Satellite map of the Skyline, we ran south to north, the typical direction for single-day traverses. It leaves the fire-road until the end, and provides a route with net elevation loss rather than net elevation gain.
 Trailhead at 1700m
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We were happy this first river crossing after half an hour and 4kms covered had a bridge, it was only another 20 minutes until our feet would get wet and then they stayed that way for the next 6 hours.
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Once into the alpine we had some puddles and creeks to dodge. Travis was a pro at leaping for the first half of the day, crossing the river at Tekarra campground his skills had been greatly diminished.
The long approach to Big Shovel pass kept us motivated with a clear destination and we made good time here on some very runnable terrain which was a treat.
 The valley between Little Shovel and Big Shovel passes was great. Low alpine, so little copses of trees all over the place.
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Another bridge, we didn’t need it, our feet were already soaked.
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Finally at Big Shovel Pass. 2h20 and 18km covered. Nearly 2300m high.
We had left the low alpine for the bald tops of the mountains after setting out from Big Shovel but were definitely still gaining elevation. We’re headed up to “The Notch” (which is the left saddle on the far range) via Curator lake.
 Enjoying a very runnable section of the trail here, not too much elevation change and less giant rocks.
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Curator Lake from midway up our ascent to The Notch.
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The view north from the notch. Summitted at 3:15 after 22kms. Despite looking like a good trail this was tricky to run, quite soft and lots of side-hill. It really did a number to the waterlogged-prune-skin on the edges of my heels, trying to grip on an edge while still running, not the best situation.
 Looking east down to the Maligne Lake Valley at around halfway through the day. Despite having done the vast majority of our climbing in the first half the second half wouldn’t be any quicker, in fact it was even a bit slower.
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Looking back to the Notch from our highest point of the day, about 2510m
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We begin our descent along the ridgetop towards Tekarra.
 More descending towards Tekarra. Lots of this was runnable but portions were very tricky with big rocks and footing became difficult. We walked portions when running tired started to get unsafe.
We found a big rock.
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Mt Tekarra from the valley floor. More streams and puddles to re-soak the feet just in case they were starting to dry out. The trail was pretty runnable here so we made good time.
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Snapping some photos for the last time at the foot of Mt Tekarra. 5h15 and 32km. The run started to get really difficult for me on the next ascent back up onto the ridge and I forgot to take the camera out again anywhere. I was just focussed on covering ground, not stubbing my toes and starting to put down a fair bit of sugar. I had been eating whole food up until this point (sausage, scones, banana, water) but needed to dig into the sugar to keep going strong on the way into the finish. I ran the 5 mile fire-road in 50 minutes loosing about 800m of elevation including a final 4km faster than a 5min/km pace.
47 km in 7h17 total time & 6h01 moving time.