2017 Sierra Challenge

The 2017 Sierra Challenge just finished up. This year I felt less ready than I have in past years, although I have done a bit of mountain training and can still plod up mountains off the couch. Especially for the first days I just tried to do the designated challenge peaks. This was both due to the weather (with afternoon lightning) and my feeling pretty tired. I never stopped feeling tired, but I reached a steady state and most everyone else got tired too. Most days I was able to keep up or at least within sight of the lead group up to the peak, On the way down sometimes I tried to keep up and others I just dropped into plod gear (but also had more time to take photos). This was a high snow year and I brought crampons and ice axe on most days. I also enjoyed some of the best boot (or running shoe) skiing I have ever had.

a pretty lake on the way down from 4 Gables. I sort of wanted to slide down the snow into the water

Bob and Alberto scramble from Wahoo peak onto Glacier Divide

Iris scrambles up Woods Peak

the moon heading down behind Nameless Pyramid (day 7)

Matt on the descent from the Sharktooth

The faster people ended up either taking a day off or doing alternate peaks on some days, so by virtue of being the only one who did all of this year's challenge peaks I won the Yellow Jersey. I also came in second for the "king of the mountain" polka dot jersey with 19 peaks - way way behind Scott with some 40 peaks I think (I am not sure exactly how many he got - he had many epic long days in the mountains). I actually finished with the stage winners 3 days, although on one day they started a few minutes late so were actually faster.

The total miles and altitude gain for just doing the challenge peaks was about 151 miles and 60,200 feet of elevation gain although with the bonus peaks I am sure I did a little bit more.

Iris models the 2017 Sierra Challenge shirt - and list of peaks

As usual I didn't get enough sleep but by not doing lots of bonus peaks I didn't end up with multiple days of sleep deprivation (although I did end up with only a few hours one night).


I would like to thank Bob Burd and all of the other participants for making this challenge so much "fun". It is a lot more fun to have big days and suffering with friends. I also had help from Leki (their trekking poles kept me going and upright when I don't think my feet alone were enough), Evolv and Altra for footwear. I wore the Evolv Maximus on days where I expected steep snow and scrambling/climbing and the Altra Lone Peak for longer days. Prana for Stretch Zion pants - with and without zip off legs, a Tilley Hat, Cotton Carrier for helping me lug around my brick of a dslr, and Columbia for an Omni-Shade shirt (more on this later I hope) and an ultralight raincoat.

For a lot more details check out Bob Burds web page...

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2017/

Hopefully someday I'll have a real trip report with details and pics from every day.

That day is today, Check out the trip reports here:

2017 Sierra Challenge Part One:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/sierrachallenge2017.html

2017 Sierra Challenge Part Two:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/sierrachallenge2017b.html

2014 Sierra Challenge starts tomorrow... gulp

Somehow despite knowing the dates months in advance, the 2014 Sierra Challenge is suddenly here. While I wouldn't say I am completely unprepared, I don't think one can ever be really prepared for something like this, and I think I was better prepared in 2011 and 2012 when I did it before. I only did one day in 2013 because that was when the concrete was poured in my place and because the end was truncated with the tragic death of Pat Hadley.

This year's Challenge averages 16.4 miles a day with 5,820 feet of elevation gain. That assumes you don't get too lost or do additional peaks.

You can see the individual peaks and maps and so on here on Bob's Page:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2014/

It is likely that there will be some updates as the days progress here:

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/2014-sierra-challenge-aug-15-24-t67565.html

I'll try to have my spot tracker going - it can be seen here:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Dc9Uh3Nfi5gSoXCZcVqStstGq6beNZ8X

Thanks to Bob Burd for organizing this extravaganza of hiking and suffering. It is a lot of work and it is nice to not have to think too hard in trip planning sometimes. To anyone thinking about joining for a day or all the days - do it.

For all the challenge participants, in the words of the Roman gladiators:

morituri te salutamus

Sean and Pat plotting their course in 2013

2012 Sierra Challenge - take 1

I would like to write up a nice trip report for the 2012 Sierra Challenge with lots of pretty pictures and gruesome detail. That won't happen for a while, so meanwhile I will say that I did complete the challenge and it was challenging. I managed 17 peaks total for 2cd for the polka dot jersey - not really contested as Sean could have blown me out of the water any day. I was a very distant 4th for the yellow jersey - only by virtue of completing all of the challenge peaks. I need to stop carrying a dslr and learn to run down mountains if I want to compete in this category.

Sunrise on day 6 - an "easy" day

This challenge started out easily enough but quickly turned rough with a lot of rain and some brutal days at the end. Even the approaches to some of the trailheads were hard.

To make things even more challenging I twisted my ankle on the approach to Mt Carl Heller and then climbed and downclimbed the E ridge and exited George Creek. It was sort of hurting and quite swollen that night. The next (and thankfully last) day involved some 26 miles and 8700 feet of vertical - you see how it was. There were also more early starts - as early as 4 am and plenty of 5 am starts. This did help us to get onto the summits before the rain and more importantly the lightning. The weather did deter me from trying to get more bonus peaks - so did the fact that I got pretty exhausted.

There were many incredible people participating in the challenge. It was humbling and inspiring to get dusted by people many years older than me and those with full time jobs that live near sea level. Still, I think just completing the challenge is a worthy accomplishment.

