|
Post by absarokanaut on Jan 16, 2024 9:23:43 GMT -8
worldtravelling.com/the-21-hard-to-impossible-hikes-in-america-ranked/Another inane marketing piece but fun nonetheless. Cascade Canyon is unequivocally one of the easiest hikes in Grand Teton. No Wind River high Route or any other in the Range? No East Osceola or others in the Whites? Several I've done and wouldn't put on the list and several I'd put on the list that are not. The hardest "hike" I've ever done was the Absaroka Range's Ramshorn Round from East Six Mile Creek. I was solo, saw grizzlies, and flirted with 5th class in a few places. What's the hardest hike of any length you've done? Here's a view looking back down the ascent route of Ramshorn Round down towards very infrequently traveled East Sixmile Creek.
|
|
downriver
Trail Wise!
Posts: 884
Member is Online
|
Post by downriver on Jan 16, 2024 13:56:03 GMT -8
I figured the hardest hike you take these days is the trek you take from the barstool at your favorite watering hole to your single wide trailer home…LOL…
DR
|
|
|
Post by marmotstew on Jan 16, 2024 16:01:37 GMT -8
Huh. Probably when my friend slid down a 50 or so foot of snow and crash landed into a bunch of boulders/shrubbery/ whatnot. He’s was ok, sort of, scrapes cuts maybe broken finger. Maybe it was “hard” because of the measures I thought I would have taken to deal with it.
Are you two having a moment?
|
|
|
Post by High Sierra Fan on Jan 16, 2024 18:43:41 GMT -8
The hardest I’ve heard of? I’d say one of those nutjob eastern “trails” with the ladders and iron bar step rails straight up a granite cliff. Acadia has some seriously demented routes like that.
Hardest I’ve done possibly was a route that included trail less miles of talus at elevation after dropping into the headwaters of the North Fork of the San Joaquin down a 1500 foot plus talus chute right at the angle of repose and live: meaning at every heavy step everything for about ten feet around moved and would make these noises. Rocks the size of kitchen tables.
Not hard technically but that was a couple of days of judging every single foot fall at the risk of twisting or breaking something. A constant level of concentration that was pretty demanding.
|
|
|
Post by High Sierra Fan on Jan 16, 2024 19:02:29 GMT -8
Roper’s off trail The Sierra High Route and the manicured John Muir Trail are 1 & 3 respectively and BOTH “Class 5”?
On. What. Planet?
|
|
walkswithblackflies
Trail Wise!
Resident terrorist-supporting eco-freak bootlicker
Posts: 6,934
|
Post by walkswithblackflies on Jan 16, 2024 20:08:11 GMT -8
The Great Range Traverse isn't listed but THIS is?
35. Artists Bluff Trail, Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire Artists Bluff Trail is a 0.5-mile roundtrip hike in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire. Despite its moderate-to-hard difficulty, the trail presents a steep ascent, gaining 200 feet in elevation.
I literally RUN up local hills that are taller, and longer, and just as steep.
-----------
I've done both the Great Range and Presidential Range as dayhikes. Also a couple of 20-mile hikes in the Colorado San Juans... one of which I just described in the Where the !@#$ are We thread. There are other hikes I've done that are typically moderate, but were extremely hard when I did them, typically due to external factors such as weather. Numerous bushwhacks as well, but that doesn't seem to be in the spirit of the thread.
|
|
rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,687
|
Post by rebeccad on Jan 17, 2024 11:09:25 GMT -8
Maybe hardest I’ve done as part of a backing route is Alpine Col in the Sierra. Part of the Sierra High Route and a nasty long way of car-sized boulders to scramble over and around.
|
|
|
Post by hikerjer on Jan 17, 2024 21:39:51 GMT -8
My hardest hikes tend to be measured by number of consecutive hours walked and number of miles covered rather than by terrain.
|
|
|
Post by bluefish on Jan 18, 2024 2:39:06 GMT -8
I've done a number of the trails listed, none have been harder than off trail adventures, whether they have been in the Sierra, or in the east. My hardest was likely in the Superstitions with thorny brush, cacti and steep, loose rock being the main impediments. Great trips involve seeing zero people for me. Or maybe the Palisade Glacier jumping from boulder to VW size boulder and them MOVING underneath my feet, meanwhile hearing the melting glacier roaring way down beneath them. Several bouldering and small face problems, too. Whitney was easy in comparison, though I've not done it in bad weather or ice and snow. I shouldn't really comment, though, these trails are in my rear view mirror, now.
|
|
Westy
Trail Wise!
