Final Stats:

8.3 miles, 8400 ft gain

Skyline – Palm Springs to Tram at EveryTrail

I was interested in doing Skyline once before the planned “back to back” attempt that’s going to happen in a month, so luckily I had some friends who were planning on doing the hike, as they usually do.

Tina and Mike were headed up pretty early with a possibility of doing the whole C2C, but I met up with Steve and we started hiking at a “reasonable” time of 7 am. There were already 15 or so cars in the museum parking lot!

I had done Skyline once before as part of a C2C hike, but that started in the dark so I was glad to be able to see more this time.

But this wasn’t a hike for too many pictures, as Steve set out a great pace. Mixed in with some chat, before we knew it we hit 4300 ft. We continued on, and when we hit Flat Rock, we took a nice 20 min break. We had caught up with a bunch of C2C attempters along the way, a few of which pointed out a big rattlesnake just 10 yds before Flat Rock. Somehow we didn’t see nor hear it.

At this point I was starting to feel it. Luckily Steve kept the pace and so we kept making good ground. Soon enough we were heading straight toward Coffman’s Crag, when we started hearing some chattering from above. Turned out to be Kathryn, Mike, Tina, and Mark above us on the switchbacks. Tina started talking trash not wanting us to pass her, and Mike had some nice defensive blocking methods with his poles. We all ended up getting done about the same time, meeting up with Ellen, Cy, and Scott.

It took 3:56, which seemed pretty good. Taking out the breaks, 3:30 seems like a nice goal. It only took us about 8 miles, down from 10 when I did it previously. Steve seems to know a whole bunch of shortcuts (although at least one seemed to add gain!), which really made a difference.

Plus, the weather was perfect. I imagine it stayed around 60 degrees for most of the hike. Even I only drank 3 or so liters.

This was a good warmup for the back to back. I think a 5 hr pace, along with actually resting the day before could work well.

Turn the audio down if you don’t like potty mouths!

blue jay from Zé Apelido on Vimeo.

In this trek, we will tour all the peaks around San Jacinto Peak, via the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. This includes 7 peaks, highlighted by class 3 climbs of Cornell Peak and Marion Mt, as well as reaching San Jacinto’s summit.

Here are the main details:

Distance: ~12 miles
Elevation Gain: 4500 – 5000 ft
Terrain: Some CROSS-COUNTRY WITH BRUSH & CLASS 3 ROCK CLIMBING

To do this hike, you must read this report and description

Plan on taking a full day for this. We will have to meet there before 8, and take the first tram up at 8 am. The hike will take at least 8 hrs…but I don’t want it to be much more. To keep us on track, some people may have to pass up summiting a few of the last peaks (Marion, for example).

Stats and GPS files:

jacinto route (gpsmountaineering way) at EveryTrail