I dont want to rewrite all this here, so heres the link to my
write up about our r2r2r, Im sure everyone has there own unique
story! cant wait to see when others post

heres the link
http://sangabrielmnts.myfreeforum.org/R2R2R_aka_holy_crap_why_are_we_doing
_this_ina
_snowstorm__about4586.html

Edited by everyday on 04/15/2012 14:20:06 MDT.

Tried the link. No page found.

R2R2R_aka_holy_crap_why_are_we_doing%0A_this_ina%0A_snowstorm__about4586.html

page not found

Edited by kthompson on 04/15/2012 18:02:54 MDT.

Um, i dunno, i highlighted it just now to check and then clicked the "go to" option n it went right to it...and the COPY n paste option worked right now too, you sure u highlighted the whole thing? You can also just search for San gabriel mountain discussion forum, and its in Trip Reports , you dont have to be a member to read their stuff :)

Edited by everyday on 04/15/2012 14:40:21 MDT.

Nice report and pictures of the BPL R2R2R group run, thanks Torrey.

Edited by thomdarrah on 04/15/2012 14:41:36 MDT.

Torrey's trip report/pictures

http://tinyurl.com/8y4b98h

Edited by jshann on 04/15/2012 15:53:38 MDT.

When do we get the patented Eugenius trip report, that is so good it makes most of us never post a trip report?

Wow, torrey! Sounds like it was a really intense run. Nicely done.

Thank you John for making that link more manageable! I know a few of the other guys will be posting reports when they get home, mine's only up so fast 'cause I live here, i never left home, just spent the day in my backyard :)

Looked absolutely miserable. Great report! Thanks for sharing.

Great report Torrey. Full value conditions for sure.

"I dont want to rewrite all this here, so heres the link to my
write up about our r2r2r, Im sure everyone has there own unique
story! cant wait to see when others post"

Great report, Torrey. Sounds like a real epic, and it's good to know everyone finished safely.

You guys are the real deal.

I don't know about ya'll.....but I'm still grinning and reliving some fun times.

The conditions were definitely challenging/demanding and I think everyone did a great job of dealing with all that came along with it. I was really, really impressed with the way that everyone took care of each other/made sure everyone was all right.

All in all.....a fantastic day with great people. I wish we would have had more time to hang out and get to know each other.

Huge thanks to Craig for making the mugs!

PS. Greg is the fastest "hiker" I've ever seen.

Edited by donkey on 04/15/2012 17:42:58 MDT.

Great write up about a real adventure. Good for you Torrey. Sounds like you had some great company as well. Glad everyone is ok and hopefully no one will hurt too much from this. Thanks for the report!

Very impressive what the nine of you did. I read Torrey's report. 41 miles with all that up and down, and then snow. One of the most brutal--if stunningly beautiful-- day trips I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing.

Every so often I believe you have to push yourself outside your comfort zone in order to expand your mental limits. So when the opportunity presented itself to trail run the Grand Canyon it was an obvious next crusade. But I was a fairly competent fast hiker (not world class, maybe just county or large township class) not a trail runner. So the conversion from hiker to trail runner began. During my training I built up to 40 miles with more elevation gain than R2R2R so I thought myself ready.

The R2R2R trip had a special significance to me. Twenty years ago I walked from the South rim to the River and back on the Bright Angel Trail. In spite of being in decent shape I couldn’t get out of bed the next day, I was trashed. So could my much older body more than double what trashed the twenty some year old version of me? I am in denial that I’m getting older and this event would continue to perpetuate this fantasy.


Tourist View

My wife and I arrive at the Grand Canyon on Friday morning. After a quick tourist round we waited in the campground as the motley crew of BPL’ers slowly assembled. It was great to meet some of folks that I internet knew for a couple of years. You could feel the anticipation in the air. The weather was forecasted to deteriorate and I thought there was half a chance that there would be a push to leave early while the weather was still good. A group went out to the S. Kaibab trailhead and read the signs declaring death and destruction for those that do anything but a couple of miles into the canyon. One sign declared that a Rim to River trip is an overnight trip. They didn’t say anything about our little adventure but it’s safe to say that the Park wouldn’t be supportive.


