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What does “unsupported” stand for to you?
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Home › Forums › General Forums › General Lightweight Backpacking Discussion › What does “unsupported” stand for to you?
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Apr 21, 2007 at 4:21 pm #1222930
Having some ideas to see how far you can go "unsupported"
So, what does "unsupported" stand for to you?
Yours Ulrika
Apr 21, 2007 at 4:25 pm #1386883wife says: "you wanna go on that trip, fine – i don't care; do whatever you f'ing want"
Apr 21, 2007 at 8:42 pm #1386903My definition is likely a good bit different from some others, and it is mostly based on the through-hikes I've made in the last few years.
For me: Hiking without specialized access to services one could not reasonably walk to along the trail corridor.
Maildrops COULD count as support if you have to have someone back home mail them out. For my AT thru-hike, I was supported in this aspect in that my mom took the pre-addressed maildrop (which I packed) to the post office and mailed it out with the cash I left for that purpose on the timetable I left her. Still reasonably self-sufficient, but lightly supported. Onthe Colorado, I mailed all my mail-drops out from Denver just before I started the trail. I wouldn't consider these as supported as I did the work myself.
The other types of support would be transport. If you're walking into town, you're not supported. If you're paying for a shuttle, you're supported. If you're hitching, this is a grey area for me, since you're somewhat "living off the land".
For most all of my longer hikes, I've had a degree of support (bymy definition), but minimally so compared to those who have friends or outfitters actually meet them at predetermined points.
Apr 22, 2007 at 12:06 am #1386917Saving weight by leaving the boxers at home?..
Actually I thought it means not taking assistance or food from any person; living off the land and natural sources of water; such as the recent BPL Alaska trek. I think if I hitchiked one mile, or a thousand miles, I would think of myself as having received support; but then I've never done a thru-hike.. :(
Apr 22, 2007 at 4:50 am #1386922wife says: "you wanna go on that trip, fine – i don't care; do whatever you f'ing want"
lol…….I definitely can relate to that situation and comment…….though by your definition-unsupported becomes not taken………;-0
I am still laughing………great one…….
BTW-not to hijack but the arctic 1000 – is there a webpage for this unsupported hike, which I thought meant carry all your needs from start to finish without any resupplies or help…….
Apr 22, 2007 at 1:20 pm #1386953And here I always thought it referred to hiking without underwear … (oops, sorry that one's been done …)
Seriously, my unthinking assumption was that it means you're continuously away from any human infrastructure, carrying whatever you need to survive except for water. I don't think that "living off the land" is super practical for most folks, particularly for those that want or need to do any significant per-day distance.
Apr 22, 2007 at 2:07 pm #1386955I think what you are really looking for is a way to define "un-resupplied". Demetri Coupounas (Coup) did the Colorado Trail "un-resupplied" and "unsupported". He carried all his gear and all his food for his CT Hike. He had no one help him in anyway on his hike. He did receive "moral" support such as phone calls to his wife as he hiked. At lest one person hiked along with him a short way but did nothing for him nor gave him anything.
"The Colorado Trail Alpine Style, by Demetri Coupounas (Coup)
Excerpt:
ALPINE STYLE THRU-HIKING MEANS UN-RESUPPLIED BUT NOT UNSUPPORTED When I came up with the phrase “alpine-style thru-hiking,” I thought of it as un-resupplied and unsupported. I now think differently. While I took no water, food, gear, or anything else from anyone on these trips, I can not claim to have been “unsupported” on the Colorado Trail any more than the other two. My biggest supporter was my wife Kim."You all might enjoy this thread from last November called
Unsupported/Unresupplied/Thru-HikesApr 22, 2007 at 5:17 pm #1386971A big thank you! to everybody for the interesting comments.
The "Unsupported/Unresupplied/Thru-Hikes" from november was a VERY interesting read.
From that thread It looks like it would be "possible" to walk 1000 miles carrying all your food on a good trail for the "optimal" person with all the stars in the right place.
That is the theory, but does anybody know the longest unresupplied walk that has been done?
Apr 22, 2007 at 6:11 pm #1386978If you liked those you should like these:
Apr 23, 2007 at 9:08 pm #1387110Am wondering if you are unsupported and unresupplied if you start from a point and do the first section in stages. Ie I start on one end of a trail, with my gear/food dump at the start. I walk in 100miles and drop off some food, then walk back to pick up the rest. If you think about it, this is what most mountaineers do on a mountain. I am not sure of the "alpine" style climbers do this, or do they, just not without a massive support team placing dumps for them along the way?
Adam
Apr 26, 2007 at 4:00 am #1387368What you can carry, is what you have.
(anything more would be in support of your trip)Using the KISS principle,
DougApr 26, 2007 at 11:26 am #1387390"What you can carry, is what you have."
Would this mean that by drawing water from a stream, you are being supported? I could agree that cached water is support, but taking what is naturally there seems a bit of a stretch.
Apr 26, 2007 at 12:50 pm #1387399Hi Shawn, Unsupported.
If I have the means to clean (and carry) the available water, I would consider it unsupported.
Where I spend most of my time, (fresh) water is either immediately available or with in an hour.All the best,
Doug.
May 1, 2007 at 7:03 pm #1387851I'm going for the Unsupported/ Undersupplied JMT record this summer and have been asked questions about this.
The questions that have come up is if someone wants to visit you on the trail and walks with you on a section of it, (not pacing you), is that support?
