Bob, thanks for a fascinating and detailed trip report!
I did my own rim to rim to rim hike (over two days) Oct. 13-14. I do at least one R2R2R every year for the past 17 years. I start with my husband on the North Rim, hike to the South Rim, overnight at the Thunderbird, and return the next day by hiking from the South to the North rim.
The trail was dominated this time by trail runners who do the entire 47 miles in one day. These people are in another league of guts and fitness, hats off to them.
I structure my entire year around this hike and make very certain I am in as "perfect" hiking shape as I can possibly be. To prepare, I spend the summers hiking in the Sierras three days a week and always do back to back San Gorgonio hikes in the two weekends preceding a R2R2R. San G. is an 18 mile hike with 5500 elevation gain in So. California, where I live. It's a good shake-down hike prior tot tackling the Grand Canyon.
The heat is my biggest fear in the Canyon, so we start from both rims with headlamps at 3:00 am. Even with starting this early, we hit the corkscrew on the first leg with temps of 85 degrees at 8:45 am!
Having done Whitney many times and the Grand Canyon, I actually think Whitney is harder, probably because the scenery is nothiing special (to me, for the Sierras), and the downhill on Whitney is brutal on the knees.
Congrats again, Bob.
Last edited by FDR; 10/16/12 09:58 AM.