Where was our run/hike?


Visitors at Camp

Saturday morning came quickly. I actually woke up on my own at 3:50am since my body was still on Eastern Time. We drove through the fresh accumulating snow to the trailhead and arrived at the agreed upon time, 4:30am. But none of the group had yet arrived. Two female runners took off for their R2R2R and I waited. Soon Brian and Josh arrived and we ended up leaving at 5am. For the first few miles there was snow on the trail and at times it was nearly whiteout conditions in the narrow beam of my headlamp.


Heading Down South Rim


Colorado River


Brian and Josh before they became a diappearing flash

We hit Phantom ranch in a bit over 1:30 but it soon became obvious that Brian and Josh were much stronger runners than I. They ran the modest elevation gain of the first 10 miles up to the North Rim while I fell back to fast hiking; it seemed that I had already blown out my quads and calves on the descent off the South Rim. The weather at the Canyon bottom was perfect but you could see the clouds building on the North Rim and a clear band of snow at the top.


Bright Angel Drainage

Just past Roaring Springs the sleet started followed by snow. The trail was cover with a couple of inches of snow increasing to about six at the top. The snow, combined with the steep ascent and elevation slowed my progress down. But I hit the North Rim at exactly 11:00am, six hours into the trip. At that point I decide that I would attempt to hit a 12 hour finish. So down I went off the North rim. I soon passed the rest of our group, the two females that started earlier and another large group from Salt Lack City. Additionally there were several backpackers that were going from Cottonwood Camp up to the North Rim and back. The entire mass of R2R2R humanity was spread on the final switch backs above the tunnel.


Snowy North Rim View

The trip down to Roaring Springs was uneventful. The trail was mucky, the wind gusting and intermittent snow and sleet would hit. I took my first break, 20 minutes, at mile 27, refueling and taking my traditional triple shot of caffeine, electrolytes and Vitamin I. I hit Phantom Ranch slightly ahead of schedule and quickly shot up the inner south wall. That’s when things became interesting. The wind picked up, the snow began and the trail went from mule induced muck to snow. But a much bigger problem loomed. My legs were shot, specifically my quads and calves and my knees were screaming. I looked back to see when Eugene would catch me. (I was convinced that everyone else was fresh and prepared and it was only me that pushed too hard – too early.) But I couldn’t see anybody else on trail in either direction and I could see several miles of trail. It was a bit lonely on that ridge but I was still on track for a 12 hour finish

I slowly climbed out of the canyon and my 12 hour goal blew away with the snow. It took me a full 1:30 to do the last 3.5 miles but I was just happy to be safely up on the rim. After a long hot shower I returned to the trailhead and Eugene and Adan had just come over the top. But we were all worried because there were still 6 of our group remaining in the increasingly crappy weather. A couple of hours later, Craig and Torrey made it out. That left a group of three. Finally at about 10pm word came back that they came out the Bright Angel Trailhead. There was an audible sigh of relief. The group made it to the local pizza place and swapped war stories. The stress of the day was clearly visible on the group’s faces. We also met all of the other R2R2R runners that day. It was a great evening.


Spent

I am very sore from this runner in spite of all training that I completed. I believe for most of us, there is no training that could keep the pain at bay. The long ascents and especially the descents cause your legs to tire very quickly because there is no break. I was happy with my overall pace of the day but I was humbled by Brian and Josh. It was clear that I needed a lot more experience before I could consider myself a trailrunner.

But back to the original goal…. I am able to move today, sometimes a bit of a hobble but still motion. So I can continue to be in denial that I’m aging. In fact if the same improvement can be made from 46-66 that happened between 26-46 then maybe there will be a triple crossing in my future. Or maybe a triple ascent of all three corridor trails, hmmmm. I can only continue to believe.

