Amber Monforte on the JMT

Delorme shows her at Rae Lakes. It's 4:30am

She is past Woods Creek Bridge as of 7:22am. Hope the smoke is not too bad out there. Edit: Mather Pass 3:22 pm

Just below Lake Helen nearing Muir Pass at 6am. Don't know what kind of pace this puts her on. ?

Peter, it looks like she has covered about 90 miles in about 50 hours, or 1.84 MPH. If she maintains the same average speed this would be about 120 hours total which is just about 5 days. This would be more than a full day faster than the current women's unsupported FKT. It seems like she's gotten a decent amount of sleep and may be past the worst of the smoke, so hopefully she will be able to keep it up and maybe even increase her pace on the 2nd half. So it looks to me like she is doing quite well and has a pretty good shot at a new FKT, if she can keep going.

The now-familiar data presentation is below. As usual, I tried to make reasonable guesses for when she took breaks. I typically did this whenever not having a break result in an unrealistically slow split speed. The times to beat (per Peter’s FKT boards) are Michelle Jung’s 6d 11h 35m from Whitney Portal and 6d 6h 5m from Whitney Summit. I’m still comparing her speeds against Leor, because, well, his splits were already coded in. Obviously not what she’s aiming for, but a comparison nonetheless. I don’t know if I should be congratulatory or critical of her for attempting this in the smoke. Perhaps both…Hopefully her lungs still love her. If she finishes, I think she pretty much has it nailed–she only needs to average about 1.2 mph and 1.33 mph for the FKT from the portal and summit, respectively. Table: Profile:

Thanks Adam! I was worried about you there for a minute…

Ha, I know…I've been busy with work and travel, and since the Rough Fire erupted, I've been pretty unplugged from goings-on in the Sierra. But it's a quiet Saturday morning, so I thought I'd pop into BPL to see what's been going on and…Crap! A JMT FKT? I have work to do!

I didn't realize this till just now, but Amber Monforte set the Supported FKT on the Tahoe Rim Trail last year. And she has done at least 30 ultras including at least 4 100 mile races. http://www.trailrunnermag.com/people/1484-9-qs-with-amber-monforte-new-tahoe-fkt-holder http://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=Amber&lname=Monforte

I can't believe she's managed so well despite the smoke. I'm in Bishop and it is so bad in the Owens Valley there are health alerts. I haven't ventured into the mountains for the past week, maybe it's better up there, or she has superhuman lungs.

She is over Silver Pass as of 1:26pm. Looks to be at about mile 145 (it is hard to tell exactly from the Delorme position, which shows her off trail a bit). Time from start is 80:18. Approximately 1.81mph so far, with about 76 miles to go. These are the easiest miles on the trail so she may be able to increase her speed from here. If she maintains the same average speed she should finish in another 42 hours for a total of 122 hours and change (5 days 2 hours) which would be a new FKT by a wide margin. Hopefully my math is correct!

Updated through the first Cascade Valley Junction. Your math is pretty close to mine, Allen (edit: although I have her starting at 4:08am, which was her first ping). I’m using Sierra Mapper distances, which put Amber at about 1.76 mph average speed. To beat the FKT from the portal, she needs to average 1.07 mph for the rest of the hike; to beat the FKT from Whitney’s summit, she needs to average 1.25 mph. At this point, she’s probably carrying a few extra pounds of ash in her alveoli. So there’s that challenge. Table: Profile:

Thanks! Had a bit of trouble figuring out where she was with the delorme link (on my phone). Very cool if she makes it through.

Not plugged in at all to the whole ultra universe, I did some googling and she's clearly one tough lady! And the age of 36-37 is good… the convergence of fitness, experience and mental toughness. Good luck to Amber!!

She was near Red's Meadow at 11pm last night. She should be done by tonight!

Updated through the bluffs over Garnet. She’s picked up the pace a bit, making great time into Red’s (somewhere along the stretch she made great time–with as few points as the DeLorme spits out, it’s hard to tell where). As of about 6:00am this morning, she was on the bluffs overlooking Garnet. At that point, her elapsed time was about 97h 54m from the portal (93h 22m from Whitney summit). Her average speed picked up to around 1.82 mph. Michelle Jung’s FKTs are 155h 35m from the portal (150h 5m from the summit). Amber needs to average 0.79 mph to beat Michelle’s portal time, and 0.96 mph to beat her Whitney summit time. Done by tonight? Maybe…depends on what’s left in the tank. She’d have to average 2.5 mph between Garnet and HI to be done by midnight tonight, and that’s faster than she’s averaged on any section yet. If she does that, she’ll knock almost 40 hours off the (admittedly soft) existing FKT… Good luck Amber! I rode my bike to work this morning to keep the CA air that much cleaner for you… Table: Profile:

At 2:10pm Amber checked in from atop Donohue–only about 35 miles left, and it is predominantly downhill. Everything is looking good for a FKT-smashing… Table: Profile:

Amber’s moving quickly now! Guess she did have something left in the tank… At 7:10pm, she was just past the Elizabeth Lake junction with about 23 miles left. She’s picked up the pace and is averaging about 1.82 mph. If she pushes on into the night (and keeps up a 2.5 mph pace–which she has since Garnet), she should finish a little after 4:00am. I’ll be up before then to leave for the airport, so I’ll check ;). Table: Profile:

An amazing effort! She might be going for 5.00 days. I know I'll be checking in 10 hours from now. Adam – Thanks for the tracking. I appreciate it. So much better than trying to watch 2 hour pings on DeLorme.

At 4:17am Amber was about 1 mile from Happy Isles–she’s probably finishing right about now! Congrats Amber! (edit: Added table and profile, and commentary below) Hopefully I didn’t jinx her–no ping from the trailhead yet, but I called guesstimated her finish at 4:40am. Using 4:08am as her start time, that gives her 120h 32m from the portal, and 116h 0m from the summit. Even if my guesses are off by a few minutes…those are definitely FKTs*!!!! (Michelle Jung’s existing FKTs are 155h 35m from the portal and 150h 5m from the summit.) * Pending scrutiny and cross-examination by FKT officials, of course Big congratulations to Amber! FKT aside, a 120h JMT is pretty darn impressive. We should all pitch in and buy her some inhalers. Table: Profile:

Nice. Now we have Gavin Woody who is starting his unsupported attempt on the 3rd. http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0BLd5ZaY2rikG5CyIPdLocLzEe1Ia6IN4

Amber is reporting 5d0h37m from the Portal – smashing the unsupported FKT by way over a day. Nice! http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/thread/21/john-muir-trail-ca

Congratulations to Amber for her monumental achievement!

Girls kick butt, Great job Amber!

Very cool.