JMT speed record attempt

[Peter Bakwin]

I so do not agree with Art about spot. The scenario he suggests is highly unlikely. Handing out cards is at least as fraught – it would be easy to create a bunch of fake email accts and send yourself "verification" emails. GPX is falsifiable, spot is real time. Pray god no one sends me 80 hrs of continuous GoPro feed as verification!!! SPOT is the best option.

[Ralph Burgess]

SPOT GPS tracker seems to be working fine, here it is again. At the moment, you can see me driving from Mammoth to Lone Pine, diligently obeying the speed limit.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0NJoLkVteExl67unWyDgYZ4BRZLWz0Rmx

Just a note on what to expect:
I have it set up to "ping" every 30 minutes. Battery life is not an issue – Lithium batteries last several weeks in this mode. However, from testing, you may see the signal drop out for several hours at a time for no apparent reason. It does this regardless of terrain. It's presumably due to poor satellite coverage. It also has a motion sensor, so it will stop signalling when I stop to rest.

This may be the last time I'm online before I go. Internet at the Dow is pretty poor, I'm in the coffee shop. I may check in on my phone after I get my blue plate special and go to bed at 7pm.

[Bob Moulder]

Best wishes! Have a good go at it, man!

The details you've provided of your training, nutrition, strategy and kit are incredibly inspirational and educational.

I and my pooch are doing a itsy-bitsy trip this weekend but should have cell reception and will be following your Spot feed religiously.

[Allen C]

I just wanted to say that I spent a few days with Ralph training and discussing strategy etc, and I think he has a good shot at the Unsupported FKT. He was hitting or beating his split times very consistently, with a heavier pack than he'll have on this trip. He is fast, fit, and acclimated, and has spent a lot of time training, planning and dissecting this…he was also very generous about sharing his thoughts, insights, even his detailed plans/split sheet etc.

Obviously a lot can change by day 3 but I think he's as ready as he's going to be and I'm rooting for him to pull it off! Hopefully the recent weather didn't leave too much slippery stuff on the trails.

I'm planning my own attempt later this month so hopefully he won't lower the FKT too much…

[Allen C]

Ralph is headed down the back side of Whitney, as of 9:45am. Looks like he started right around 5am as planned so he's making good time so far!

[Adam White]

Yep, I've been watching while sipping espresso…

Looks like he left his pack (and SPOT) at at the junction, summitted Whitney, and is now descending towards Guitar Lake.

Looks like he's about 15 minutes ahead of his split card–he was aiming to be back at the JMT/Whitney Trail junction at 9:55am, and his 9:45am message showed him a bit ahead of that junction.

Edit: Looks like he's about 45 minutes ahead of his splits going over Forester

Go go go!

[Adam White]

Okay, Ralph is in between Pinchot and Mather–attached is a summarizing table. Distances are in miles; speeds in mph.

Some of the times need to be estimated, obviously, with the broadcast frequency of the SPOT being (at best) once every 30 minutes.

I'm using distances from Erik The Black's, because it's sitting here on my desk.

[Kenneth Keating]

Thanks for posting the update, your format is easy to follow. Go Ralph!

[Aaron Sorensen]

Gotta remember, those splits are for breaking the record.
A sub 4 day attempt is what his first initiative is.
He's doing great as long as he keeps it up.

[Adam White]

> Gotta remember, those splits are for breaking the record.
> A sub 4 day attempt is what his first initiative is.
> He's doing great as long as he keeps it up.

Yeah–Ralph's splits get him to Happy Isles in 80h:30m. That's 2h:30m faster than Andy Bentz' time (the unsupported FKT), and 15h:30m ahead of his four-day target.

The thing I'm watching is the average speed:

For Ralph to beat Andy Bentz' time Whitney Portal time (83h:00m), he needs to maintain an average speed of 2.655 mph.

For Ralph to go sub-4-day (from the portal), he needs to maintain an average speed of 2.296 mph.

Below is an updated table, through the Bishop Pass Trail junction:

Regardless of setting records or how he finishes, what he's done already is pretty darn impressive to me!

[Aaron Sorensen]

Anyone that wants a stab at either record should go out and just try to get to the top Muir Pass in under 36 hours on a shakedown. If you can get through that, the gets much easier both technical and elevation gain.

