Aurelien Sanchez – JMT unsupported FKT attempt (NOBO)

[Ralph Burgess]

Aurelien set off early this morning.

[Ralph Burgess]

http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/post/5303/thread

https://www.facebook.com/JMTFKTATTEMPT2017/

https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1652b59b74a960b4a1

[Ralph Burgess]

Aurelien planned on a 3am departure, and his current pings look consistent with that start time.   (He hiked a couple of miles up & down the bottom of the trail yesterday with his SPOT operating, and there are a few of yesterday’s pings mixed in there.)

He has excellent weather ahead, the best you could hope for in September.  Clear skies, little wind, just cold.

Aurelien is making an unsupported attempt, so his primary target is Andrew Bentz’s time of 3d11h.

[Adam White]

(edit: table updated through the south MTR cut-off)

 

[Ralph Burgess]

Good to see a ping, I was wondering if his batteries had died.   I think Wallace Creek in 7 hours is a well judged pace, about 30 minutes up on a schedule to beat Andy’s time.

As we know, it’s all about the last day – but I think Aurelien may have the best chance of anyone yet this year for the unsupported record – the weather is so important.   I don’t quite know what the weather will mean for the smoke situation, though.   Gentle winds or an inversion could make it worse.

[Ralph Burgess]

Forester at 1pm (10 hours elapsed) about an hour ahead of schedule.   His last ping was approaching the Bubbs Creek junction.

[Ralph Burgess]

It looks like Aurelien rested for a few hours at Woods Creek, and reached the S Fork of the King’s at 3:30am.   He’s going well, almost 2 hours ahead of schedule for the unsupported record.

[Ralph Burgess]

Aurelien reached the Middle Fork junction at 9:30am.   He’s still about an hour ahead of schedule for the unsupported record.   3 hours slower than Darcy – but he’s carrying a pack, of course.

[Adam White]

He’s now on his way up Muir, looking very good. When he left Mather, he was about 20 minutes ahead of Andy’s time.

He’s about an hour behind Leor’s time at this point, which means–all things being equal–I think he’s roughly a half-hour to an hour ahead of Andy’s time.

[Ralph Burgess]

Muir Pass at 2:00pm,  that’s 35 hours elapsed time.
He’s still about 30 minutes up on schedule for the unsupported FKT.

[Ralph Burgess]

I’m not sure what’s happening with Aurelien.     It looks like he may have taken a break in Evolution Valley late afternoon.   But then a single ping at 7:08pm with nothing yet to follow.

[Adam White]

JUST when you say that, we get another ping.

I had been watching it, too.

He’s moving along the S. Fork San Joaquin, not quite to Piute Creek yet.

I figured he took a rest in Evolution Valley, mimicking Andy. But if he started moving just before his 7:08pm ping, he’s moving very slowly. Or, he took another break.

[Adam White]

Well, he’s at the S. MTR cut-off at about 44h 20m elapsed.

I guess I haven’t quite decided whether or not he’s on pace. I think he’s relatively close. A lot depends on how much quality rest he got this afternoon. His last few splits have been >3 mph, and again, I think that’s the best indicator for success (or at least, the absence of an indicator of failure).

Andy rested for 7 hours at the Mono Creek Footbridge, and departed around 54h elapsed. I think Aurelien can certainly pass through there earlier than 54h elapsed, but he’d be somewhat under rested compared with Andy.

Anyway, looks promising, definitely going to be one to keep watching!

[Arthur]

Inappropriate comment by me removed.

[Ralph Burgess]

Arthur – if you want to give us another tiresome commentary on how FKTers are doing it wrong, please feel free to start your own separate thread.   Don’t shit on this one.

 

 

[Ralph Burgess]

The intermittent pings are a bit confusing as Adam says, but it looks like Aurelien rested somewhere in Evolution, and was moving again by late evening.    He made the top of Selden Pass around 2:30am, still about 45 minutes up on record pace.

 

[Ralph Burgess]

And we just got a ping again from Aurelien, approaching the Bear Ridge trail junction.

[Ralph Burgess]

Mono Creek bridge at around 7:20 am (with a bit of interpolation).   Aurelien seems to be moving at a steady pace now, probably still slightly ahead of record pace.    SPOT is still spotty.

 

[Adam White]

I interpolated 7:45am or so for leaving the Mono Creek footbridge, which puts him 1h 15m or so ahead of Andy, leaving the footbridge.

However, Aurelien didn’t get the seven hour break that Andy did there.

Still, quite competitive, at this point!

[Ralph Burgess]

Nothing since this morning from Aurelien, unfortunately.   Darcy’s pacer’s SPOT signal stopped at the same time, so I’m hoping that it’s a problem with the SPOT system that will get sorted out and he’ll pop up again.

[Allen C]

Saw this on FB today in my Sierra Nevada Current Conditions group:

“Just a public service announcement: If you use Spot, they just released a firmware upgrade. I, at least, did not get any email warning me about this… and so my Spot appeared to be working on my recent trip but was NOT sending check ins… and so my mom freaked out (I am 48 but, well, some things never change, I guess). Something about needing an upgrade nuked all my contact emails and I had to re-enter them as well. If you think you might need this upgrade go to your Spot account and check. It’s easy to download and install as long as you remember where you put the USB cable that came with the Spot (took me a while).”

At this point it is becoming abundantly clear that Spot is a far inferior choice to the Garmin/Delorme Inreach. It is a shame as the Spot is lighter and smaller, but they just don’t seem to work all that well.

[Adam White]

Peter Hirst posted on Facebook that there was an Aurelien sighting on Silver Pass around 10:00am, then at the Fish Creek footbridge around between 10:30am and 11:00am.

That doesn’t tell us much, since it doesn’t fill in much of the gap.

If Aurelien is on pace, he should be somewhere between Shadow Lake and Garnet right now.

I half suspect that the mere act of me posting this should cause a few pings to show up.

(edit to add: no, the act of me posting this did not cause a few pings to show up.)

[Adam White]

It is a shame as the Spot is lighter and smaller, but they just don’t seem to work all that well.

Not to go too far off topic, but some SPOTs seem to work better than others–although user habits could play a large part in this.

As an example, look at Kurt: On his 2015 attempt, he had it set to ping every three minutes or something pretty awesome like that–and it did, mostly. Way back then, I generated this histogram, although I never posted it:

Nearly 75% of the pings were with a spacing of 5 minutes or less.

I like to imagine that Kurt carries his SPOT strapped to the top of his head, facing upwards, atop his lucky speed hiking sombrero, which happens to be both reflective, and parabolic in shape.

In short, maybe it’s not the SPOT, maybe you just need a fancy hat.

[Allen C]

I am going to invent a device that is a fancy speed hiking sombrero, wearable solar panel, and a self charging GPS tracker all rolled into one. I will call it a SPAT. And I will be rich beyond belief.

[Adam White]

Well, if Aurelien’s SPOT has been dark for over 24 hours. If he’s on pace for Andy’s time, he should be arriving at Happy Isles at or before 2:00pm today (assuming a 3:00am start from Whitney Portal). I suspect that not hearing anything from him is relatively good news; if he had bailed, I bet there’d be an update to Facebook, at least.

Still, no way to tell if he’s on pace, other than wait.

 

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