Xander and I had a really fun day on the Painted Traverse. Many thanks to Sam Chaneles for the gpx and TR which really smoothed our passage. Started a few mins after 6AM with the 5k' ascent of Painted. What a perfect steep trail for walking straight uphill with poles (like most of the traverse), played to my strength as a skimo nerd. We took a couple summit and water source breaks along the way but kept moving well. Found water before and after black which was nice because the day was warming rapidly. Route-finding on Black isn't bad with the GPX. The main thing is you end up going further climbers right than it looks like from the basin. Found ourselves on top of White in just under 7 hours and decided to make a push for a good time on the way out. The descent was quote hot through the switchbacks, but we hit a nice stream after we got in the woods and had a beautiful shady run through the old growth back to the parking lot. Brought it in in 9:22, considering the vert, a time I was very happy with.
The vert is not 12k' as the description says (please update) my watch read 10600' and that seems pretty accurate. We didn't run a single sub 10 minute mile. I think this could go much faster for a group of fast runners.
An alternative name for this traverse could be "slippery when wet" there are some sections that would really suck if they were wet (traversing steep shrubs and heather). This is a really good mid-summer route. There are a couple run-able sections of the ridge, but not very many. IMO most of this route rewards fast hikers with poles. Fast runners could easily knock 30-45 mins plus off our time from white to the finish though. Spectacular views all around! This is a great alternative to the Pilot Ridge Loop if you are looking for something more technical and adventurous.