More on the Grand Canyon

Doing a "rim-to-rim-to-rim" (R2R2R) run, or a variation thereof, is a hugely popular thing in the ultrarunning community it seems. So, I'll offer some thoughts that may or may not be helpful to someone planning a winter R2R2R or Grand Canyon trip. First though, a summary of the trip.

A summary of the trip

I met Cheryl, my good friend from Chicago and 2 Jenns I've had the pleasure of knowing through running at the Las Vegas airport on Wedensday. One Jenn is preggo and was called "Pregolas" which made it easier to keep track of the Jenns. We went to Whole Paycheck and bought a ton of food and drove to the Grand Canyon.


It was fun driving over the Hoover Dam and generally enjoying a girly roadtrip replete with lots of snacks.

When we arrived we walked a short ways down the Bright Angel trail and were pretty silly excited. I wanted to just head down right there and then! Instead we packed up our stuff, made plans for the morning and tried to sleep. The first shuttle to the South Kaibab (or Kabob) trail left at 8:oo or so -- and we didn't want to go downhill on slippery snowy trail in the dark -- so we got a somewhat late start.

The run down to the river was pretty much awesome. I was completely "blissed out" as some say. The views, the light, the vibe and pretty much everything was fabulous. We hit Phantom Ranch and had coffee and snacks. The others wrote postcards -- they are carried out by mules. Cheryl was feeling awful due to the altitude but we made her press on anyhow. We hiked to Ribbon Falls, which is about 5.5-6 miles from Phantom Ranch. We turned around and headed out. We took the Bright Angel trail up, which is longer but less steep. It finishes right at the Bright Angel lodge, where we were staying. Good recommendation from superstar ultra runner Devon.

My favorite time to be out running is when dusk turns to night. It's the most peaceful and soul-warming feeling to me. Everything turned pink before turning to dark. We were treated with a full moon and hardly needed headlamps. Everything was perfect except Cheryl wasn't feeling great. In part, perhaps, because she was racing far ahead of us thinking she was slowing us down. Silly Cheryl!

After we finished we had beer and pizza and then crashed. Friday we headed to Vegas and so it stays in Vegas yadda yadda. My blackjack money stayed in Vegas at least.



OK, some thoughts:

The Grand Canyon in the winter

The Grand Canyon area was hit with a relatively big snow storm just prior to our arrival, so I'm not sure it's always so snowy. Nonetheless, the trails on the South Rim are so heavily travelled, even in the winter, that the snow is packed. Definitely glad I had traction. I used kahtoola microspikes, but the Jenns had YakTrax and those worked well too. We didn't make it far enough to find out, but we were told snow was waist high somewhere around Supai Tunnel (I think) on the North Rim. Obviously, a R2R2R would require postholing or worse. I'm not sure it would have been possible (or it would have been pretty dangerous if the snow was that deep). The entire North Rim is closed in the winter so it's not like you can drive over there or get food once at the North Rim. Just something to keep in mind.

The weather was absolutely awesome. It was 30s on the South Rim when we left, and warmish and sunny (50?) in the Canyon. We remarked often that we picked a great time of year to play in the Grand Canyon, even though a full R2R2R wasn't in the cards.

It's high(ish) altitude

I don't know the science behind it, but someone did tell me that some people can get altitude sickness at 5,000 feet. Different people are affected differently by elevation, and the South Rim is somewhere around 7,000 feet. Just another thing to keep in mind. The North Rim is closer to 9,000 feet, which is starting to approach "high" even for those who aren't sensitive. (Obviously having gobs of time to acclimate before setting off on an adventure is ideal for those who are sensitive to elevation, but who has that much time.)

Water

Given the cool temperatures, we didn't need as much water as one might need in the warmer months. There was water at the South Rim of course, Bright Angel campground, Phantom Ranch and at a Caretaker Cabin near Roaring Falls. You could do a R2R2R I think in cool temps in the winter, even with most of the normal water sources turned off for winter (assuming snow didn't stop you on the North Rim). I carried a 3L pack (GoLite Rush) and never came even close to running out of water. Always better to carry more than less of course, especially in the Grand Canyon.

If anyone has more specific questions, feel free to ask. I know that wasn't really very detailed.