by kirkmallory » Tue Oct 06, 2009 8:05 pm
All but 2 of the ranked eighters are in Guadalupe National Park. I did all the ones in the park over 2 days this past President's Day weekend. The first day I did El Capitan, Guadalupe, Shumard, Bartlett, and Bush - an 11 hour & 39 minute day. It's off trail in desert-like brush to El Cap, mainly out-and-back from Guadalupe (I left the trail a little below the summit), then it's all off trail & slow from Guadalupe over the rest of the summits to Bush. From Bush, I took the Bush Mtn & Tejas Trails back down to the trailhead.
The 2nd day I did 8342 and Hunter Peak from the Bear Canyon Trail - after first going to Frijole BM. Two contours north of the 8243 point could have possibly been 8260 & therefore made Frijole BM a soft-ranked peak, but my feeling was that 8243 was the high point. 8342 was a not-too-bad bushwhack from the trail in The Bowl, then back on trail to Hunter Peak. Bush & Hunter are connected by a long trail.
Steve, with your speed, I bet you could all seven of those ranked eighters in a day!