Following Jared and Ty’s JMT FKT attempt

[Richard May]

Just wanted to say thanks for the commentary.

Not being runner the raw data is a little above me, y'all help me give it sense. I now understand the "splits" a and what it means for their run much better.

Thanks, keep it coming.

[Art …]

based on his other exploits, Jared tends to enjoy doing things as a team and it would be unusual for him to split from the team mid effort simply because one or the other was having trouble.

[Adam White]

They just sent the custom message–bailing!

Came from the Taboose Pass trail.

Shucks.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Wow the JMT has been elusive for a lot of great efforts this season. Tough country.

[Aaron Sorensen]

I think the problem comes from trying to chase splits that are really hard to maintain.
It's not a sub 4 day hike anymore!

Just to think that Andrew could have gotten another 16 hours of sleep and still would have gone sub 4 is insane for me to imagine.
I know I'm capable of maybe a sub 4 1/2 day unsupported and possibly sub 100 hour support at my best effort.
That's a day+ slower than these BA's are going.

Just chasing those splits and averaging 10,500' on top of that is just hard to do for 79 or less hours.

I'm willing to bet it was just the altitude getting to one of them?
It appeared that way right from the start.

Koodos to everyone even maintaining those splits for as long as they have this year.
It's been "go big or go home".

I was always willing to bet that the supported record will fall again before the unsupported does.

I would just like to see Jared make one more go at it, as long as he wasn't the one having the problems.

[Scott Bentz]

I'll say it again. Each time one of these guys takes off I am certain HE (or now THEY) is/are the one to beat Andrews record. It just shows how brutal that trail is. I think Andrew figures it will go down with one of these guys. He mentioned Jared and said he was "super legit", meaning, he had a great chance.

It will be interesting to see the report. The whole effort, from using the Mountaineers route, the weird tracking on the backside (probably a SPOT anomaly? ), to slowing down below the splits, was, to say the least, interesting.

I follow these attempts with interest and am so surprised when they bail. They are moving along so well, hitting split times, sleep, etc., and then, boom: they bail. No one has made it to Donahue yet! In Andrews videos I could see the pain he was in and how he had to work through it. It's a tough trail to keep moving so fast.

The 2015 saga continues.

[Adam White]

Based on the speed of their SPOT messages, looks like they had a few-mile road walk from the Taboose Pass Trailhead down to the campground.

Adds a little bit of insult to injury, I suppose. Hopefully they can hitch, get picked up, etc. from the campground.

(edit: no, they road walked all the way to 395)

[Kurt Achtenhagen]

Having just hiked out to the Taboose trailhead, I feel for those guys. Almost 6,000 vertical feet down over 8 miles. Starts out with lots of loose tennis ball sized rocks, and then turns to several inches of sand and gravel to swim through towards the bottom. I was stumbling over everything! Add to that, not a lick of shade. I hit the trailhead around 9:30 and it was approaching high 80's. Ack!

I hope nothing major was wrong with either of them!

[Art …]

in this link Jared explains why he and Ty bailed.
basically pre start illness that wasn't fully gone.

Why They Bailed

[jscott]

I really admire everyone who's attempted the record this season, and it's been fun following along via spot reports. Obviously, everyone involved is in top physical shape, except for colds, etc. going in. Given the results this summer, I have to ask, is going for the speed record an unhealthy activity? That is, the strain put on even healthy peoples' systems seems to be pretty great.

Please don't take this the wrong way: I'm sure that everyone will recover etc. I'm not calling for an end to FKT attempts or anything like that. But writing as someone who seems to have induced atrial fibrillation after 3 hard days of nordic skiing (I was fit and have been skiing for years, 58 at the time) I've come to question whether pushing the limits over time might have caused lasting bad effects. I'm strictly speaking for myself here, and not necessarily extrapolating to other people.

Again, I don't want to be the bad guy here; I admire everyone involved. But given the results this season, it seems that this is a reasonable question to ask. I imagine that this is something everyone who tried for the FKT has asked themselves. In any case, everyone this season made the correct choice to bail when they were at or beyond their physical limits. In all sports preparation can set you up to succeed but sometimes luck and external circumstances get in the way.

I hope that I don't regret posting this…

[Jerry Adams]

I wonder if you can damage your joints or whatever by over-exertion. Like running too much.

If you take it easier, will you be better able to continue hiking until old age?

Basketball or football players often get so banged up, they become almost crippled.

[Bob Bankhead]

Very smart move.

Everyone needs to listen to their body, recognize, and accept when it's time to quit and try again another day.

Don't let your ego write checks your body can't cash.

[Author]

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