Then it's just what you have left in the tank and how you can manage the sleep vs gain to the finish.

[Adam Kilpatrick]

That's 2.655mph on a round the clock basis?

Sheesh.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Cool stuff. Thanks for the easy to understand updates Adam W. Much appreciated.

Looks like he has a shot at it, since as far as I understand he can be up to 3 hours off his splits while still breaking the record.

[Ito Jakuchu]

Love this whole thread – and awesome table Adam White.

[Adam White]

Updated through the South MTR cut-off. I'm extrapolating a bit–he hasn't quite hit it the cut-off, but will before the next SPOT update comes through.

Edit: extrapolation is bad! Looks like he took a break along the South Fork San Joaquin just before the cut-off. Table corrected to reflect reality:

[Sean Westberg]

"it is pretty easy for 3 guys in good shape, conspiring together, to pull off a charade with one SPOT."

The base SPOT subscription will transmit breadcrumbs every 15 minutes. The upgraded version will broadcast every minute if you really want to (though that would kill your batteries). Considering that the unit will last 2 weeks on constantly, there's no reason to ever turn it off if you're going to be using it for 4 or so days.

That means you'll get to see when he stops and rests. Could 3 people handoff and coordinate a SPOT to recreate the pacing and resting of an individual? Sure but it'd be tricky to make it look realistic.

The idea of handing out cards on the other hand strike me as easily hackable. Three guys dressed sort of alike handing out business cards on the trail to be mailed in afterwards seems to be an easy hack.

Nah, SPOT combined with maybe a daily selfie if you've got your cell phone. Modern smartphones with GPS tag their photos with locational data these days along with time and date. So the selfies should fit in with the SPOT check-ins just fine. That's more than enough to prove you made it through the trip.

[Scott Bentz]

…Or maybe Ralph is out doing something incredible and we should wait and see what the outcome is and not worry too much about the SPOT.

[Greg Mihalik]

^^^
+1

[Adam White]

I'm starting to get tired just following him! Incredible.

He's about 1h 35m behind his splits. Still has a shot at the record, and still looking great for a sub-4-day, if he can keep it up. I can't imagine how he will, but I say the same thing about anyone who hikes >40 miles a day, day after day.

[Lydia K]

Thank you for posting these updates Adam! I've been watching his progress, but I don't know the trail well enough to always be exactly sure where he is in relation to his splits.

What he's doing blows my mind.

[Greg Mihalik]

Lydia,

This Link will show you where he is on the JMT.

Since his SPOT "pings" only every 30 minutes, his track jumps along in big chunks. You can zoom in to get the names of streams, lakes, passes, etc.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Wow. Looks like he just took his second night sleep a dozen miles early, rather than adding an extra snooze. He's pretty much right on record pace at this point, although his intended splits for the last 80 miles seem ambitious (i.e. 3.4 mph average).

There's one thing I don't understand with Adam's table and Ralph's plan. The JMT starts at Whitney Summit right? So why does the clock start at Whitney Portal? Are those 4 hrs just subtracted off his time for his JMT time?

[Adam White]

Dan,

Although it's true that the JMT officially starts at the Whitney Summit, I think that a lot of the FKT attempters have reported their times both from the Portal, and from the summit. There's more about this in the thread at the FKT boards (which Ralph linked to somewhere upthread).

Here's a profile showing his current progress:

Full size is here.

The red highlighted portion of the trail is, of course, the portion that he's hiked.

His split speeds are shown by the red bars in the bottom plot, his cumulative average speed by the black.

To beat Andy Bentz' existing FKT, he'll need to average 3.07 mph between Deer Creek and Happy Isles.

To go sub-Four-day, he'll need to average 1.91 mph between Deer Creek and Happy Isles.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Cool stuff. Hopefully there's another nice Adam W. table tomorrow for my morning coffee :)

[Allen C]

I just finished a section hike of the JMT from bishop pass to reds meadow. I was a few hours ahead of Ralph so I never saw him, but it sounds like he is doing great! I'm planning to meet him at Happy Isles tomorrow to congratulate him – if anyone else is close enough to come by I'm sure he'd appreciate the support.

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