TR: Ski Trip to Desolation Wilderness- April 12-14/2025

[swimjam]

That looks like a great trip... really inspirational. Thanks for sharing the experience.

[Harlen]

Thanks for the kind comment swimjam.

commonloon wrote:

FKT (fastest known time) for the Skiers High Route is less than a day. Shepherd to Lodgepole.

Really? Less than 24 hours?! Are they allowed to use a helicopter drop to the top of Shepherd Pass? Motorized skis? Or is it just youth?

[commonloon]

Thanks for the kind comment swimjam.

commonloon wrote:

FKT (fastest known time) for the Skiers High Route is less than a day. Shepherd to Lodgepole.

Really? Less than 24 hours?! Are they allowed to use a helicopter drop to the top of Shepherd Pass? Motorized skis? Or is it just youth?

LoL.

Here is the account Ian: https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/ryan-s ... 2023-05-25

For reference I know I've done Shepherd's in under 3 w/o skis. What amazes me is the speed that this implies over Milestone, Triple Divide and Coppermine passes. It's just walking speed the whole way ;-)

[Harlen]

Paul, Thanks for the link to an amazing run/ski by Ryan Soares, and it was way less than 24 hours! Interesting that he apparently used big stiff tele boots, rather than something lighter. My Scarpa AT's are way lighter than my old solid plastic tele boots (1 lb+), but my leather/soft plastic 3-pin boots are a pound lighter still. Is it that he needed the Tele boots in order to speed downhill? Yet there is relatively so much more touring terrain on that route.
Here's a piece at the end of the account you linked:

Soares wrote:

...finished the route in 17 Hours and 18 minutes. Almost 2.5 hours faster than the previous FKT.
This FKT will be broken again, but not likely by another 46-year-old Telemark Skier. My prediction is it will be a young buck in their twenties on some ultra-light weight AT setup that is 1/3 the weight of Tele gear and significantly better range of motion in there boots. And I’ll be cheering them on as it’s an amazing route and meant to be enjoyed by all forms of travel and all ages, young and old guys like me.

[commonloon]

Yes, you have to hand it to him for style with the Tele setup. I tend to think of the Tele guys like bamboo rod guys are to fly fishers. They're devoted.

The FKT seems like the perfect use case for a hardier skimo racing setup or a ultra light skimo/AT setup. It would seem you could make up the most time comparatively via uphill rather than downhill.

[Schleppy]

Excuse me miss. Is your name Peanut Ginger Sauce?...

...Because you're on a spring roll .

[Harlen]

Cute Schleppy. I hope so; Niko (HST connection) and I are planning another spring trip on May 2nd, though the weather is less than perfect. I'd love to get up into the upper Kern Basin too, as lower country melts away from us.

[Wandering Daisy]

Just curious, does anyone ever just ski across the lake? Or is it too late in the year for that.

[Harlen]

Yes, when I was there, about half of the tracks were over both Echo Lakes, staying within about 75' from the western shoreline. The others were humping along the western lake shore, which is mostly flat enough, but sometimes slanted, and always slower than the more firm and level surface of the lake. Gogd / Ed will call us idiots for doing it though, and he is old and wise.

The blue water you can see in my first, and then the second to last photo is just a thin layer of melt water on top of presumably, ~2-3 solid feet of ice. Gaging the thickness and strength of lake ice is not a very certain science.