Most "death Marches" are long trips with lots of ups and downs, but no brutal sections. Swan's Traverse (never done by Bradfod Swan, he merely proposed it) was designed to be brutal. From Appalachia, December 1958, pp. 257-258:
First done by Jim O'Kane, Hutmaster at Madison, who began by going down the Valley Way before doing it. His time was 5:22 on June 30, 1958. Chris Goetz did it twice that summer, August 10 and 20, in 4:59 and 4:32 respectively. See an interesting article by Chris' father, Klaus Goetz, in the same issue, pp. 203-211.
With the Beast of the East gone, I suppose we should substitute Star Lake and Madison Gulf trails for it.
Incidentally, the prize that Brad Swan offered for those doing it was a free season's pass to the Star Lake bathing beach
The route was up the Airline, Short Line, King Ravine and Airline trails to the summit of Adams, down by the (no longer maintained) Adams Slide Trail (the notorious "Beast of the East") to the Great Gulf Trail, up that trail to the summit of Washington. Down by Lion's Head to Hermit Lakes, the up the Boot Spur Link (so that it should not be too easy), and finally down Boot Spur to Pinkham.... I set out to devise a route from the Ravine House in Randolph to Pinkham Notch Camp that was reasonably direct yet would go "over all the humps", utilizing notoriously hard trails. Fancy loops, to include especially tough sections of trail, were not induged in, but two of the hardest headwalls -- King Ravine and Great Gulf -- were made parts of the route.
First done by Jim O'Kane, Hutmaster at Madison, who began by going down the Valley Way before doing it. His time was 5:22 on June 30, 1958. Chris Goetz did it twice that summer, August 10 and 20, in 4:59 and 4:32 respectively. See an interesting article by Chris' father, Klaus Goetz, in the same issue, pp. 203-211.
With the Beast of the East gone, I suppose we should substitute Star Lake and Madison Gulf trails for it.
Incidentally, the prize that Brad Swan offered for those doing it was a free season's pass to the Star Lake bathing beach