Mt Whitney Zone Forums Trip Reports Grand Canyon Rim to Rim

Lynn and Julius, thanks for the complements. But we had many months to plan this trip, so that helped. I am more often a procrastinator, but on this one, knowing that another family's plans depended on my carrying my end of the deal motivated me a lot.

The comments about cell service reminded me of another hiker I met who was almost illegally camping at the last bridge on the way up. (He had the ranger's permission, since he had been suffering from the heat and was slowly making it out under his own power).

Not sure if it was this trip, but he had taken a satellite phone to the canyon floor, and was trying to connect with it. It was as useless as a cell phone, which was likely because the phone connections work line-of-site to the satellites, and in the canyon, a lot of the sky is blocked.

I was expecting my SPOT unit to fail to send many of its signals, based on my experiences with it in deep canyons in the Sierra. But I was very surprised that most of the tracking signals got out.

I love this! What do you do with your little one for training? I have 4 kids (14 down to 7), and after a couple of training hikes here in San Diego, quickly decided that none of them were good candidates for joining us on Whitney next week! They might be physically prepared, but none of them have the mental fortitude to keep going when the going gets rough. Is that something that is just inside a person, and if you've got it, you've got it, and if you don't - oh well?

I hope Julius can answer this, but I noticed two things in the little time I shared with them: 1. Their "Little Spark Plug" is pretty self-motivated all on her own, and 2. With mom and dad both 100% positive all the time and with just one kid, they can apply the maximum motivation all the time.

Thanks - I bet you're right.

We always told her that is OK to turn back when we're climbing mountains. In the Grand Canyon this was not an option.
We noticed that the biggest problem with kids is that they get bored easily. What we find interesting and stunning, they may not, so we have to keep her engaged with little games and small challenges to brake the monotony of the hikes.
We also told her that Mom and Dad will go hiking and climbing with or without her. She can stay with the grandparents, we're not forcing any activity that she may not enjoy. She always picked us.

Small rewards are offered when completing a tough hike.

On Langley Mom carried a cupcake to the top, on Whitney she got a strawberry milk and for her birthday she got to go to the American Girl Doll store.

We did some training hikes for the RTR but she was exited and ready to do it, especially when she heard about the Best Lemonade In The World at the bottom of the canyon.
Try to find something that your kids like and offer as a reward.
It's work for them to do those hikes and the may want to see some return. Is it a bribe? I don't work for free, do you?
We just got back from the Sierra where we hiked White Mountain and got to Iceberg Lake to attempt Mt. Russell.
She worked me over and got 20$ out of me. The small rewards are getting bigger.
Trip report coming soon.

Julius,
Great trip report and ideas about how to motivate kids. Start 'em young!

I'm planning to do a double R2R with my kid in October. South to north one day, rest the next day on the north rim, north to south the 3rd day.

The big difference is that my kid is 45 years old and runs a cross-fit studio. I know he won't have any problems and if I do he can just toss me over his shoulder and carry me out. I won't need to bribe him with a cupcake. He may need to bribe me with a cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Keep hiking!
Burt

Double R2R sounds like a challenge... I would ask for double the bribe, on North and South, and maybe at the bottom.
Thanks
J

I've hiked R2R 3 times in past years, twice south to north, once n. to s., always as one day hikes. When I decided to go back this autumn I couldn't decide which way to do it so I said, what the hell, why not do both.

Despite the 1,000' elevation difference between the north and south rims I think the hike is easier going north. The south rim gains/loses 4460' in 7.8 miles (Bright Angel) or 4,800' in 6.3 miles (South Kaibab). The North Kaibab gains/loses 5,840 in 14.2 miles. And about 2,000' of that 5,840 is gained very gradually over 9 miles. The north rim trail only gets moderately steep for the last 5 miles and it's never as steep as the south.

I know you've done your hike and don't need my input. I'm posting this for anyone else reading the thread who might think about going.