I am in the process of planning my summer trip(s) in detail. I am plagued with "loops" vs "through-hike" where I want to see several areas (about 27-30 day through-hike)on the crest of the Wind River Mountains. The areas I want to see are just about 100% off-trail so 6-7 miles a day is all I can do. This is a dilema for "slow" through-hiking. Walking out to resupply is very time consuming, plus most trailheads have no services and are a long way from anything. I do have friends who live in the area who could pick me up at trailheads, but each walk-out and back to town would likely eat up 3-4 days. The worst part is walking back in with a pack loaded with two additional days of food. Thus, a through-hike would be easier with two commercial outfitter resupplies (over $250 each). I generally do loops because of the cost of resupply plus family members prefer to hear from me once in a while! The hot shower between trips is also a bonus! But I keep going back to the through-hike as more aesthetically pleasing. I have spent 30+ days straight in the mountains plenty of times and like it, so the isloation is not an issue to me. Were I wealthy, this would not even be an issue. I really do have more time than $$$. On the other hand, I seem to spend plenty of $$ when I go out to towns. Another issue is that at my advanced age I really cannot carry more than 10 days food at one time. Part of the problem is that the off-trail travel is somewhat technical and a heavy pack will not work. I am going to have to carry ice axe and crampons (there is 2 days food weight!) so I need to be very careful about food weight.

Another point is that with several loops, I would actually see more country than through-hike with walk-out resupply. So I guess the choice is down to two- outfitter resupplies vs several loop trips.

If you also have gone through this decision process, what has swayed you one way or the other?