Because I am lazy I will post some links now...

Bob Burd - the instigator's - website

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2012/

He posted some more links here:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2012/reports.html

A thread on summitpost with some trip reports and extraneous chatter

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/http-www-snwburd-com-bob-challenge-2012-t61880.html

Sean's Blog - he describes what he did every day - I was with him for most of day 2 and 9

http://drdirtbag.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/matterhorn-whorl/

Rain on the lake below Mt Mendel - it continued back from here up over Tamarack pass

At some point I'd like to talk about every day and some of the my gear choices - such as using a cotton carrier for my camera, but that will have to wait for later.

Backpacker Sierra Challenge Article

The August Backpacker magazine is out and it features a photo essay on the 2011 Sierra Challenge by Michael Darter. There are lots of awesome pics made more awesome by the fact that 5 include me (even if one is a repeat in the table of contents and I am a dot in another). Still it is pretty dang cool. Check it out. (page 78 to 83 or so - titled "Summit Fever")

The first page - note yours truly representing with the
Yogaslacker shirt in the upper left

update: they have now posted some online... http://www.backpacker.com/2012-august-sierra-challenge/destinations/16772

Meanwhile I have been hiking and peak bagging in the Sierra again. I can pretend I am training for the 2012 Sierra Challenge although I fear that no matter what I do the actual challenge will be quite challenging. Hopefully I can get more trip reports finished up.

Here is one for the Mount Whitney Mountaineers Route...

trip report for scrambling up the Mount Whitney Mountaineers Route

End of the Challenge and a long drive

I finished up the Sierra Challenge with an 18 hour push from Whitney Portal. It was a long day but I did manage to squeek out a victory in the race for the polka dot jersey. Then I crashed in the back of the truck.

It is a long long way across this country

My next mission was to drive across the country for my cousin's wedding. I stopped off in Manzanar to take a few pics and my truck wouldn't start- the key would only turn a bit in the lock. After much messing and wiggling and so on I gave up and got it towed to Lone Pine to get the lock replaced. Unfortunately they had a bit of a search for a replacement. but eventually it was replaced and I could be on my way. By 7 pm I was heading north out of Bishop. I got well into Nevada before I needed to stop for some sleep. The next day I had a blowout on highway 6. It took about an hour to get out the jack and put on the spare and during that time about 5 people passed me. Between changing the tire and then buying a new one that wasted a few more hours. I was able to pick up my backpack which I left in SLC. Thanks Bob. I slept somewhere in the middle of Wyoming that night. The 3rd day was a long one, the rest of Wyoming, all of Nebraska - and it is a lot, and all of Iowa. I didn't get very far into Illinois before I had to sleep though. Then another long day taking me through the rest of Ill, Indiana, Ohio, and much of PA. That allowed me to make it to Boston around noon on Friday. oof.

The wedding was nice even if we were starting to get the front of Hurricane Irene. The next day we elected to stay home and not drive. The storm brought a lot of rain and wind and a few downed branches with about 2 hours with no electricity. It seemed to mostly hit to the west of us. My brother however had to be back for work on Monday and as a consequence had to rent a car and drive all the way to Rochester to get a flight. oof. He did make it though.

I started on my trip report for the Sierra Challenge here:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/schallenge2011.html

I hope to continue improving it though.

2011 Sierra Challenge Day 4

2011 Sierra Challenge Day 4 - lots and lots of sierra day hiking and peak bagging, that is for sure.

4 days, 9 peaks, lots of miles (80 or more?) and lots and lots of vertical. I am tired.

I made spot tracker pages for each day... (1 - 4 in order)

 http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=272783

 http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=272784

 http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=272785

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=272786

I think I have the virtual polka dot jersey for "king of the mountain" - most peaks. I am nowhere near the yellow leader jersey for the fastest times though (doing bonus peaks hurts that, so does being slow and taking photos).

so far so good, although I am tired.

upcoming suffering - the 2011 Sierra Challenge.

This year I plan to participate in the 2011 Sierra Challenge. Basically 10 days of long day hikes to mostly obscure peaks with between 15 and 25 miles of hiking and 4,000 to 6,000+ feet of elevation gain. Sounds great eh? Unfortunately about 2/3 of the way through a hike up to the top of Wheeler Peak on Tuesday I started feeling lousy. By that evening I was pretty miserable with a general weak feeling and everything from the neck up being very unhappy. I went to bed by 8 and didn't get up until 7:30 the next morning except to drink water and go to the bathroom (breathing through my mouth made me very dehydrated). I feel better today, but this isn't how I would like to feel a few days before 10 grueling days are about to start.


Some more info on the Sierra Challenge can be found here:

http://www.snwburd.com/bob/challenge/2011/

with a summitpost page here that might have updates once things start.

http://www.summitpost.org/phpBB3/2011-sierra-challenge-aug-12-21-t58180.html

I will take my spot tracker with me, so you might be able to track my daily progress here:


http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0Dc9Uh3Nfi5gSoXCZcVqStstGq6beNZ8X

I'll try to update things from time to time, but I might just curl up and go to sleep after every day rather than get online and update things.



here is my spot track page for Wheeler Peak

http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view/?trip_id=271694