Tom Grundy's Sierra Challenge 2025 Page

This year the annual 10 day obscure peak dayhike event that is the Sierra Challenge started August 1. That made it easier to keep track of the days. Bob has mostly handed the reins over to Sean Casserly, but he still came for a number of days. You can see a summary of my Sierra Challenges here as well as links to what the challenge is all about.

2025 is the 25th anniversary and the peaks were all emblem peaks that I have already done - so I guess they weren't so obscure after all. That means I had to find alternate challenge peaks to do. Mostly this was pretty easy, but sometimes I had to go for a different trailhead and some peaks were rougher than others. This year Iris and I traveled together for the start and some of the days but for day 7 we were at different trailheads and then we just had 2 vehicles after that even if they were parked next to each other. We also both slept 2 nights in Bishop and I slept there one more. It was nice to have the additional space of 2 vehicles, but Iris got a lot more done on the drives when I could drive her (including feeding me).

Mason, Bob, Sean O, and Iris - leaving the first 3 at the trail split on day 4

links to individual day pages

I am behind, so if the link doesn't work, I haven't finished or uploaded it yet, sorry. (so far only days 1-3 done)

I did 10 challenge peaks (9 were alternates) as well as a total of ~29 peaks, but because some did not count and others required 2 peaks to get one point I think my total ends up 23. That gets me first place for the green jersey, 3rd for polka dot, and 4th for yellow (out of 5 who did 10 challenge peaks). But wait - Sean C decided to penalize people that didn't do the Challenge Peaks that hadn't done them before, so Dylan K got 1-epsilon Challenge points some days and thus I came in 3rd for Yellow). My totals were a little low for a Sierra Challenge with 135.9 miles and 57095 feet of gain. This year I measured that with a Garmin Fenix 6X watch which I think is much more conservative (and probably more accurate) than my phone as far as elevation goes, and maybe a bit more conservative and accurate for total distance, for example on day 3 I hiked with Iris and her phone said 9.66 miles and 5811 feet of gain and my watch said 9.34 miles and 3373 feet of gain. Still, this might be my shortest distance 10 day challenge and one of the lowest for elevation gain. Maybe I balanced that out with a lot more technical scrambling with serious scrambling or climbing on at least 7 of the days, or maybe I'm just getting soft. I also got 8 aqua jersey points for swimming in lakes or streams. That put me behind at least Iris and Chris H but might have been good for 3rd there too.

Congrats to everyone, but especially Dylan for crushing all 10 Challenge peaks, often in far better style - eg Thunderbolt to Sill traverse on day 7, and for Clement who also crushed it with some huge days (that still went faster than most of mine). Also it was nice to see some competition with the white Jersey with a strong showing by Maia and Zee (this was his first year to do 10 days, although one day he did a longer day to an SPS peak instead of a Challenge peak) strong work considering he was "old and dried up" or whatever his exact words were. There were a number of big days that had a lot of people succeed.

My main goal was to do 10 challenge peaks - especially ones I hadn't done before, even if they were not the listed ones for this year. I was a little worried I would be all by myself most of the days, but others went up most of the peaks I did, and even if they didn't they went up nearby peaks in most cases.

For gear I used a 35L Ultimate Directions running pack. I carried a Sony a6700 with 18-135 lens on a Cotton Carrier chest harness. I stowed it into the pack for more serious scrambling but did manage at least some class 4 if not class 5 climbing with it. Some days I took ice axe and crampons. I had a sandwich or 2 each day as well as some bars and summit cookies and things to make my water taste better and add electrolytes and sometimes calories and caffeine to it. I used a platypus filter and cnoc water bag as well as a smaller water bottle that fit in the front shoulder pocket of my pack. As usual by the end of the Challenge I was in a bit of a sleep deficit, nothing like an adventure race, but it was noticeable, especially getting up in the early mornings. I actually mostly got better sleep in the second half of the challenge. We did sleep in a bit and start late the last morning. The extra sleep was nice, the hotter hiking and late finish not so much. I mostly wore Normal Tomir shoes which were fairly durable and scrambled well enough and had decent padding. If only they could make them the shape of my foot. I wore Darn Tough sox - it helped that we could do laundry after day 4. I used trekking poles - Black Diamond distance Z poles which worked well, but the baskets are completely worn down so I used Leki poles with baskets when I expected snow. I wore a Tilley hat except when I wore a climbing helmet. I also wore hooded sun shirts most days (some days long sleeve shirts without a hood plus a hood I cut off a ripped up sun hoody) and patched up REI hiking pants every day. I wore sun gloves for most days but wore rubber palmed gloves for most of the scrambling - taking them off for the hardest climbing.

After a few hiking and peak bagging trips in the previous months I was in pretty good shape - I'll never be in as good shape as I would like, but I was fairly strong and acclimated. I was still exhausted after a few big days, but I was able to do more - or hurt less - than I would have with less preparation, and although I was a bit tired and moving slowly at times I never was really in pain - so that is good. In looking at the totals it was also a pretty soft Challenge for me as far as total distance and elevation gain goes.

As usual the Sierra Challenge relies on the Sierra for the challenge, but the other participants make it all a lot more fun and manageable. Thanks to everyone who came along for the fun, especially those going for all 10 days and that hiked along with me either for a few hundred feet or for miles and miles. I had a little FOMO on some of the big days others did, but despite being the last finisher on day 10, I am glad I didn't sweat my way up Olancha and it would have been hard to muster the motivation to go that far for peaks I had already done. I reserve a special thanks for Iris who helped me in numerous ways - from training and gear and food planning and prep before and during the event to food and other support during the Challenge as well as support in my effort to do every day, plus I got to hike at least some of the time with her on 7 of the days.

panorama from the ridge between Clyde and Eichorn Minarets - Day 3
Michael is the scary looking one center right, Eichorn right of that, Clement in the shade on the right

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