Trip: Mt. Rainier National Park - Running the Wonderland Trail Trip Date: 09/08/2018 Trip Report:
Hey everyone - I know it isn't climbing, but I recently completed a run of the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier and thought I'd share.
I started my run on Saturday, September 8 at 8:45AM and finished just over 29 hours later. An ankle injury around mile 60 slowed me down significantly, and shattering my chance at a sub-24 hour run (before that I was ahead of schedule, but I may have been over-ambitious).
Elevation gain was somewhere around 25k and just as much loss.
The route I chose started at White River and went counter-clockwise around the mountain. This late in the season, I ended up spending about 10 hours in the dark.
Fortunately, I had a couple of friends who met me for resupplies at Mowich Lake, Longmire, Reflection Lake, Box Canyon, waiting for me at the finish.
Due to the massive amount of information and photos included in my report, I figured it would be easier to link to my blog post - so I'll put that here:
https://nicholasyoungphoto.wixsite.com/mysite/blog/the-wonderland-trail-102-1-miles-around-mt-rainier
I've tacked a few photos onto the end of this as well.
I'm planning to tackle the Infinity Loop next summer, so I'm hoping to find some other mountain running enthusiasts that may be interested in doing some training/mountain runs/bigger trips together. The community for people that want to get out for this kind of stuff has been, in my experience, decidedly small!
Thanks for reading
Gear Notes: I ran with a Salomon 12l Running vest - packed with 2 liters of water, trekking poles, an emergency blanket, a light rain jacket, my InReach, and enough food to sustain 200+ calories/hour for each section. I switched shoes between a pair of Salomon XA Elevate's and a pair of Hoka One One Speedgoat 2's. Approach Notes: Definitely the longest approach I've done to date.