MEMPHIS FIT By Kelsey J. Lawrence
Memphis Hiker, 85, Earns Third World Record with 48-mile Grand Canyon Trek
A phone call from his wife almost ended 85-year-old Dale Sanders’s third world record attempt before he even hit the trail. At 7:50 am on Oct. 5, just moments prior to embarking from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, his wife told him, “I know what it is. I’ve already been to the emergency room. You go on and hike.” Ahead of him he faced a 4,520-foot descent to Bright Angel Campground not knowing exactly how his wife fared.
“It was a really bad, rough, challenging start,” he says. “There are no communication services of any kind. I did carry a spot tracker so I could send an emergency signal if I had a problem, but there was no way for her to reach me if she had a problem.” As she did three years earlier during his record-breaking thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail, his biggest supporter still urged him to continue. “She said, ‘No. You’ll never forgive yourself. You’ve got to finish it,’” Dale
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remembers. “After that, there was no way I was going to quit.” The same perseverance that earned him the nickname Grey Beard on his 2017 hike, kept him going on his mission to become the oldest person to complete the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim. Despite the rough start and limited altitude training, Dale began descending steep switchbacks with five friends from the Bluff City Canoe Club, each with a key role that helped him earn another world record.
