Rim to Rim, Picking a Date, Trailhead And Strategies From 71 Yr Old Who Completed the R2R Hike

[@rickwasmer89]

I hiked rim 2 rim October 19th last year at 66 years old. I went South to North because I wanted the challenge. The hike was awesome, and very tough, especially the last 5 miles from Manzanita to NR. Took me 14 hours, I left SR at 4 am and finished just after 6 pm. I like all of your videos!

[@christopherhaak9824]

This is a beautiful hike and I strongly recommend that you don't start the hike in the dark. It's too nice to hike a substantial portion in the dark. Start at the north rim about 20 minutes before sunrise, this puts you at Coconino overlook right about sunrise and your whole hike is in daylight. Recommend going in May after the north rim opens. Temps ok, plenty of daylight, a nice time to hike. A fit person can do this hike in 10 hours, but you need to prepare for it, can't over emphasize that point.

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Chris, recognizing that I was 72 when I took the south to north route, it took me 15.5 hours to complete and I only took one 20 minute rest the entire hike. Took a lot of 3-5 min rests. I agree that May is better than Sept (when I took the hike) for daylight, but the problem in May is how hot the temps get. In Sept you only have about 12 hours of good sunlight to work with. But your point is well made, any distance you cover in darkness results in you losing the vistas. For me there was no other choice. When I went south to north I started at 3:30 AM and by the time I got off the trail on the north rim it was too dark to film my completion.

[@lewismartinez5130]

Yeah, some good advice here. I've done Rim to Rim as a day hike once and some other pretty stiff hikes there (e.g. Hermit to Bright Angel twice as a day hike, for example). I don't see ever going any significant distance below the Rim in June, July, or August--just too hot. The Canyon feels significantly hotter than the air temperature because sunlight reflects and radiates off of everything. And yeah, hiking that beautiful canyon in the dark just leads to missing too much. I suppose, though, if that's the only time you can do it, it's better than dying or needing rescue.

[@austinado16]

"If this old geezer can do the Rim2Rim hike, I sure as heck can." Ha! You sir, are the exception to the rule. Your 71 is the new 25! I've been backpacking and running in the canyon since '07, and I've seen A LOT of people 1/4 of your age, completely wrecked, and barely hanging on by a thread. You handled the adventure like a pro: You did your research, you were willing to learn and re-tool, you trained like you needed, and you took the entire project very seriously.....even up to the point of having a ranger attempt to talk you out of it. Yours is the model on how to pull it off, and I hope your message gets out there! Another great video. I would suggest that once the monsoon season hits at the canyon, in late July, early August, R2R's become doable. The temps typically drop during that time, and there can be a nice cloud cover and sometimes rain (usually the rain doesn't make it into the bottom of the canyon....but that's not guaranteed, of course). Temps during monsoon season are typically 45/75*F on the North Rim(8,250' elev) and 55/85*F on the South Rim(7,100' elev). We've always done it during this time. As you suggest, we recently have started taking advantage of late May, Sept, and Oct., and just had a little family Rim2River run a couple weeks ago. kzbin.info/www/bejne/p6u5eaaKi7mbb6M

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Thanks for the kind words Todd. The problem with the monsoon season, as you know, is that it is unpredictable. Some years it hits, some years it hits with a vengeance and some years it never arrives.

[@austinado16]

@@ageingungracefullypushingt7135 So true! That 1st or 2nd week of August has always played out well for us, even though we've arrived during torrential rains on the North Rim, during the TransCanyon Shuttle ride in. We've even had storms all through the night. Yet by 3am the next morning, it's all blown through.... and off we've gone. Even this year, with all the flooding in Flagstaff, just a week before my arrival mid-Aug, the GC was perfectly normal on both rims, and down in, as if nothing was going on in the state of Arizona.

[@simonbagel]

This video is about R2R in one day. Not R2R in two days.Important difference.

[@carlcrosland559]

Good advice! Doing the hike tomorrow. Supposed to get up to 115.

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Karl, BE CAREFUL!!! A woman passed away at 3 mile house last week. Tomorow, I believe, you are looking at 114 at Phantom. Start real early. Good luck. Let me know how the hike went for you. - Dr. Bill

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Sorry, I used a "K" in your name rather than a "C". My apologies. -Dr. Bill

[@carlcrosland559]

Thank you! I’ll keep you posted!

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Picking a date and strategies for the R2R hike are covered in this video. It is so important to remember that summer sun and heat can be very dangerous on the R2R hike and requires attention and management strategies in order to be successful.

[@gregortiz6921]

So if the north rim opens in mid may is it allowed to start down the south rim hike to Maverick Ranch and come back up via the south rim? We are going on May 5th.

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Greg, the best suggestion I can make is to contact the backcountry ranger's office to find out if they are going to lift the gate on the North Rim Road before the "official" opening in mid May. There has been a lot of snow this year and the road may not be clear.

[@swimclinic4kids]

Great video! Very inspirational. I'm a few years younger than you and plan to this hike with my son in late September of 2022. It makes sense to start from North Rim but I wonder why you chose Bright Angel trail instead of the South Kaibab trail since SK trail is about 2 miles shorter than the Bright Angel Trail. I understand that the SK trail is about 400' higher in elevation than BA trail and no water stops in SK trail. Assuming we bring enough water, wouldn't it make more sense for us to take the SB trail after crossing the bridge?

[@ageingungracefullypushingt7135]

Paul, you may receive two replies to your questions as I had a malfunction typing my first reply. So, it is important to remember that the weight of water is 8lbs./gallon and you will need to take a lot of water with you up SK trail as there is no water on this trail, so you have to balance the issue of weight over distance. (You will have already hiked 14 miles just to get to the bridge and then are faced with the steepest most difficult part of the hike.) Also, there is virtually no shade going up SK trail. Finally, the SK trail is about 3 miles shorter than the BA trail, but that shorter distance results in a significantly steeper climb. So for those reasons, the BA trail is the recommended choice. Train hard, have a great hike!