Hikers to revisit daunting treks during Saturday presentation

Doug Shepherd and Jeff List do not take the easy way.

They prefer the route less traveled, and sometimes the route never before taken.

The two long distance hikers have spent plenty of time blazing routes up, over and around local peaks.

They will revisit several of their epic journeys at 6 p.m. Saturday in the Skagit Public Utility District's Aqua Room at 1415 Freeway Drive in Mount Vernon.

Shepherd will talk about the time he and fellow adventurer Kirk Hall of Boise spent seven days circumnavigating Glacier Peak via the Gamma Ridge high route in 2008, and about his two-day, high traverse from Yellow Aster Butte to Church Mountain in 2015.

List will talk about his four-day circumnavigation of Mount Olympus in 2019 as well as his 30-hour circumnavigation of Mount Shuksan in 2005.

"It's the fourth highest of the Northwest volcanoes at 10,541 feet," Shepherd said of Glacier Peak. "And as far as eruptions, it has been the most violent of them all. One of its eruptions was five time more violent than Mount St. Helens."

List's résumé of Herculean outdoor efforts is impressive. He's a 10-time finisher of the Hardrock 100 Mile Endurance Race in Colorado that features an astonishing 33,000 feet of elevation gain.

He has finished 72 ultramarathons.

He also posted the original Fastest Know Time for a fully unsupported run of the Wonderland Trail - the route around Mount Rainier - and the Fastest Known Time for a circumnavigation of Mount Baker.

Both men have stories to tell, and the research, maps and photos to go along with them.

They certainly do their homework before setting off on far-flung efforts. Their treks are often years in the making, then take days to complete once all the pieces are put together.

And there are times where those pieces don't fit.

"I picked the wrong route on the third day of going around Glacier Peak," Shepherd admitted. "It didn't look that bad, but it was in hindsight.

"There were some snow bridges we had go over, and steep, rocky terrain that just took forever. But we finally made it up on Gamma Ridge and camped."

Things were also strenuous and dangerous when Shepherd and Hall reached the Suiattle River.

"We got there and the water was clear up to my crotch and it was pushing me downstream," he said. "That was the hardest crossing I've ever done. You couldn't see anything because the water was so murky and gray.

"If you took one step into a hole, you'd be swimming. Luckily, we both got across."

List has had his fair share of difficult crossings, but when it comes to circumnavigating Mount Olympus he stressed what he encountered on dry land.

"It's a lot of bushwacking over very rough terrain with huge trees and eight-foot high blowdowns that you have to crawl over and through," List said.

List's first attempt at circumnavigating Mount Olympus was a lesson in futility.

"I got absolutely nowhere," he said. "It was much harder than I thought it could possibly be."

It was seven years before List tried again.

Maps don't tell the whole story. Sometimes trekkers need to see and experience would-be routes firsthand.

List recalled times where maps indicated a route would be more or less flat, but instead he found himself staring up at a 60-foot cliff with a waterfall streaming over it.

He said there were no accurate lidar-based topographic maps of the Olympics available, but he eventually figured it all out.

"I was finally ready to go and I did the whole thing, the entire loop in four days," he said. "I started at the Hoh River and the first two full days were completely off trail. My wife was looking at my tracker the whole time and was like, ‘He's never going to make it all the way around in four days because he's going so slow.'

"After that, it was either real trails, primitive trails, or sort of climber routes through the backcountry including the Bailey Range Traverse."

The route eased slightly, and List's pace increased once past the Bailey Range Traverse.

"I finished on the fourth day at 11 p.m. and I wasn't going to camp another night because I saw this huge rainstorm was coming in. I woke up from sleeping in my truck and there were puddles all around and the rivers were raging."

Can't blame him for sleeping in his rig after trekking 73 miles with about 24,000 feet of elevation gain.

Would he go around Mount Olympus again?

"Probably not," List said.

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