Re: Guided tours with Andrew Skurka

Yosemite backcountry adventure: Hard-core hiking off the trails and away from the crowds
By Associated Press,

Published: April 24

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — A few loose, fist-sized rocks tumbled by as we hiked down a steep mountain pass over unstable terrain, off trail deep in Yosemite’s wilderness. We tightly gripped the solid rock holds on the side of Stanton Pass to steady ourselves when our feet slipped out from under us.

Our guides were two of the world’s most accomplished hikers, Andrew Skurka and Brian Robinson. We were far enough from help that Skurka had reminded everyone that a serious injury here would probably mean the most expensive helicopter ride we would ever have..

This was fun.

Our group of six hikers had several goals for the weeklong trip. One was to get into the backcountry to be in pristine landscapes, far from the traffic and crowds of Yosemite National Park’s developed areas. But more importantly, we wanted to learn skills from our guides to safely traverse wild areas where there are no trails to follow and conditions are rough.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/yosemite-backcountry-adventure-hard-core-hiking-off-the-trails-and-away-from-the-crowds/2013/04/24/caa6af50-ad02-11e2-a8e6-b6e4cc7c49d1_story.html

Interesting. 30 miles per day is not my hiking style. Also, the pic in the article looks amazingly like 1000 island lake, not in Yosemite.

It is 1000 Island Lake w/ Banner Peak.

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The Other Tom
Interesting. 30 miles per day is not my hiking style. Also, the pic in the article looks amazingly like 1000 island lake, not in Yosemite.

the article does say they covered 80 miles, starting and finishing in Tuolumne Meadows - that is in Yosemite

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The Other Tom
Interesting. 30 miles per day is not my hiking style.

I agree with the 30 miles a day, that is definitely a bit much for me. I'm happier in the 12-15 range. But to do the kind of trips Skurka does, you would need that kind of speed. On a side note, his blog is pretty interesting:
http://andrewskurka.com/
I know about him because I googled the Sierra High Route a while back and his site came up. I ended up buying the mapset that he sells:
http://andrewskurka.com/product/sierra-high-route-map-set-databook/