On Wed, Oct 24, 2018, I will start for a solo attempt to cross the Grand Canyon eight (8) times: R2R2R2R2R2R2R2R2R. Or in other words: a quadruple double-crossing. To the best of my knowledge, this has never been attempted. There may be a (good) reason for that. I guess I’ll find out.
Pain and fun as a function of the number of Grand Canyon crossings. Some eggs were hurt in the process, but I made a decent scramble with the remains.
A single south-to-north rim-to-rim crossing on the Kaibab trail is 21 miles long with about 6,000ft of elevation gain. Going the opposite way results in about 5,000ft of elevation gain only (= one Mt. Defiance climb). 8 crossings thus add up to 168 miles with about 44,000ft of elevation gain. Elevation-gain-wise, that is roughly equivalent to climbing Mt. Hood 8 times or Mt. Everest 4 times (from the base camp). Distance-wise, it would be about 24 Hoods or 14 Everests.
Compared to Tor des Géants and other fairly normal challenges I’ve successfully survived, this new challenge looks pretty reasonable. Yet, the canyon comes with additional difficulties: for example, during my first (and so far last) rim-to-rim-to-rim crossing in 2014, when I was training for my first 100mi race, the many steps on the trail—so I hypothesize—nuked my IT band and I ended up injured for weeks. But perhaps I was also not quite ready for this type of load on my body because I had only started the whole running thing 10 months ago.
From the 2014 double-crossing I still clearly remember one thing: I would never ever have wanted to turn around and do another double. Let alone a 3rd or 4th time. It totally beats me how I came up with this 8 crossings idea. I was possibly lured into this evil trap simply because I was intrigued by the many Rs.
[pullquote]I was possibly lured into this evil trap simply because I was intrigued by the many Rs.[/pullquote]
This will be a supported attempt, because, well, I’m getting old, feeble, and lazy. Since you can’t drive all the way to the South Kaibab trailhead, super-spouse and team psychologist Dr. Ursina Teuscher will be on 24h duty to meet me there by bike with well-needed supplies after each double crossing—well, assuming there will be more than one. In the likely case I’ll have to sleep for longer than just a trail nap, I will try to do that at the bottom of the canyon where it will be hopefully a little warm(er) and cozier than anywhere else. Temps are supposed to be around freezing at night on the rims.
And if you wondered: yes, the 30,000ft sextuple Defiance record was part of a key training block for this Grand Canyon madness, which is itself training for, well, stay tuned…
8 Grand Canyon crossings = 168 miles with about 44,000ft of elevation gain. What am I going to do in the afternoon?
How do 8 Grand Canyon crossings compare to climbing Mt. Everest from the base camp? Ok, well, thankfully the Grand Canyon only goes up to 8,300ish feet at the north rim.
Current Grand Canyon Records
The Grand Canyon is clearly a competitive stomping ground, as you can see from the list of major crossing records below. A complete and up-to-date list of all Grand Canyon records can be found at https://fastestknowntime.com/route/grand-canyon-crossings-az.
At my age, there is no way I can compete with speed, but I can still compete with craziness.
Tracking
You can track me in the embedded map below or go to http://bit.ly/R2R2R2R2R2R2R2R2R.
If SpotWalla is not working for some reason, try the direct SPOT page: http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0CHt4dj5I9Zg2NnFz97gqWyNkU2u1nrKr
The planned start is on Wed, Oct 24, 2018, possibly around 4am. I will start/finish at the South Kaibab trailhead and follow the South/North Kaibab trail because that is the shortest and the traditional route for records. Note that tracking does not always work reliably in the canyon. We may post updates on Twitter and Instagram.
Trail Map
I’ll be using the South and North Kaibab trails.