Good luck, Eric. I know scheduling is hard, especially with a big group, but I’d recommend going a few weeks earlier if at all possible, for better chances of moderate temps. But May 10 may work out, too.

Thank you for your response. I will turn 60 this June and I am taking about ten people with me, all much younger than me, on May 10 this year to do it. We are hoping that we can do this in 20 hours.

Hi Eric,

My first r2r2r was hiking (not running) with daypacks and we took about 17 hours. My second r2r2r involved a mix of running and hiking (the steep uphills) with running vests (going lighter than the first) and we finished in about 15 hours. Certainly, many people have hiked or run faster than we did but our time is a reasonable comparison for fit, middle-aged hikers and runners who arrive prepared for it.

How many hours did it take you guys to finish r2r2r?

Hi Suzanne,

We didn’t need traction on the North Rim even though we were hiking over snow and traction would have been somewhat helpful. In truth, the snow was soft and will be soft barring nights near or below freezing; and traction wouldn’t help much in soft snow, kicking steps with boots works well enough, and you’d carry the weight of spikes for most of the hike. I would check the forecast for overnight lows right before your trip to see the likely temps when you’re there and decide whether to carry traction.

Good luck with your rim to rim run.

Good suggestion, LD. I’ve used Injinji socks. Although it’s a little more tedious pulling them on over each toe, they do help prevent blisters between toes. And it’s pretty comfortable feeling your toes separated by a thin wall of wicking fabric.

Hi Russ,

Thanks for the comment. I have not hiked the Kalalau Trail on Kauai so I can’t help you with that, but you might find my story “How to Know How Hard a Hike Will Be” helpful. Good luck.

I think your points are accurate, Marcus. Dehydration and especially heat are the challenges on the r2r.
But living at over 3,000 feet confers some advantage (I live at 2,700 feet, it probably helps a bit) as does regularly training at over 6,000 feet, when preparing for Whitney.

I’m not sure that I agree with you DG. I day hiked Whitney, and when I got to the bottom, I felt I could have (though would not necessarily have wanted to) done it again.
Altitude was really only a problem after Trail Crest Junction, and by the time I was back to the Portal, it was long forgotten.
I’ve done the GC R2R a couple of times and I was destroyed both times. Temperature and dehydration were much harder for me to cope with than altitude.
But them I live at 1000m and often hike above 2000m. I guess we each have different strengths and comfort zones.

Hi DG, yes, I agree about Whitney’s elevation, certainly. I tried to acknowledge that difference in my story, sorry if I seemed to be comparing the two directly without some caveats. But I can say that, having dayhiked 44.5 miles on the r2r2r and climbing Whitney via The Mountaineers Route, the r2r2r was much, much harder.

Thanks, Chris, glad you found my article useful and inspirational. If you’ve done the r2r, you have a good sense of what it will take to do the full r2r2r. You might also find this useful: https://thebigoutsideblog.com/ask-me-hiking-the-grand-canyon-rim-to-river-to-rim/

Good luck, let me know how it goes for you.

Chris (Fellow Grand Canyon Hiker)

Thanks, Paul. Yes, I don’t want to encourage people who aren’t ready for such an ambitious hike.

Thanks Dagmara. You’ll find more ideas for hikes by searching on “Grand Canyon” at The Big Outside. Get in touch anytime.