Andrew Skurka Completes Wind River High Route

I love WRR and will be going back next summer to do a loop including 5 alpine passes and crosses the continental divide 4 times.

“Fortunately, there are other sources of information describing the high route, including map sets and waypoints, which can be found for free.  It would be nice if the original article would have linked to some of these resources to aid the aspiring trekker looking to tackle the route.”

I would say, unfortunately all that info is available. Takes away the adventure of exploring it yourself. But I guess it is fortunate for those of you who think a ‘wilderness’ experience is following someone else’s way points.

I for one wish these self-styled ‘explorers’ would stop reporting in so much detail. Too much info actually destroys the wilderness experience… and eventually the actual wilderness

billy

Some interesting comments in here. Let me offer some thoughts.

@ Ed Hyatt. I’m assuming you followed one of the other proposed high routes and I bet you had a great trip. Hopefully you get a chance to return, though, since the northeast quadrant of the range — from Dinwoody Creek to Trail Lakes — is even one notch better. If you’re ever interested, there’s a loop out of Trail Lakes that covers most of it, and wouldn’t be redundant with what you’ve already done. Hike to Dinwoody Glacier via Glacier Trail, then cut north parallel to or atop the Divide to Downs Mountain, then descend via Goat Flat or Torrey Creek. I’m simplifying it, but that’s the route.

@ Jeff McWilliams. Indeed, I intend to publish the full details of the route as a guide. Given the hundreds of hours that go into developing a high-quality resource, I would hope that you can understand the need to charge a small amount for it. I don’t expect others to work for free, and don’t see why that is sometimes what seems to be expected of me. As with the Kings Canyon High Basin Route, I will supply enough free information that the route can be done without my guide, if you care to save yourself $25. Or you can save yourself a lot of time so that you can spend more time hiking and less time planning to hike.

@ Billy Ray. I wonder if you actually experience the wilderness of which you speak, because my experience when on these off-trail routes (even “popular” ones like the Sierra High Route) is that I see almost no one and see minimal evidence of others. I don’t feel that my “wilderness experience” has been adversely affected by the distribution of such information — and, if it were, there are hundreds of other worthy destinations to explore. Backcountry statistics support my observations: Kings Canyon, for example, issues fewer backcountry permits now than they did in the 1970’s (despite the country’s population being significantly less), and traffic is increasingly concentrated on corridors like the JMT, PCT, and Rim to Rim.

@ Sean Neves. First, don’t we all stand on the shoulders of giants? I am grateful to Pallister and Kelsey for the work that they did. Second, RJ’s post omitted a few details about my trip that might change your perspective. After reaching Trail Lakes in 4.25 days, I turned around yo-yo’d back to my car at Bruce Bridge on an entirely different route, which took another 3.75 days and which added 100 miles to my itinerary. 200 miles in the Winds (with 110 miles off-trail) in 8 days, at a pace that never exceeded 3 mph — I think I saw (not missed) a lot. Also, consider that the trip was partly a training effort for Run Rabbit Run, a 100-mile running race in Steamboat in mid-September. I placed third in 20+ hours. HYOH.

Andrew, thanks for the reply. I say, heed not we chubby lazy fishermen of the world. Alas, I’m the one who always has whiskey on his person at 13k and my ultra days are probably well past over. You’re doing incredible stuff and I’m just jealous that I wasn’t smart enough to make it a career. I’m also fine with people guiding and writing books. In this day and age, there is more beta online that in any book.

I’ve been wandering the Winds for 30 years now. My first real survival experience was in the Winds: 12 years old, by myself, no flashlight, no extra food, marveling at the beautiful June sunset from the shoulder of Mt Bonneville after post-holing for four hours. (You can guess the rest). Love that place and look forward to exploring your route further, although piecemeal. I’m not sure I understand the whole High Route thing as some of the best stuff is well off the spine of that range. I can see the logic in, say, the Western Weminuche in the San Juans, where the spine is where all of the good stuff is (Grenadier, Needles etc) but the Winds have so many high country options.

Billy Ray, the logic of your post is that, once someone has been through an area, it’s forever lost its wilderness credentials. In that case, let’s open up the wilderness areas nationwide to strip mining, clear cutting and road building because the virginal experience of the wild is forever lost in any case. Oh woe, the world will never be as it was when Billy roamed the wilds in his youth!

I fail to understand how people seeing the wilderness ruins it for those who somehow feel they can claim dibs on the mountains. As we mature, we learn that other people have also had the kinds of wild experiences that we once felt were ours alone. This can be a welcoming realization or poison our memories. Personally, I’m happy that other people are experiencing these routes. Overcrowding is the least of our worries here. And no, I don’t find that running into other people when I’m hiking irretrievably ruins the experience.

“Wilderness” or “wildland” is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by civilized human activity. It may also be defined as: “The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with roads, pipelines or other industrial infrastructure….. From Wikipedia

Popularity has nothing to do with it.