REPORT: Unsupported 49mi Santa Rosa Traverse FKT

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Some sorta summary

Today (Dec 18, 2022) I managed to wrap up a new unsupported FKT on the 49mi Santa Rosa Traverse (CA) in 25:37:15. That’s shaving off only a rather meager 32 minutes from the previous unsupported FKT held by Rob Manley, Bup Minardi, and Zane Morris. The route has no water, so I carried all my fluids and supplies for 25h. I can’t say it was easy. The beast kicked many parts of my body. I was probably also not fully recovered from my Anza-Borrego traverse FKT from 3 days ago. Or perhaps I’m just old. Either way, below you’ll find some report.

The Santa Rose traverse. A gem of a route. Well, it depends on what you like.

A gem of a route?

The route traverses the entire Santa Rose mountain range between road 74 and road S-22. It climbs all nine major peaks. Depending on whether you grind up/down the road to Santa Rosa and Toro or bushwhack cross-country, the route will be 45ish or 49ish miles long. The route has 17,000ft of climbing if you start at road S-22. In some parts there is a faint trail, sometimes you may see a cairn, but for the most part, it all feels more like a cross-country route with LOTS of bushwhacking. There’s no water anywhere on the route and no real bailout option.

When I first saw this route, I was thinking: “It takes folks around 24h to complete barely 50mi? Either they are beginners or the route is really hard.” I do now know that it’s the latter. The route is no joke. I have great respect for anybody who finishes this route in any amount of time. So, in summary, depending on what you like, the route can be absolute gem or a total nightmare…

A partial view of the Santa Rose mountain range. Toro is the highest peak to the left. Its elevation is 8,717ft /2,657m.

The route has 17,000ft of climbing. It doesn’t look like it, but there’s nothing flat (except perhaps the Rabbit summit).

Mildly unsuccessful prep

The night before I fat-loaded with a nice rib and finalized my plan. None of it worked. While drafting my sophisticated plan, my thinking was that I needed to do what I thought would be the most difficult part between Toro and Rabbit during daylight. So I timed my start accordingly. I think this was not an optimal strategy.

I set the alarm to 3am and slept terrible because the rib was sitting on my stomach like a rock.

Fat-loading the night before.

A 100% accurate plan. Like all my plans.

This is how it went

My initial plan was to start at road 74 and to bushwhack (as Rob, Bup, and Zane did on the way down) up to the Santa Rosa mountain instead of taking the almost 4mi longer road. Yet, at the start I made a last-minute decision to take the road instead when I saw the snow on the ground and the amount of bushwhacking that would be required.

It was 27F and windy. I packed some extra layers, hats, and gloves, and headed into the unwelcoming night. The road was packed with snow pretty much from the very bottom on. My pack felt insanely heavy because I carried food and water for 24+ hours. But I knew it would get gradually lighter.

At to bottom of the Santa Rosa mountain road by road 74. It was 27F.

I look tired even at the beginning.

The one and only road on that traverse.

Santa Rosa mountain summit. The skies were still clear, but it was quite cold.

For the first half-day, I was trotting through varies kinds of soft, crunchy, and wet snow. My feet were cold and wet. I figured things would get better at lower elevations. They eventually did. Clouds soon moved in. It stayed rather chilly the entire day and night. I never was able to take my long-sleeve off. The temps were great for moving, however, and I was sure not to run out of water.

From reading all the reports I assumed the most difficult stretch would be between Toro and Rabbit because of the bushwhacking. I had done some recon up by Villager and for some unknown reason, I thought once I would reach that peak, it would all be easy and downhill from there. I was so terribly wrong! The stretch from Villager to the finish was the slowest and felt the hardest. I would say that it’s not a section one wants to do downhill. Or perhaps I just felt that way because I was tired and it was dark?

The day went on and I don’t remember much except that there was indeed lots of bushwhacking, many demanding cross-country sections, and never-ending cacti everywhere. The bushwhacking led to ample Wenaha canyon flashbacks.

View of the peaks yet to come. The Salton Sea is in the background.

A good amount of bouldering is included in the route at no additional cost. Notice the two cairns.

Cacti everywhere in all sizes and shapes. Especially at night, these are a real hazard.

This is perhaps some of the best terrain you may see (besides the road to Toro). Notice the cacti, small and big, everywhere. Well, it’s the desert!

Mid-day views from the ridge. It was chilly.

I found a puddle of ice and water. Thankfully I didn’t need any.

Dawn’s peak summit cairn.

Onwards to Rabbit peak. This is the trail. More endless bushwhacking…

Before 5pm it was dark and now navigation became an even bigger challenge.

Navigation was non-trivial because of the bushwhacking. You can never really see much if you are making your way through tall bushes. It’s hard to figure out a line and you need to backtrack for most options that first seem feasible. At night, all of this becomes an order of magnitude more difficult. For example, when you search for a line through brush and turn around in all directions, it’s really easy to lose your orientation and to continue in the wrong direction, e.g., from where you just came. I speak from experience…

In addition, you have to pay a lot of attention to not get hurt by the cacti, which are—I’m repeating myself—EVERYWHERE.

Most peaks had a summit registry of some sorts. I think I only signed one. Can’t remember what peak that was. Probably Dawn’s.

The night was long and difficult. The bushwhacking continued and there were some rather challenging cross-country sections in and out of deep and steep canyons. Needless to say that cacti were everywhere (still!) and that a fall into or onto a cacti would be really devastating.

At some point I saw my second animal: probably a cougar. I couldn’t fully see it in the canyon, but it surely acted like a cougar. I tossed bunch of rocks it its direction and it took off after 5 minutes. The first animal was a tick. I didn’t realize they had ticks in the desert.

At Villager peak I was ahead of my (oh-so-perfect!) plan to finish under 24h and felt quite good. I could have descended from there to the road without doing the last 5 peaks (the only real bailout option if you go North to South), but given the progress, it was clear I needed to continue.

Well, what I thought was going to be an easy finish over some lower-elevation peaks turned out to be a real challenge. The terrain was challenging, especially the descents in loose rocks, it was night, and I was getting tired. The route also gifts you a sheer endless number of false summits. Especially at night, these are always quite frustrating to me.

So the time buffer I had at Villager started to gradually evaporate. When I checked the time once, I was quite shocked that it would soon be daylight and that if I wouldn’t get my act together, I wouldn’t even be able to beat the current unsupported time. Ughs!

Sure enough, daylight broke sooner rather than later, but I still was on the last peak, which was incredibly hard and slow. I suddenly remembered from a report that the “word” technical was used and that it’s best to do it during daylight. Well, I can confirm some sections were exposed and rather sketchy, especially coming down. Nothing really feels stable on these peaks.