The Skyline Trail #251 is the longest trail in the Pecos (and I'd reckon the entire NM Sangres too.) This elegant, but sometimes rugged and slightly overgrown, point to point trail runs along the ridgecrest for roughly 70 miles from near Barillas Peak east of the town of Pecos, NM making a giant horseshoe bend around the Pecos river valley to just beyond the summit of "Deception Peak" at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. The trail does not travel over the summit of the major peaks of New Mexico's Sangres and, instead, passes by numerous high alpine lakes at the base of the high peaks.
Old burn scars on the southern/eastern portion of the trail sometimes make for difficult travel but some of the worst areas have been partially cleared. Good navigational skills and intuition help manage these sections. It is these burned sections that have confined most users of the Skyline Trail to the more northern/western half of the trail. The trail's reputation of gnarly deadfall and burn scars on the southern/eastern portion have, as best I can tell, deterred anyone from ever attempting the trail in a single push. Instead, the hearty few that have done the entire trail did it in sections while backpacking.
However, the reputation for deadfall and gnarly sections is not fully warranted and certainly not a reason to avoid the trail. It goes well enough and the tough sections are short enough and tolerable enough to not detract from the awesome experience of running the entire trail in a single go. The views of the high peaks of New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo mountains while running along high, open slopes are a treat not offered by many trails in New Mexico.
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This FKT site doesn't differentiate between direction on point-to-point routes unless the route is a "Premier" route. The Skyline Trail #251 isn't a premier route, yet. :-) Anyway, to document it, on June 5th, 2021, I ran the route north to south in 25:16:40, unsupported. This was 13 minutes slower than my south to north FKT in September 2020. The slower time is on account of running into more people to stop and talk with and navigating the downfall sections on the southern/eastern portion of the trail in the dark. Plus, since this was unsupported, I was carrying more water in the middle section. Another fantastic outing.
Just a remark from September 2024. If you're inspired by Jason or Ella's FKT's on the Skyline, please be aware that it will likely be a decade or more until there is any chance of coming close to their times. I just hiked the "open" section of the trail from the intersection with the Porvenir Canyon trail all the way back to the Santa Fe ski basin (the trail was closed south of FS645/Elk Mtn Trailhead).
The damage from the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire is incredible, with many miles no longer having any visible trail and covered in downed trees. Given the lack of foot traffic on the east side of the Skyline, I suspect it will be many, many years before a new trail is established there and cleared.
The trail already had issues before the fires, which Jason & Ella apparently dealt with very efficiently. But the damage from the fires is on another level, and I think that if you're thinking of attempting an FKT on the Skyline, you will not succeed without tremendous amounts of work from the NFS and/or volunteer groups.