Tahoe Rim Trail (CA)

[Sarah Spelt]

"We will run the new portion of the Tahoe Rim Trail between Kingsburgy South and Kingsbury North trailheads if the new Highway 207 crossing is in place at that time."

This section is open and is signed as the current TRT route, including the road crossing.

[Aaron Sorensen]

So it looks like the completion of the Kingbury N. to S. only adds 1.6 miles. Not as bad as I thought it would be.

The old section with the road was .5 miles from the southern turn off of the new section to the parking lot and another .5 miles from the northern trail head at the end of the road to the current trail turnoff.
The road itself was 3.7 miles for a total of 4.7 miles.

The new section being all trail is 6.3 miles, so the new trail is 1.6 miles longer.

A lot of people said the road section was only 3 miles but it is 3.7.

[Powderwhore]

I know that we did not follow the TRT exactly, but given the time of year that we did this it would have been impossible anyway. I still think that it is noteworthy to add that on March 14th of 2007 Mike Tebbutt and myself (Sam Skrocke) completed our quest to ski all the way around Lake Tahoe via a high route, without a bivy. We departed, heading south, from 64 acres in Tahoe City at 4:20AM on Monday, March 11 and arrived back to the car in just under 61 hours. You can read about it here: www.thebackcountry.net/bb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=655&hilit=mike+tebbutt&start=20

This is the fastest ski circumnavigation of Lake Tahoe that we have been able to find.

[Aaron Sorensen]

I am heading up to Tahoe in the morning.
Starting at echo lake at 6am on Sep 25th going counter clockwise and unsupported.

[garygellin]

I am making a 2nd attempt at the supported speed record on the Tahoe Rim Trail this Sunday, October 7th, starting in Tahoe City at 4:30AM. I hope to complete the run by 7PM Monday to break the current record held by Kilian Jornet. It will be just me for this outing with crew and pacers and not a group FKT attempt.

[miketebbutt]

:-/It would be cool if those announcing their attempts to break the FKT would be considerate enough to report back even when they do not achieve their goal so that also those on the sidelines sending them energy and wondering how things went will know.

[Aaron Sorensen]

Okay,
My last years attempt went South after about 36 miles.
I was not in the best shape for this.
I went from having a blast staying just ahead of record pace to loading up an extra 8 lbs of water for the first long haul and having no fun at all.

I ended up getting off the trail at mile 40.3 in 14:47, slowing down a lot the last hour but still managed a 3.5mph moving pace.

Michael's pace is a very fast pace!

Sarah did not go for her attempt, but will try this year.

[miketebbutt]

First, I must say that I just learned of Michael Popov's passing last week as I was doing some research on the FKT for the TRT. I am very sorry to hear of this tragedy and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of his family and friends, especially Sarah Spelt.
Life is an interesting process, which unfortunately, always includes death. I have been fortunate in life to have not experienced much death to those closest to me, though living in the mountains has always come with toll of losing kindred souls whose lives were lost "doing what we all love to do". The past few years, though, have brought much death into my life, from natural aging to murder and cancer. The most recent was the passing of my wife and I's dog, Marley. Marley's death has affected me more profoundly than I could have ever imagined. Marley was Animal # 40 to complete the TRT back in 2005 and hiked hundreds of miles on the PCT. She was part of our pack, always with us, still with us in spirit. These days, much of my time spent on the trail, I find myself often thinking of those no longer in our lives and of how fortunate I am to still be on board this wild ride!!

OK, so now the task at hand. I plan to embark on an unsupported attempt to break Michael's TRT FKT. I will start tomorrow, June 12 early in the morning(depends on when I awake). I will start at Brockway(because it is closest TH to my house), heading counter clockwise, getting desolation out of the way early. I will have my iphone with me so I can text my wife and a few friends as to my progress. I will use my phone to log in to Strava occasionally as verification. My Strava username is Michael Tebbutt, for anyone who cares to look it up.

This will be my second attempt. First started at brockway in august 2011, going counter clockwise, and ended at Kingsbury after 60 hours with the whole ball of my left foot being a blister. I was not rested when I took off on this attempt and ended up sleeping many hours, just because it felt so good and I realized quickly that my pace was not setting any records. This year I am rested, so we'll see what happens.