Edited by gg-man on 04/21/2012 08:39:58 MDT.

My legs are good! the muscle on the front of my thighs are a lil bit sore, but thats it. Maybe cause theyre used ta going up Kaibab all the time? Or cause i was slower/didnt push as hard maybe. I dunno, im good to go back to work today though, and out for a short run after. It was really nice meeting you Greg, 'n everyone else! Lotsa fun! Ima go across and back again ina couple weeks (sometime between may 5th n 10th ) in normal weather to see how i do when not frozen!

The greatest bunch of guys, and girl, I would want to share an adventure with.
Great job everyone.

as you can see in the photos below, there was no snow when we went to bed that night thinking the weather warnings were a false alarm.
the storm came while we slept, and continued the entire day of the adventure.

here is most of the group in a strategy meeting the night before.

Edited by asandh on 04/16/2012 08:40:25 MDT.

I took three flights, got to PHX, picked up Mike, and drove to GCNP. Mike had been checking the weather and it sounded ominous. Alaska had had such a cold and snowy winter, that I hadn't gotten in enough training and I knew it. Rim to river and back? Sure! But I wasn't sure how more than that would be reasonable.

We met Torrey who had very kindly scored us a half-price room and went to the campground to meet the rest of the crew. We talked timing and weather, chatted about gear, sipped our beers and watched the elk wander thru camp.

I woke before my alarm and there was new snow on the ground. I've done a lot of canyon trips and it just seemed bizarre to not be in shorts. At 5 am, it was still coming down and blowing and everyone wanted to get started and down into better conditions. Mike and Torrey took off running after 15 minutes and I was on my own.

I felt okay at the river but not perfect so I knew I wasn't going all the way. Another 7 miles and I'd reached about half baked and turned around. I'd never been to Ribbon Falls so I made that detour. There's a mossy, misty, glen around the bottom of the falls that reminded me of the base of a very isolated falls in a remote side canyon of the Colorado where we'd scattered our son Wesley's ashes (named after the ethnographer and original river runner).

Going back to Phantom was fine, a bought a few lemonades at the Canteen and chatted with rafters on a 23-day private trip.

Going up was slow - it wasn't a problem to keep moving, but this was MUCH more excretion in a day than I've got under my belt before my hiking season has even started.

(editted to add the following - my posting got interupted by, "Airplane doors are closing, please turn off your electronics")

The snow returned halfway up and just got heavier and windier. The A-Team passed me and I was amazed my rental car was already running - Mike had gone past me when I detoured to Ribbon Falls so he'd been warming in the rental car for 45 minutes. I found out the last shuttle bus would leave at 8:20 and absolutely didn't want to leave anyone without a warm car to jump in. When our (hopefully) last South Kaibab hikers arrived, attention shifted to the Bright Angel and Mike and I drove over to check it out. We spotted John just as we got there and Art and Martin were only 20 minutes behind him.

It seemed the most helpful thing we could do then was make phone calls to reassure everyone and then order pizza. I and some hiking companions got moderately hypothermic a few times 30 years ago and I'm really conscious about it now. Most of the runners coming in were about 94F. A few were 92-93F, their exertion having surpressed the shivering. Guys were taking 45 to 90 minutes to get mostly warmed up again. So I offered the hot shower in our hotel room (rather than jumping naked into their sleeping bag with them).

It was a great bunch of guys and gal, I was really impressed by the athletism of the runners, their pain tolerance, and how the group came together and looked out for each other. It was a heck of a kick-off to my hiking season and great motivation to be better conditioned for my next death march.

Edited by DavidinKenai on 04/16/2012 22:06:29 MDT.

Great reports, what an amazing and *inspiring* adventure!

Thanks for the pictures and stories. I can hardly wait to hear more!