EISPIRATEN

I had the pleasure to accompany Rick Kent yesterday 8-20-2010 on his 3rd time up the mountain. Below is my version of his 3rd time up hopefully he'll do his own TR, he doesn't blog here much.

OK, where do I start? I first heard of this guy called Rick Kent last year when somebody wanted to do Baldy 5X in a day. I don't think people still get it. Their more focused on the why than the how. Think about that achievement. Think about the how. To do Baldy 5X in a day means you have to return to your car 4X and head back up the mountain. Roughly 45 miles with 20K elevation gain all in 22 hours.



So since then I told Rick if he ever wants to do San Gorgonio 3X in a day make sure and let me know I'll be there. Got an email from him on Thursday saying he was going for it on 8/20/2010. I said OK I'm there. I met him at 2:00 at the South Fork Trail Head. I was originally going to try for 2X but then I thought I need to make sure I don't slow him down because failure for Rick is not an option. Man, my first time up was Rick's 3rd and he was setting a good pace. We decided to go up the Dollar Lake side of the mountain I guess the NE Ridge loses its glory after going up and down it 2-3X. We ran into ranger Rex at the Saddle chatted with him for a few minutes then head off forthe summit.



Our time to the summit from SF was 4 hours 15 min, which for me is a good time. But for Rick his 3rdtime up to do it in that time is impressive. Our time from SF TH to Vivian TH was 7hr 55min. I'll let Rick give his total miles for theday but I will add his mileage according to the map is about 60 miles. He cut some of that off going up the ridge. But think about that sometimesgoing straight up and down the face of San Gorgonio is harder than on trail.



Once again this is my version I'll let Rick tell you from his which is obviously more important.....Rick again you are the man....

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jeffscof/Ri ... oSummitDay#

Another great feat by Rick and an imaginative attack on that particular problem. 8)

I though I saw the trail burning up over that way yesterday

WOW!

speachless. ok, maybe not. dang, Rick... unbelievable, impressive and your legs and feet were made for walkin'! congrats!

Jeff, mighty fine time you did that in! Good job Yeti!

Incredible!

Great TR, Jeff.
That is truly amazing, Rick, congrats. This must be a Guinness Book record!

Thanks everyone! I'll post a report shortly (been catching up on a little sleep). In short it was a successful day. I reached the summit of San Gorgonio 3 times in 21 hours via 3 different trailheads (Vivian Creek, Fish Creek, and the South Fork).

-Rick

SAN GORGONIO TRIPLE

8/20/2010

Last year for me was the year of multiples: Baldy 5x, Whitney 2x, Skyline 3x as well as some other noteable hikes (San Gabriel 25 peaks, R2R2R, etc.) To finish things off I had one last idea: a Gorgonio triple. Unfortunately time ran out and the window of opportunity closed before I could get to it.

Earlier last week Jeff Scofield had reminded me of this idea in an email. Friday was my day off so I began contemplating whether this would be the time to give it a go. It took a little while but by Wednesday night I had more or less committed myself to the attempt. There wasn't much time left but I let a few people including Jeff know.

After only a few hours sleep at the Vivian Creek trailhead I was up at 12:45am. The biggest decision was in how much water to bring. Not knowing water conditions I figured South Fork Meadows was my only definite refill spot so I brought a little over 2 liters.

I departed the trailhead shortly before 1:30am. The night was calm and the temperature comfortable. Hiking up the Vivian Creek trail in the dark was uneventful except for promptly getting lost on the silly bypass trail in the boulders (due to trail maintenance). Not surprisingly I encountered no one else on the trail. Knowing it would be a long day I paced myself and stopped frequently. I reached the summit for the first time at 5:10am. It was still quite dark and a little chilly on top.

