My most strenuous treks in SoCal+Death Valley

The following are 10 of the hardest treks I have done in SoCal and Death Valley ranked purely by strenuous difficulty. I've provided the following stats for each route:

- Subjective Difficulty (SD): This is how I would personally rate the route's strenuous difficulty on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being a walk in the park and 10 being the most strenuous thing I have ever done (Convoluted Bliss). If I ever complete anything more difficult, the numbers below will be adjusted to fit the new high. A common misconception among people who are new hiking and trekking is that strenuous difficulty always has a direct correlation to a combination of mileage and elevation gain. While this does more or less hold true for routes that are 100% on trail, it completely falls apart for off-trail routes, which are dictated by terrain and not by pure stats. This would be like trying to compare the Cassin Ridge (<15 miles) to the Pacific Crest Trail (2,500 miles) and saying the latter is more difficult because it is longer. Therefore, it is incredibly difficult to assign a numerical value to the strenuous difficulty of a route apart from using purely subjective ratings as I have below.

- class: This is the Yosemite Decimal System rating for terrain.

- % on trail: This is the approximate percentage of time I spent on trails on the route. All remaining time was spent on cross country terrain. 

- distance in miles

- elevation gain in feet

Top 10

Route	SD	class	% on trail	miles	gain	map	trip report
Borrego Traverse	5/10	3	0%	22.2 mi	11,190 ft	map	report
Mighty U Traverse	5.5/10	3	~50%	40 mi	17,500 ft		report
Sheep Hole Traverse	5.5/10	3	0%	22.4 mi	11,800 ft	map	report
Arduous Argus	6/10	2	~10%	34 mi	14,100 ft		report
Kingston Traverse	6/10	4	~5%	17.5 mi	8,500 ft	map
Whitewater to Gorgonio	6.5/10	2	~20%	~35 mi	~13,000 ft
Santa Rosa Traverse	6.6/10	2	~20%	41.5 mi	18,300 ft	map
Providence Traverse	6.7/10	4	0%	27.4 mi	13,400 ft	map
Pinnacle Ridge	6.8/10	4	~10%	30 mi	13,200 ft	map	report
Folly Ridge	7/10	5.2	~10%	13.6	11,400 ft	map	report

honorable mentions

Route	SD	class	% on trail	miles	gain	map	trip report
Blair Traverse	3.5/10	2	~15%	20 mi	9,800 ft	map	report
Leatherneck Ridge	4/10	2	~15%	11.5 mi	9,800 ft		report
Windy Point Ridge	4/10	2	~15%	16.2 mi	11,300 ft		report
Irontario Traverse	4/10	2-3	~80%	36.5 mi	16,300 ft	map	report
La Quinta Traverse	4.2/10	2-3	~5%	21.1 mi	9,400 ft	map	report
Snow Creek	4.5/10	4	~15%	11.8 mi	11,000 ft		report

popular hikes for reference

Route	SD	class	% on trail	miles	gain	map	trip report
Gorgonio via Vivian Creek	1.5/10	1	100%	18 mi	5,400 ft
Indianhead standard route	2/10	3	~20%	6 mi	2,800 ft
Rabbit Peak standard route	2.3/10	1	100%	23 mi	7,500 ft
Iron Mountain via Heaton Flat	2.4/10	1	100%	16 mi	6,600 ft
Cactus to Clouds	2.5/10	1	100%	20	11,000 ft