Another August, another Sierra Challenge. 10 days of day hikes to mostly obscure Sierra Peaks. This semi-formalized event is semi-organized by Bob Burd (actually he does a great job of planning and organizing but the rest of us only semi-follow it), you can see the details for the 2019 Sierra Challenge
on his page. This isn't my first year, in fact I have done at least one day in 2011, 2012, 2013 (just one big day), 2014, 2015 (7 days), 2017, and 2018. I actually left home 2 nights before the challenge started to spend a night by Minaret Vista (bonus - great views, cool air, and acclimitization) before climbing at Bear Crag the next day and heading on up to the trailhead. I might have been in marginally better shape going in this year, but the Challenge also started out relatively easy and in general just kept getting longer and harder as it progressed. This year the total for doing only the designated challenge peaks was something like 155 miles and 55,200 feet of elevation gain but who is willing to limit themselves to just those peaks?
There was another strong field and I didn't feel like I could compete for any of the jerseys except maybe the aqua jersey for swimming, so I tentatively planned on going for that (plus it is one I have never won ).
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This year I'll try to make a page for each day of the Challenge - that might make them short pages, but it also might help me to finish them up more quickly (yeah, right).
| Challenge Peak | approx distance (for the challenge peak) | approx elev gain (for the challenge peak) | bonus peaks and swims | date |
| Bergona Lake Peak | 9 miles | 3800 ft | bonus: Tamarack, Pk 11242, 3 swims (a lake, a pond, and a river) | 8-02-19* |
| Virginia Pass Crag | 17 miles + | 4700 ft + | bonus peaks: 11364, 11532 , 4 lakes | 8-03-19* |
| White Bear Peak | 20 miles | 6600 ft | bonus peaks: 12780, 3 swims | 8-04-19* |
| Humphreys Basin | 21 miles + | 4400 ft + | bonus peaks: 12140, sky point, 4 lakes | 8-05-19 |
| Darwin Canyon Peak | 13 miles | 4500 ft | bonus peaks: Mt Lamarck, 13464, Lamarck Col Peak, 5 lakes | 8-06-19 |
| Apollo 11 | 9 miles | 4200 ft + | bonus peaks: Mt Gilbert, Moonshot, 3 lakes | 8-07-19 |
| Isosceles Peak | 14 miles + | 3800 ft + | bonus peaks: none, 2 lakes | 8-08-19 |
| West Spur | 22 miles | 8100 ft | bonus peaks: West Vidette, 2 lakes | 8-09-19 |
| Stanford Junior | 13 miles | 7900 ft | bonus peaks: none, 2 lakes | 8-10-19 |
| The Major General | 17 miles + | 4100 ft + | bonus peaks: Mt Langley, 3 lakes | 8-11-19 |
In total I managed 24 peaks and 33 swims winning the Aqua Jersey. I came in 6th for the Yellow, 3rd for the Green and 4th for the Polka Dot. Iris was the first woman since Laura Molnar to complete all 10 challenge peaks and 7 people managed that feat this year.
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