Hiker: Andrew Skurka, long-distance hiking champ, guide, and writer
Hike-ware equipment used: G-Receiver III and Hiker 1.0
In His Words
The John Muir Trail is an overcrowded highway, and it too often goes low when the best terrain is almost always high. The Sierra High Route is not necessarily more stunning than the other big trails/routes I've done, but it's certainly more concentrated, putting the effort- and time-to-reward ratios off the charts. While the Colorado Rockies may be home for me, the High Sierra is the most majestic and rugged mountain range in the Lower 48. —Andrew Skurka
Length: 195 miles
The Details: Unlike Skurka’s biggest accomplishments, the Sierra High Route is within reach for mere mortals, while still a big challenge and major accomplishment. The route is similar to the John Muir Trail (JMT), but, well, higher, and it’s not a marked or maintained trail like the JMT. It cuts south-north through the heart of California’s High Sierra—starting in Kings Canyon National Park and passing through the John Muir Wilderness and Ansel Adams Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest and Devils Postpile National Monument, as well as Yosemite National Park, before ending in the Hoover Wilderness—and more than half of it is off-trail, scrambling over peaks and ridgelines and requiring savvy route-finding skills.
Most hikers knock off the route in several separate trips on its five segments (though Skurka did it, along with ultrarunner Buzz Burrell, in just eight days, four hours) since the exposed travel at 9,000-12,000 feet that it requires is strenuous and subject to the whims of mountain weather.
When to Go: Summer or early fall, when the snows have melted and before they begin again