Another year, another Sierra Challenge. This year featured the usual assortment of long dayhikes to obscure peaks. It was a little back-heavy meaning the first half wasn't too hard and the harder days were in the second half. That meant I was a bit conservative at first trying to reserve my energy for the second half when I would really need it. You can read the details and see maps and get the final stats sheet from Bob's page here: Bob's 2020 Sierra Challenge Page.
This was my 9th Sierra Challenge, although some years I didn't do all the days. Previous Challenge pages can be seen here (some less complete than others): 2011, 2012, 2013 (just one big day), 2014, 2015 (7 days), 2017, 2018, and 2019.
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The Covid 19 pandemic this year brought some changes - we didn't do the start photo and mass start every day, although most people started around the scheduled time and we didn't assemble for dinner at any specific place and we didn't have the barbecue cook-off. Physical distancing started out better on day one than it was by day 10, but we were still outdoors with often a decent breeze and hopefully nobody had the disease to start. Thanks again to Bob Burd for all his work putting this together. It really is a good excuse to get out with a bunch of like-minded people and one of the highlights of my year (plus how I met Iris).
Overall, in the beginning I felt pretty good, especially considering I had been sick in June and July which cut into my training. After some long days and not enough sleep I wasn't doing so well, but even with 2 18+ hour days and maybe 12 hours of sleep for the last 3 nights I managed to keep going and finish. Fred absolutely crushed it for the Yellow and Green jerseys and Grant and Clement were way out ahead for the polka dot king of the mountain jersey. I wasn't inspired to swim in a lot of lakes after last year and nobody really kept track of the aqua jersey points. I mostly just tried to manage every peak and get enough sleep and food to make it the next day. By the end I was pretty tired and was not motivated to risk thunderstorms to bag extra peaks (mostly I was just exhausted). I did something different this year which was do an alternate peak on day 8 - Norman Clyde via the Firebird Ridge with JD for his next to last dayhiked SPS peak. It was a long but good day, in fact one of the highlights of the challenge for me. I'll have to go back and climb Excitement Peak some day though. I think I came in 5th for the Yellow Jersey (only 15 minutes behind 4th though!) and a distant second for the Green Jersey and 6th for the Polka Dot. I wasn't really competing in any of these other than trying to do all 10 days.
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| Challenge Peak | approx distance (for the challenge peak) |
approx elev gain (for the challenge peak) |
bonus peaks and swims | date |
| Volcanic Ridge East | 11 + miles | 3700 + ft | bonus: Volcanic Ridge (W) | 8-07-20 |
| Scheelore Peak | 17 + miles | 4700 + ft | bonus: Mt Baldwin, 1 creek swim | 8-08-20 |
| Larkins Peak | 17 miles | 6500 ft | bonus: 1 swim | 8-09-20 |
| Peak of the Four Winds | 16 + miles | 4600 + ft | bonus: Peak 12,860? | 8-10-20 |
| Peaklet | 7 miles | 3500 ft | bonus peaks: none | 8-11-20 |
| The Socialite | 21 + miles | 8400 + ft | bonus: The Hermit | 8-12-19 |
| Echo Peak | 15 miles | 4500 ft | bonus peaks: none | 8-13-20 |
| Norman Clyde Peak (alternate) | 13 miles? | 7000 ft? | bonus peaks: none | 8-14-20 |
| Nameless Pyramid | 10 miles | 3000 ft | bonus peaks: none, 1 lake swim | 8-15-20 |
| Mt Fitch | 13 miles (less with 4wd) | 6900 ft (less with 4wd) | bonus peaks: none | 8-16-20 |
For gear I used mostly high top Altra Lone Peak shoes for longer days without hard scrambling and Evolv Maximus for the days with a lot of scrambling. A cross between the 2 would be the perfect Sierra Challenge shoe - especially if it was extra light and extra durable. If any shoe company wants to make something like this the Challenge would be the perfect place to test it. I used my blue MacPac backpack - it was a little big, but nice to be able to put everything in it including a helmet or a rope when needed. It also has handy pockets on the hip belt and sides so I can get things without taking it off. A downside of the mesh pockets is that things get a lot more dusty, especially on the mule pounded trails. For food I had a mix of bars and snacks plus sandwiches and chips and summit cookies. I had a water bladder and a small bottle that usually started out with some sort of caffeinated beverage but switched to flavored electrolyte later in the day. I tried not to carry much water and relied on refilling in the many streams and lakes along the way. If it was more remote I just drank the water straight but for less remote areas I filtered the water (with a squeeze filter Iris carried). I also carried my Pentax K-3 on all but the Norman Clyde day strapped to my chest with a Cotton Carrier. This works quite well for all but the hardest scrambling and climbing. I used Leki trekking poles which helped a lot when I got tired and stumbly and for stream crossings. The glacier fingerless gloves helped prevent sunburn and also somewhat protected my thumbs from the pole straps, although the challenge was hard on them - in general the challenge is hard on everything.
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