Diagnosed w/Post-Trail Transition Syndrome
Posts: 1,960
|
Post by Westy on Jan 18, 2024 5:20:34 GMT -8
Whilst I'm sure there are many, none of them immediately came to mind. Conventional wisdom might suggest an outing that failed the first time and required a re-do. None of those popped into my mind. This morning, my brain clicked on remembrance of LaPlata Peak (14,366') on June 18, 1989, via The Northwest Ridge 9.4 mi. RT, 4,256' Class 2.
The evening before I closed a bar in Buena Vista. The hike was accomplished with a severe, painful hangover. I was one hurting unit. The remembrance makes me feel sick even this morning.
|
|
|
Post by marmotstew on Jan 18, 2024 6:33:58 GMT -8
There’s been some sorta dicey off trail stuff in places nobody’s has ever heard of. But In planning to go backpacking I don’t think to myself, “I want to make this as painful as possible.”
These kinds of topics always make me wonder about people. There are some people I know that “love the outdoors” But often think they are more into the adrenaline aspect and checking off boxes. How many days on the slopes you got this year, how many 14ers you’ve bagged this week? How many pitches you climbed this morning? HYOH I guess. But being in Boulder for extended amounts of time often makes me nauseous.
|
|
driftwoody
Trail Wise!
Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
Posts: 15,002
Member is Online
|
Post by driftwoody on Jan 18, 2024 10:00:23 GMT -8
My hardest hikes tend to be measured by number of consecutive hours walked and a miles covered rather than by terrain. Same for me, but especially hikes which relentlessly gain considerable elevation. I do not undertake hikes that require technical climbing. The occasional diffucult spot requiring hands is fun, as long as I can carefully navigate without serious risk.
|
|
driftwoody
Trail Wise!
Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
Posts: 15,002
Member is Online
|
Post by driftwoody on Jan 18, 2024 10:20:10 GMT -8
Hiking to the top of Angels Landing in Zion was fun. Not difficult technically, with chains to grasp along the narrow spine. Mentally, some people can't overcome anxiety for the exposure. The only dicey part for me was on the way down, passing people in the conga line coming up.
Red River Gorge in Kentucky offers lots of fun. I did retreat once from an established offtrail hike at a rocky exposure that would have been even more risky coming down. Indian Staircase is a very popular and scenic offtrail route that involves ascending a bare sandstone slope which has small rounded depressions for hands & feet carved centuries ago. In my 60's and somewhat overweight I still find it easy, but I saw a young couple balk at going up.
Big South Fork in Tenn/Ky has a feature called Maude's Crack. A long thick rope runs through a narrow cleft (just wide enough so a man doesn't have to turn sideways) in a high sandstone bluff (about 100' from base to top). VERY enjoyable!
|
|
|
Post by High Sierra Fan on Jan 18, 2024 17:39:39 GMT -8
Maybe hardest I’ve done as part of a backing route is Alpine Col in the Sierra. Part of the Sierra High Route and a nasty long way of car-sized boulders to scramble over and around. he really had a thing for those type of chutes didn’t he? Forgetting he was a climber is not a good idea when evaluating his suggestions imho. 😎😎😎 I remembered this when I looked over a drop and realized we had some down climbing to do to reach the talus chute, big jug handholds and foot holds and only about twenty or thirty foot of vertical headwall that was the current source if the freeze thaw talus deposit, but still… Later on it was down a series of cliffs and ledges (Blue Lake Pass) , same thing, route finding for every step with exposure, but in theory not hazardous at all.
|
|
rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,687
|
Post by rebeccad on Jan 18, 2024 19:29:30 GMT -8
My hardest hikes tend to be measured by number of consecutive hours walked and number of miles covered rather than by terrain. You raise the very good point that we need to define terms. Hardest hikes in terms of time and distance? Level of exhaustion at the end? I like either of those better than trying to gauge technical difficulty, which would mean that the hardest thing I’ve ever done would be laughed off as a walk in the park by a serious climber who’s not scared of exposure.
|
|