Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board looking for info on High Sierra Trail speed record

tried both Google and the board search function.

just want to know what the fastest known times are for completing the High Sierra Trail, thanks

I don't know the answer to your question but do know of a woman who did the HST in 30 hours nonstop... although she did break for a soak in Kern Hot Springs enroute. Surely it has been done faster, however.

I myself did the HST in two days last summer, east to west, spending the night at the hot springs. Went very light, without tent, stove, or pad (did bring a sleeping bag).

It is a spectacular trail. If you intend to go for the record, it would be helpful to backpack it beforehand. I recommend going east to west because of the nice, mostly runable, downhill from Kaweah Gap to the end. (Just be careful of those dropoffs!)

Of possible interest, this website has the fastest known times on various trails, but unfortunately none for the HST:
http://home.comcast.net/~pbakwin/FKT.html

Good luck!
Sue

I have never been able to understand the desire to set speed records in what has to be one of the most beautiful, awe- inspirig places on earth. I'm not being critical - just trying to understand. Does savng minutes / hours / days give one similar satisfaction to becoming one with the mountains? Why not just a full-speed trek from LAX to Malibu, or SFO to the Golden Gate?

OK - I think you folks are nuts - but I'm still trying to understand.

I can explain it easily if you can understand the desire to set records at all.

You have a choice. Go for a fast time in an ugly place or go for a fast time in a beautiful place. The choice? It's a no-brainer!

Just musing here, but ... trails are often re-routed due to erosion, washouts, etc. When a trail is re-routed, is the first person to hike the revised trail the new record-holder by default? Hmmm ...

My previous record time on the HST is 8 days! I plan to break that one this year with a 9 day trip! LOL

Mark

I would not take hiking records very seriously. Some people like to keep track of such things, and I see them as harmless fun. But worrying about throwing out, say, the JMT thru-hike records because the trail gets shifted by a few hundred feet somewhere would represent taking it all too seriously, at least in my book.

Mark gets the point!

Don't mis-understand my post. I have about as much interest in hiking records as walking backwards underwater from NYC to Paris. But, some people take their records and peakbagging exploits pretty seriously, enough so that some even take pictures of summit registers and post them on public BB's...

> some even take pictures of summit registers and post them on public BB's...

Huh? So including a picture of the summit register is in bad taste??? Maybe it's because it's Monday, but I don't quite get the connection between speed records and summit register pictures.

Not everybody has 9 days to hike. I like to backpack and have enjoyed extended time in the Sierra. But for fun when i only have a day to play, I will run from Roads End to Onion valley and back 10-12 hours, or Alta peak, or Mt Silliman, or Clouds Rest, or any where within a 40-50 mile round trip, Records are just a fun way to challenge yourself and if you can do it in the beautiful Sierra ,It's that much better, Magg

... where interested people can read the posts and enjoy the pictures. Cool!

There's a saying on the Pacific Crest Trail :

He who finishes last wins.

I'd say "he who finishes wins." But OK.

I understand the draw. And...gasp...sometimes it's not about me and the mountain, sometimes it's about me vs. myself. Maybe it's because I'm spoiled to live where I do, but sometimes I don't want to stop and smell the roses, sometimes I want to see just how freaking far I can go before the sun goes down, or how far my body will take me before I have to stop for the night. I often stop to smell the roses, but sometimes I give the roses a whif of me as I fly by. I'm sick, I know.
edit to add: personally I'm planning a 3 day HST this year.

"In some ways, going to the mountains is incomprehensible to many people and inexplicable by those who go. The reasons are difficult to unearth and only with those who are similarly drawn is there no need to explain."

Same words could be said of runners, hikers, mountaineers or any combination thereof !

the quote is from Joe Tasker in Savage Arena. Tasker and Boardman died on Everest but their lives and writings have been honored by the continuing Boardman-Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature.

Harvey

I fully understand that - and am jealous... because I live in a place where for 6 months of the year I shut the door and tape up the windows, waiting for another humid summer to come around again. I manage at least for a few weeks to escape to a great place, and then I have to make the most of that place, soaking it all in.

If I had the Sierras within a few hours from where I live, I'd be up there all the time, and sometimes just using it as the greatest outdoor gym one can imagine. Not having that option, though, I compromise and settle with fast hiking, so I see as much as I can, without getting to a point where the mind blocks out the world around me.

Right now I have to drive an hour to get to a place where I can have 300 feet of elevation gain, most of that on a paved road between private property. They actually call that bump a "mountain" around here. The next highest "mountain" is 900 miles away west of Denver...

Planning for a 30 day JMT yo-yo with my kids this summer. Probably going to be faster, but it doesn't really matter. I don't want it to end when I am up there.

The Sierra Snob says Amen to that!!!!!