Wind River High Route - Skurka version
Hello All,
I’m looking for a partner, or perhaps a small group, to attempt the Andrew Skurka-version Wind River High Route starting in late August / possibly extending in to September. Ideally, I’d like to find someone already planning to do this or with the wherewithal to do this solo but who simply wants a partner for safety (that’s my situation and mindset). Here is the “about” page from Skurka’s website: https://andrewskurka.com/adventures/...er-high-route/
This will likely be the most difficult trip I’ve ever done with 65 miles off-trail ( 97 miles total) and over 30,000 vertical feet of climbing (but I expect, also the most rewarding). I estimate 10 days on-trail with no resupply, but given the nature of this endeavor it could go shorter (likely in the case of a bail-out) or longer (for various reasons). My dates aren’t set yet, I can adjust if needed, but I’d rather not risk early-season snow by starting too late. If you’ve already planned to do this then you know this won’t be a blissful, mindless, mile-crunching hike: it will have some stress about it with constant route-finding, navigation checks, weather watching, speed and distance calculations, etc… I’m also ready to fail and bail if needed. After all, it is a recreational outing and not do or die. 😊
This seems weird to post this much about myself but it's relevant in the context of a meet-up for this adventure: I’m 46 years old, and an avid backpacker; I’ve done over 8000 miles of backpacking in the last decade. I work full time but go out almost every weekend (44 trips last year out of 52 weeks). For the last 6 years, I’ve averaged about 1000 miles of backpacking per year. The majority of my experience is on-trail but over the last few years I’ve been doing solo off-trail trips in the Southern Appalachians. These types of trips often involve following old, overgrown, and faded routes (known as “manways” locally) or using creeks as hand rails and hiking in the creek while climbing falls and cascades, or bush-whacking through heinous rhododendron (my least favorite).
I live in East Tennessee and so the southern apps are my goto, but I usually go out to the western US about once a year to backpack in some new area or mountain range. Here are some of the places I’ve trekked: Sierra out of Mineral King, Grand Canyon (Rim to Rim to Rim), Grand Teton National Park , Four Passes Loop in the Elk Mountains of Colorado (Maroon Bells), Glacier National Park Montana, Weminiche Wilderness , CO .
If you want to peruse for more here are about 100 trip reports on Trailspace.com (the older ones have broken picture links). I wa recently a Reviwer of the Month at Trailspace and they did a little write-up. I bagged my first western peak about 6 years ago in the Sierra (Sawtooth Peak 12,343) and have since done five fourteeners in CO: Snowmass, Sunlight, Windom, Eolus, North Eolus. I’ve done occasional class 4 moves but never with a full pack. I’m not a rock climber or mountaineer and will choose my routes accordingly.
As far as navigational skills, I’ve done years of terrain association with topo maps, I’m proficient with dead reckoning (determining distance based on rate and speed), and I’ve done quite a bit of route-finding in my home terrain. I know compass basics as far as transferring bearings from the map to the field and vice versa as well as how to triangulate but have not used these skills extensively. I’ve been practicing for this trip though.
If you are interested please reply back to this thread and /or send a private message to discuss more details.
Happy Trails!
patrick
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Originally Posted by Dogwood