Aaron, thanks for posting up about last year's attempt. I am always fascinated to hear of people's ridiculous endurance adventures and how they go, whether successful or not.

I will check back in here with details when I am done.

[miketebbutt]

Well, that ended quickly, with way too much snow on Dick's! I was cruising at a swift pace, having left Brockway at 2:21AM, through TC at 7:00AM and on pace to make it to the PCT/TRT junction at Twin picks in just under 7 1/2 hours when I got lost in the snow about 1/2 mile before the PCT/TRT junction. I was being stupid here and wasted 50 minutes trying to find the trail. If I had actually brought a map with me, one look would have told me that the PCT was still about 1/2 mile due west. Once back on track on the trail heading west on the section that passes Twin Peaks (just before the junction) I looked south, and to my dismay, saw snow coming down from Dick's pass as far as the eye could see, which from that vantage point, is pretty much all the way down to Dick's lake. Knowing that this meant there would be plenty of snow on the the south side of the pass too, this was way too much snow to care to contend with. So after texting my peeps that my adventure was ending early, I bagged the East summit of Twin Peaks for the first time ,and what a vertical talus heap that is to the top, making things a touch interesting on the way up and then found the easier way down. I then made my way back down to TC (13 hrs on the nose and 44 miles since Brockway), where my wife picked me up and took me out to a burger and IPA at Fat Cat Cafe, before retrieving the truck on Brockway. I ran 8 miles today (packless) and felt great!

4 1/4 MPH overall pace for 32 miles (running a good 1/2 of the miles) up to Twin Peaks was well on pace for beating Popov's record. The question is: would I have been able to make it 165 miles, without exploding, having taken off at race pace like this? I felt great up on Twin and figured I had it in me to keep up this pace up to about mile 50, especially since I had a lot of easy miles heading down to Miller Meadows, before I started to back off the running and bring it down to a more sustainable pace for the long haul.

Strava worked like a charm as a way of verification. I logged on today to make sure times are accurate and they are. Strava had me on Brockway at 2:21AM and around Painted Rock at 5:12AM. Not sure how I can post links on here, but anyone who uses strava can search for me and find the feeds or I can also email them to anyone who wants.

Today, I just found Aaron's posts on Backpackinglight.com about his TRT record attempts and they are very informative about how and why he is going about it the way he has. It is great reading and interesting to know what other people are doing since this challenge is so off the charts and hard to get beta on. I had a 14# pack without water. 9#'s of this was food, which was over 16,000 calories, based upon 300 calories/hr for 60 hours, knowing that I wouldn't eat too much in the first several hours. I only carried half a liter of water to the Watson spring and then 1 1/2 liters from there until Ward creek crossing, where I loaded up with 2 whole liters. This kept the weight that I had on my back from 14-17 1/2#'s. What a beast that is to have on your back when actually running!! It was definitely taking it's toll on my back and shoulders. I suspected that I had way too much food while packing and realized by Twin Peaks that I was certainly right.

Next attempt will have me trimming down my food weight to about 5#, which is about the same amount as Aaron, and is reassuring to see that is what someone else who has put much time and thought into this feels is sufficient. I also plan to drop a little base pack weight by leaving long johns, gloves and 1 pair of socks behind. I will start, heading counter clockwise, at Brockway again. I like this because it allows you to carry very small amounts of water at a time until the 100 mile mark and gets desolation out of the way before fatigue really starts to kick in. As something different, I will do a lot of my hiking wearing my pack on my chest to easy the fatigue on my shoulders. I tried this out today and it will work great to change things up a little. An hour after being done yesterday, the muscles atop my shoulders were uncomfortabley tender and soar to the touch from running with so much weight crushing down on them!

With the greatly reduced pack weight, one more recon/long run with weight under my belt and lots of rest, I believe I can keep a similar pace on the next attempt, with much less fatigue due to lighter pack, for upwards of 100 miles and maybe come in under 48 hours. Bold statement, I know, but it IS possible and you've got to have a goal, right! Hopefully, it is not a recipe for disaster.

