May 2002 - Asylum
Trail Rating - 5.5
Trip Leader: Larry Zagers
Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal, Ken Francisco, Roger Vost
This is the hardest trail I have ever seen period. While the waterfalls at the end are impressive they are far easier obstacles than the trail leading up to them. Don't even attempt this one without a winch, straps, snatch blocks, hi-lifts, spare parts and enough food, water and shelter for an overnight stay if needed. Even when you complete the final waterfall you still have what amounts to another 5.0 rated trail to run to get back to something that resembles a road. We drove to and completed the Asylum trail (roughly 3/4 of a mile) in about 12 hours, with two out of eight rigs dropping out due to breakage. The exit trail (roughly a mile and a half) took us another 12 hours, although we did have one rig with us that was reduced to 2 wheel drive after the large waterfall. For those of you that like to read the last page of a novel, or just want to impress your friends, here's a link to the first page with waterfall pictures. Enough talk, on with the trip report.
8 of us gathered at 6:00am on Saturday morning. Pat was running a little late, we waited about a half hour then started making our way back to the trailhead. Luckily Pat had been with us on the pre-run when we scouted the trail so he caught up with us right before we started in.
(Click for larger images)
After talking with a number of people who ran this trail and experiencing it myself I can give you some pointers on how to run it. If you want to make it out before dark you have to start early and stick to trying an obstacle three times and on the fourth time either take a strap or winch yourself over. Your goal is to get to the big waterfall by noon. Any later than that and it'll be dark when you go down the exit road, trust me, you don't want to do it in the dark. Also, limit the number of rigs to 6 or under. Lastly come ready to work. Everyone will be needed at some point to help push, pull, climb hills, hook up straps, cables and spot. We had a lot of people walking along just to watch us. I'd like to thank them for pitching in and helping otherwise it would have taken us even longer.
Last time thru the easier line was to the right after you came out of the notch, this time I had an easier line hugging the wall to the left and eventually running my tire right where Larry was standing.
Jack coming thru the first notch.