If 2 people go for an Unsupported attempt, can they load share? Along with that, you are only really setting the pace half the time while just following the other half, (support or not)?
May 2, 2007 at 6:30 am #1387890Aaron,
What if you start out with a pack with top pockets and side pockets and then mail the side pockets home, then mail the pack home and do the last several days with just the top pocket/lumbar pack?
Do you have to finish with the same kit you started with or is it acceptable to replace gear? Maybe your sole came off and you replaced it with an identical shoe.
What about trail magic? In athletics the umpires are considered a part of the field. Maybe trail angels are a part of the trail.
Are you allowed to discard trash?
My point is that it is possible to become too obsessive about the "rules". If the point is to set a standard that can be recreated then that is impossible in hiking. I have hiked that same trail on Memorial Day weekend multiple times over more than a decade. Every hike is different and unique.
I prefer to celebrate the endless variety that hiking offers rather than setting "standards". However, the unsupported hikes help us all think about the effect of carrying different weights and nutrition. I am just glad that I receive the benefits of an activity that I would never attempt.
Hike on and thanks.
May 2, 2007 at 11:59 am #1387930Richard
"My point is that it is possible to become too obsessive about the "rules".
Yes, but never the less we are discussing it.
I just say help, or actuall assistance that will help get you through the trail faster than without is support.If I find that I have 2 pounds of extra food half way through and I get rid of it, that will help, there for I would consider it support.
Maybe if I just force the issue for a bear to get into my pack and have it just some how eat the food, then I'm good. It could also rip my bag into 2 and save me some weight that way.
Oh wait here's another one; if I have the bear chase after me the whole way, I will easily be able to get the record.
May 2, 2007 at 12:20 pm #1387940I always considered a hike in which you carry all of your gear/ food to finish the hike is without resupply.
when a hike completed without a support crew is considered unsuported
Ex. "Coup's" mini triple crown hikes = unresuplied
a PCT thru hike where you have to go to town or a mail drop yourself to pick up food = unsupported
(for a supported hike, the hiker has a support team bring them food ect. so they can stay on the trail)
Im interested in the speed records for various thru hikes
PCT? supported and unsupported
AT? supported and supported
CDT?
JMT?anybody know?
May 2, 2007 at 4:05 pm #1387973"AT? supported and supported"
There may have been a change in the supported hike this past year, but my best knowledge is 48 days and a handful of hours. (The runner was trying to finish it before his 49th birthday.)
Unsupported was 62 days.
May 2, 2007 at 5:07 pm #1387976going commando?
May 2, 2007 at 5:34 pm #1387978Going Rambo (but w/ better acting and a coherent plot).
May 2, 2007 at 7:47 pm #1387988The way I would do it:
1. Water is where I find it but not from another person. This means from any normal place an AT Hiker might find there water. Springs, creeks, rivers, ponds, common water faucets along the way, bottles of water left at trail crossings, etc. I will not buy water or take it from another hiker. I will not take water left such as trail magic unless all hikers are doing that because of a shortage of water.
2. All food necessary for the hike will be carried from day one. NO food will be taken from any one or bought along the way.
3. All gear will be carried from day one and no extra gear will be picked up along the way. Gear may be discarded along the way in accordance with LNT teachings what ever they are.
4. My trash if I don't eat it will be dumped in trash cans along the way.
5. The only phone calls I make or receive will be on a cell phone I carry.
I don't currently own a cell phone but might get one of the new iPhones after I see what all it will do.6. Once my hike starts the only pictures to record my hike will be taken by me or with my camera using my tripod and the camera timer.
7. If someone wants to hike with me for a day or whatever it is OK except that I will take nothing from that person but conversation.
8. Others ??
May 3, 2007 at 7:56 am #1388029Bill,
I am going to make it my life's work to destroy your unsupported attempts by taking a picture of you!
In all seriousness though your ground rules sounds well thought out. I'm not sure why but I'm going around and around with the concept of dropping off gear and trash. I think I'm ultimately in agreement however as I'd really not hear stories of you and your little baggie of you-know-what that you've been carrying for 800 miles.
Also I'm not so sure I have a problem with the use of trail side phones either. In an unsupported hike attempt it would seem legitimate to pick up sticks and such to be used as fuel in a fire. Wouldn't coming across a phone be similar? Or would that then open up the argument that walking past a grocery store would allow purchases to be made there?
– sam_h
May 3, 2007 at 10:21 am #1388040>>"7. If someone wants to hike with me for a day or whatever it is OK except that I will take nothing from that person but conversation. "
I don't know, Bill—- you would be getting psycho/social support from your fellow conversationalist. Just to be on the safe side, take vows as a Trappist Monk and don't say (or hear) anything to(from) anyone. :-)-
In all seriousness (if such a state is possible for me), you have a coherent vision of what being "Unsupported and Unsupplied" could look like.
What Coup did fits the bill, as well.
May 3, 2007 at 10:50 am #1388042Sam,
If someone wanted to take a picture of me with their camera it would be OK but if I had them take a picture of me with my camera that would be supporting my hike.
Kevin,
Moral support such as conversation between me and another hiker would be OK. But no "Touche feely stuff".
May 3, 2007 at 10:56 am #1388043Bill,
When you pass a modern restroom are you allowed to use their TP, soap, towels, etc.?
For me the biggest issue is the trash. The weight is acceptable, but it attacts vermin and could be a health hazard. If you carried a BushBuddy you could burn and bury it.
I think you would want to use only what was available in a very remote location, but it is a courtesy to others to use the privies.
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