Next attempt is tentatively scheduled for similar timed start on June 25.

Edit: OK, this is actually easy. Here is a link from yesterday to my run down from Painted Rock to the road crossing at the top of The Wall.
app.strava.com/activities/59893757
You can open this link and ask to follow me on Strava. My account is actually Michael T. , not Michael Tebbutt as stated in my original post. I hesitate as I post this info on the intardweb and will not accept requests to follow my account until right before leaving.

This has to be about the BEST LOOP IN THE WORLD to do as an unsupported mission. It is ridiculously long(yet doable), it is amazingly beautiful the entire way, there's lots of natural water so that you do not have to carry much (except for kingsbury to Marlette Camp spicket), it has plenty of hills but 25,000ish feet of elevation gain/loss is not too bad for 165 miles, there is the safety of being able to drop down to the Lake and civilization from many many points, there are surprisingly few people on the trail and yet certainly enough to add a great feeling of safety, and it is my backyard!!!

PS. I am drinking water straight from the source without purifying and have iodine and vitamin C tablets if I feel the need to purify

[Sarah Spelt]

Hey, Mike. First, thanks for your kind words after learning of Michael Popov's death. That was really nice of you to think of his friends, family, and me. Second, are you still planning on going up later this month to go for his recored? I am planning on going for the women's unsupported record this year, and was hoping to hold it concurrently with Mish/Michael, but I don't think that I'll be ready by then. In fact, I know that I won't. I'm just curious - I'll run it either way, but I'd just like to know, before I start, if his record's still on the books. (He'd injured his ankle 10 miles in, and had essentially hiked from there, so I know that his time doable...)

Thanks again for your kindness back then, and I look forward to hearing from you and sharing my info from my past circumnavigations, if I can help you. (I've done it three times supported, 130 miles unsupported, and a bunch of partial loops.)

[Sarah Spelt]

Oh, and I've never purified the water out there.

[miketebbutt]

Hi Sarah,
Yes, I still plan to make one more attempt for the year, departing June 25 2:00AMish.
I am fairly familiar with the trail, since I have lived up here for 24 years, but I certainly do not have it memorized as proven by getting lost in the snow drifts before the PCT junction at Twin Peaks. I am bringing the map this time. Any tips or experiences you would like to share are appreciated.

[Sarah Spelt]

Sounds good. I have always gone counter-clockwise, too, for the same reason, although I start in TC - whether going supported or unsupported, it's great to get DW overwith feeling good, and I prefer to start in the dark of very early morning or even late at night to do the Echo Summit section in daylight, too.

As far as where you got lost, that section sucks a bit, always, and sucks totally in the snow, period.

I don't know that there's anything I can tell you that you don't already know, but I can wish you great luck, and tell you that I look so forward to hearing about your successful adventure later this month, Mike. And when I finalize a start date, I'll definitely post here with my plans, as well.

[miketebbutt]

Sarah,
Thanks for the kind words and good wishes on the trail! It sounds like we have similar strategies for making it around the Lake. Two things I like about starting at Brockway, aside from the only 3 mile drive from my house, is that I break up the long the long water haul getting over to Watson and I won't have the quad crushing downhill into Tahoe City for the finish. I also wish you well on your upcoming adventure and preparation for it. I hope it provides enjoyment and healing and I look forward to hearing what happens.

I am feeling stronger than ever and am confident I can pull it off this time, but still, the daunting task of 165 miles and expecting your body to cooperate for the whole distance always creates those lingering doubts. Two things I am sure of; I will have fun and there will be some physical discomfort whether I finish or not!!

BTW I am the guy who skiied around the Lake with Sam Skrocke, as mentioned in Powderwhore's post above.

[Sarah Spelt]

Just wondering if Mike's on here or if anyone's heard whether he started his TRT FKT attempt this morning, as he'd planned. I've heard that today's weather up there is crap, but supposedly clearing tonight/by tomorrow morning.

I'll be doing a section or two up there tomorrow and Thursday with a friend, so may see him out there, depending on if/when he starts...