I hope Rich comes out with a more complete account of his trip. Would make for interesting reading.
Even allowing for the vast differences in information/technology, Fletcher’s hike pales in comparison to the Rudow/Atwood route. Fletcher defining the Grand Canyon as what was at the time the national park sort of made sense, but hiking Havasupai to Nankoweep is slightly more than 1/4 of the whole canyon, and on trail (albeit rough trail) for all but the first quarter. Reading “The Man who Walked through Time” gives one the sense that Fletcher was a punter with great determination who did just enough prep to get through. Rudow’s hike is an expert putting years of experience to work and still just barely getting by. They could have floated over to the south side and walked the whole Tonto, which would have made things A LOT easier. Maybe contrived to stick to a full north side route, but inarguably admirable style. I have no idea how HMG counts the number of GC thru hikes, but I’d argue that Fletcher should absolutely not count towards that number.
And yes, the Avantlink is bad style.
.
