My second visit to the Desolation Wilderness was in late August for an extremely pleasant loop entirely on trails that hits most of the highlights in the region including great views of Emerald Bay, vistas from Dicks Pass, and gorgeous Lake Aloha. Total mileage according to GPS was just under 26 miles, hence the “Desolation…
Desolation Six Summits Loop
The Desolation Wilderness is the most rugged region near Lake Tahoe with the star attraction being Lake Aloha set amidst the granite slopes of the Crystal Range. Since it’s relatively accessible to Lake Tahoe, it is the most visited wilderness area in the United States per square foot. While there is no shortage of people…
High Sierra Trail FKT
Last Sunday I ran the 72 mile High Sierra Trail from Whitney Portal to Crescent Meadow in 15h46m starting at 3:19 am and finishing at 7:05 pm, a new FKT (previous mark was 18h39m). It was a great experience in an immensely scenic region of the High Sierra. A special thanks goes to Joel Lanz who…
Suiattle Crest 50 Mile 2012
I returned to repeat the Suiattle Crest 50 mile adventure run on August 20th. The original run was done on August 4, 2009 in 13h37m. Last week I completed it in 11h44m (1h53m faster). This complete loop, entailing six passes, covers most of the highlights in this region of the Glacier Peak Wilderness including a…
Ptarmigan Traverse FKT 2012
Uli Steidl and I completed the Ptarmigan Traverse in 12h17m a new FKT. It has been three years since I last enjoyed the Ptarmigan Traverse so it was time to come back to see some of the most beautiful scenery in the Cascades and refresh the prior FKT, which was set by Colin Abercrombie and…
Skyline 50k
Last Sunday I had a great experience running the Skyline 50k in the East Bay hills. This race is a classic Bay Area event with 32 years of history. While the course has 4,750 ft of cumulative elevation gain, the route includes 17 miles of fire road and 3 miles of paved road allowing for…
Lost Coast – Sinkyone
Part II of the Lost Coast adventure run is from Chamise Mountain to Usal Beach. The first portion is a descent along the long ridge of Chamise Mountain down to Needle Rock and the park visitor center. At the beginning we were above the marine inversion and treated to fantastic views but everything below 800…
Lost Coast – King Range
The Lost Coast is a spectacular meeting of land and ocean along the most undeveloped, remote and rugged stretch of coastline along the U.S. West Coast. I was eager to return here after an amazing experience in 2010 (see 2010 TRs: King Range, Sinkyone). This time, I joined Colin and Gary for the complete tour…
Hyatt Lake Loop
Another adventure run into the Emigrant Wilderness, this time a spectacular off-trail loop departing the Pine Valley trail at Louse Canyon and including Hyatt Lake, Big Lake and Pingree Lake (complete photo album here). It’s about 9 miles on trail up Pine Valley from the Crabtree Trailhead to Louse Canyon where we left the trail…
Big Bird, Deadman Canyon & the Tablelands
The Great Western Divide region of the Southern High Sierra is one of my favorite spots in the entire range. On this day I scoped out a spectacular figure-8 loop (see google maps overlay at the bottom of this post) out of Wolverton in Sequoia National Park that is mostly off-trail and stays high above…
Leor Pantilat's Adventures