incomplete after a failed attempt last year with Buzz Burrell and Peter Bakwin. It took me about 4.25 days to complete the 95-mile trip, which has 60,000+ vertical feet of change and which is two-thirds off-trail.…
An assortment of takeaways from my Kings Canyon High Basin Route thru-hike earlier this month. They are mostly a reminder for me, but maybe they’ll have some value for you, too. If any prompt a question, leave a comment. Gear Pack weight. Take a handheld digital scale to the trailhead for a final weigh-in of all gear, supplies, and food. This…
Earlier this month I completed the Kings Canyon High Basin Route in its entirety, plus several more of its alternates and section-hike segments. All told, my 204-mile route featured 70,000 vertical feet of gain and 102 miles of off-trail travel, and I completed it in about 9.5 days. For much of the route, it was my second…
Since the end of the Alaska-Yukon Expedition over four years ago, hundreds of times I’ve been asked, “So what’s your next big adventure?” Relative to what I had just done, and relative to some of my other big efforts like the Sea-to-Sea Route, Great Western Loop, or even Leadville 100, my answers always felt lame.…
Last week I was in Wyoming’s Wind River Range with Buzz Burrell and Peter Bakwin, trying to complete a route that we’ve been eyeing for years and plotting for months. In short, we failed, due to an oversight in our gear selection and route planning. Perhaps inspired by the increasingly popular Sierra High Route, there…
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