I signed in and rested for a few minutes before making my way to the NE ridge. Although I am familiar with the area (having summitted Gorgonio various times from many different trails) I had never been on the NE ridge. I figured this would provide a more direct route to Mineshaft saddle and would help get the mileage down from about 60 miles to less than 50. The ridge was marginally helpful (shorter yes but steeper and rockier than I expected). From Mineshaft saddle I hiked out to the Fish Creek trailhead arriving there at 7:29am. Not a single vehicle was parked here.

After another break I left the Fish Creek trailhead at 7:44am. It took about 2 hours to get back to Mineshaft saddle. Compared to Vivian Creek and the South Fork the Fish Creek trail is far more gentle. I had now gone about 20 miles and was beginning to feel a bit stiff. I dreaded having to climb the 1500 feet up the ridge but to my surprise the stretching of the muscles was actually rather refreshing. I summitted for the second time just before 11am.

At this point I felt pretty good and pondered whether this day would be easier than I thought. There was still much to do however. One more time down the NE ridge and I was soon on my way down to Dry Lake. As I descended it began to warm up. There was plenty of water at South Fork Meadows and I drank my share and took what I thought would be just enough to get me to the South Fork trailhead and back.

The hike down the South Fork seemed long. I was supposed to meet Jeff there at 2pm but with this kind of hike I could easily be off by an hour or more. It was really heating up now and some of the lower section of the trail lacks shade. My earlier optimism about this being an easier day soon evaporated.

I reached the South Fork trailhead where Jeff was waiting at 2:02pm. Wow. I was suprised how precisely on schedule I was. Originally Jeff was going to do a double but decided in the morning to just join me for the final leg from South Fork to the summit and down to Vivian Creek. That by itself is a worthy hike.

After a half hour break Jeff and I departed the South Fork trailhead at 2:37pm for the final 18 miles. Umm. Yeah. 18 more miles! I can't thank Jeff enough. It was great to have a companion on the final leg and helped me keep the pace up where I might have slacked off. It was still quite warm but eventually we were back in some shade and before I knew it we were at the trail junction between Dry Lake and Dollar Lake.

Originally I had planned on hiking up the South Fork then up to Mineshaft saddle via Dry Lake and up the NE ridge one last time. I had an alternate plan though. Knowing that going up the NE ridge after having done perhaps 40 miles would not be pleasant I opted instead to hike up via Dollar Lake saddle. This would increase the mileage but would be more interesting because it would put me on virtually all routes to the summit.

The haul up to Dollar Lake saddle was probably the hardest part of the day. To my surprise however we made much better time to the saddle than I imagined would be possible. Here we met Ranger Rex and took a short break before the final push to the summit.

The final slog seemed to drag on and I was definitely starting to slow by this point. Even so, we reached the summit at 6:51pm (4 hrs 14 mins from the South Fork trailhead). I was quite pleased. I had expected to summit this final time after dark. After signing in for the last time we started down.

The hike down the Vivian Creek trail was rougher than I remembered. I sure didn't notice all the rocks on the trail on my way up. I seemed to trip on every last one on the way down. I was definitely ready for this to be over. This part was definitely not fun but after several hours we finally reached the end arriving at the Vivian Creek trailhead at 10:32pm. For me it had been a dayhike of just a few minutes past 21 hours. I still need to compute the total mileage but I believe it was between 45 and 50 miles. Elevation gain was about 14,000 feet.

My photos are here:

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... lderID=919

Stats

Vivian Creek trailhead to summit: 3 hrs 42 mins
Fish Creek trailhead to summit: 3 hrs 12 mins
South Fork trailhead to summit: 4 hrs 14 mins

Total time: 21 hrs 4 mins

um, nice job Rick Kent, if that's your real name

What a lunatic.

Amazing. Congratulations!

Ok I have the distance now. It was 48 miles.

Rick, how do you train for this?

Impressive Rick....48 miles....

I think it's more likely "Clark"....
Congratulations on yet another stunning mountaineering feat, Rick!

And, Jeff, I didn't know you were such an instigator.