It was the last day of a great training week on Skyline/Cactus to Clouds. I'd run Cactus to Clouds the previous 4 days at very controlled efforts (3 with the full descent back to the museum). Weather was great and I set out from the museum at about 6am in perfect temps, with plans for another controlled effort. I felt fantastic, and by the time I passed Rescue 1 I decided to push a little harder. I was climbing efficiently and got to Grubbs Notch in 2:33:04 elapsed. I wasn't sure what the FKT was, but decided to snap a pic of my watch since that was significantly faster than I'd climbed to the Notch before, even at higher relative efforts. I ran over to the Ranger station to fill out my permit, which went smoothly. There were a couple rangers and some hikers, and after answering a few questions and completing my permit I was off. I moved efficiently up to Quartz Camp (a more direct, but less traveled route to the summit), then a bit above there I put spikes on for the snow/ice. I could feel the altitude at that point, but was still moving well. When I rejoined the normal route on the traverse I was slowed by mixed snow, ice, and rock. I took the winter route to the summit at the switchback, and reached the summit in 3:37:57 elapsed. Up to that point I had about 1/2 liter to drink (out of the 2 500ml bottles I carried from the start), and 3 packs of Bloks (around 550 calories). The descent back to Quartz Camp was slow with mixed ice, rock, and snow. Once I could take my spikes off and run on trail I moved well, and pushed the hardest of the day on the ramp up to the Tram, arriving there in 4:22:28 elapsed.
Important note: I'm not sure if this should count as the C2C FKT or not. I've always personally felt like the route is about going from the museum to the summit of San Jacinto. Brett Maune talks about trying more direct versions of the Skyline trail and feeling like they were equivalent, and even admits he used a couple of big shortcuts in his Skyline FKT, but I haven't seen anyone talk about variations above the Ranger station. It has all the climbing, but does cut off significant distance. I did beat Brett's time of 3:40 from Museum to San Jacinto (David Hedges was behind that ascent time on his C2C2C). Maybe this should be a different FKT route, or there should be an "open" version that is just the fastest ascent regardless of trail (as long as it is legal)? It could be even more direct than what I did with more snow. The route I took is accessible and approved by the Rangers in winter or summer. In fact, one of the hikers I passed at the Ranger station was talking about it. The Ranger referred to it as more of a route than a trail, which I think is a fair description. There is a primitive trail the whole way (I believe it was more heavily used in the past), which gets significantly more primitive past Quartz Camp.