Wind River High Route

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Three mistakes on the Wind River Range High Route, Attempt #1

By Andrew Skurka / August 8, 2014 /

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…

Glaciers & Granite: Wind River High Route thru-hike photos

By Andrew Skurka / September 14, 2015 /

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.…

A backpacker’s training plan for a 100-mile ultra marathon

By Andrew Skurka / September 16, 2015 /

On Friday I’m racing Run Rabbit Run 100 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The official distance for this ultra marathon is 102.7 miles, though the consensus among participants is more like 107. There is 20,000+ vertical feet of climbing and elevations are often around 10,000 feet. It will be my longest race of the year, and my first 100-mile race since…

Getting after it again: 2015 Year in Review

By Andrew Skurka / December 28, 2015 /

Fifteen months ago, my bitterness reached its peak. The cause was obvious: for four consecutive years, starting with 2011, I had worked too much and adventured too little. Essentially, I had stopped being me. During the first two years, I wasn’t bothered. My work — mostly guiding, speaking, and writing — was novel and challenging,…

An unnecessary explanation for silence

By Andrew Skurka / February 4, 2016 /

For about the last month I’ve mostly checked out of my blog and social media channels, a contrast from months prior. I’ve been busier than normal, but projects behind the scenes are consuming all of my time. Partly to procrastinate before having to work on these things again, I’ll offer an unnecessary explanation for my silence.…

She’s the one: The complete Wind River High Route

By Andrew Skurka / February 10, 2016 /

My guide to the complete Wind River High Route is finally live. This project was first inspired in 2009 while guiding a two-week trip through the range, and this winter it has been my biggest obsession, the focus of 100+ hours of time and the cause for several sleepless nights when it’s been more difficult…

Not reverse psychology: Don’t thru-hike the Wind River High Route

By Andrew Skurka / March 9, 2016 /

“Rudd, Nathan, and I are planning to thru-hike the Wind River High Route this summer,” announced Krishna, as we dug into monstrous burritos at Cafe Mexicali. Krishna was one of my first clients, and he had swung through Boulder while driving back to the Tri-State Area after a month-long ski and work trip in Silverton.…

Northern Crux || Trip Report: Wind River High Route, Loop 8

By Rud Platt / August 24, 2016 /

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…

Finishing it up || Trip report: Wind River High Route, Loop 6

By David Eitemiller / September 26, 2016 /

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…

Repeating myself: Section-hike (don’t thru-hike) the Wind River High Route

By Andrew Skurka / October 3, 2016 /

The Wind River High Route is world-class and represents a “best of” backcountry experience in one of the wildest mountain ranges in the country. A similar statement could be made about the Sierra High Route, Kings Canyon High Basin Route, and Glacier Divide Route. A thru-hike of any one of these routes is likely to be a lifetime memory. But for nearly everyone,…