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Post by Peter Bakwin on May 3, 2017 15:16:31 GMT -5
Getting a notion to go for an age record. Is there such a thing? I'll keep looking but any help would be appreciated. Looking to conquer the 55 and older unassisted. I'm thinking it's Metzger's but not sure. No age group records are kept. It's hard enough verifying what someone did! |
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Post by Aurelien Sanchez on Aug 1, 2017 16:48:21 GMT -5
Hello all, I am planning to attempt an unsupported FKT on the John Muir Trail northbound starting from September 15th 2017, and hopefully beat Andrew Bentz record of 82 hours, 59 minutes. I will bring a Garmin Fenix3 watch, and hopefully a Spot device. I'll send again a message few days before to confirm. Still continuing my training and preparation meanwhile, available on strava at www.strava.com/athletes/aure_sanchz. Aurelien Sanchez |
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john
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Post by john on Aug 30, 2017 9:30:49 GMT -5
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Post by Ralph Burgess on Sept 4, 2017 9:15:48 GMT -5
It looks like John Tidd broke the overall record, going southbound. His InReach track shows him leaving Happy Isles on 9/1 at 4:14am, and reaching Whitney summit this morning at 4:07am. So he broke 3 days to the summit. He's on his way down to the Portal. He appears to have targeted the summit, and is coming down now at a gentle pace.
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here comes François
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Post by here comes François on Sept 4, 2017 11:11:23 GMT -5
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Post by Peter Bakwin on Sept 4, 2017 11:37:25 GMT -5
Oddly, his tracker shows him turning around about 350' vertical short of the summit. He sent a message "I'm stopping here" and it's clearly about 0.25 mile short of the top. WTF?  |
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Post by Ralph Burgess on Sept 4, 2017 12:48:29 GMT -5
It is strange, given how accurate the GPS track appeared to be before that, but surely it must just be that the GPS signal dropped out at the summit? We all know that 3-day sleep deprivation can mess you up, but I think you'd have to be pretty disoriented to mistake that spot for the summit, even in darkness - it's good trail there, switchbacking with a steady upward slope. And he would surely know that he should be looking for the hut and the logbook?
ETA - I have to say, though, looking more closely at his GPS track, the upward and downward ping locations in conjunction with ping times are consistent with him stopping at the point shown, short of the summit. His pace for the last section was maybe on the slow side for somebody of his caliber, but it certainly wasn't sluggish, it was a solid hiking pace - and this is with 3 days of fatigue in his legs. Is it possible that he started suffering AMS symptoms and was forced to turn around? We'll have to wait for him to check in, it looks like he's down now, last pings right at the Portal, so I think he's safe.
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Post by Allen Currano on Sept 4, 2017 18:48:38 GMT -5
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Post by Peter Bakwin on Sept 4, 2017 20:19:30 GMT -5
Incredible & tragic! Probably less than 10min - he was less than 400m from the summit as per his tracker. Did he carry a GPS???!!! Wow, that must be heartbreaking for him. |
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Post by Ralph Burgess on Sept 4, 2017 21:24:53 GMT -5
This is just gutting. It now makes some sense what happened - 3 days of sleep deprivation, dark, no visibility, freezing cold. The horribly ironic thing is that dawn was only a couple of hours away, so if he had been two hours slower on the route, the light might have just made the difference - and still been under the record. But clearly, just hanging around and freezing for two hours to try to find the way was not a sensible option.
Still, a spectacular effort, and I think John can justifiably call himself "the fastest man ever on the JMT" even if it's not the official mark.
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john
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Post by john on Sept 5, 2017 13:43:21 GMT -5
Hi All, just to confirm... yes I failed to make it to the summit. Alone near the summit with no moon, no cell phone battery and in very windy and foggy conditions with poor sense of balance from limited visibility and fatigue and I could not find the summit and after going to what seemed to be the end of the trail (a large block of rock blocked or marked the end of the trail) I could not find any indication of where the summit was and turned around. Comparing GPS files I seemed to have been 125 meters of elevation from the summit. I was warm with my puffy jacket but sitting put and waiting for others or daylight never entered my mind. I felt I had done enough jaja. I sent an I’m done message on the Inreach and turned around and started the long walk down. To give you an idea of the situation, in the chutes with the sharp drop-offs on the final stretch to the summit I crawled on all fours to stay out of wind and avoid being blown off the mountain. I went in search of adventure and was successful in that endeavor. What a fantastic run!. I will try to do a trip report and post some videos in the coming days. We'll see if the sciatica comes back.
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Post by Ralph Burgess on Sept 5, 2017 15:23:30 GMT -5
Great run, John. You're in a different league to me for speed, but 53-year-olds rule!
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john
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Post by john on Sept 6, 2017 8:18:29 GMT -5
Thanks! We need to get some young bucks out there to get the FKT down to 2.5 days. Given my poor fueling it is obvious to me that a substantially improved time is possible. Atleast now it can be done in a long weekend jaja. I added some videos on my FB page. Also all my videos and pics plus my suunto GPX file and my master excel spreadsheet with estimated times are in the google drive below if that helps anyone. I need to do a trip report that will hopefully help those who come after. drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0EPtp_7Cr-NcURhVFVRNHptbTg |
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john
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Post by john on Sept 6, 2017 8:47:41 GMT -5
...and will have to think about the Northbound/Southbound. Its not clear to me which is faster. for some reason all the JMTers go Southbound while all FKTers Northbound.
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seano
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Post by seano on Sept 6, 2017 9:27:03 GMT -5
Ouch! It may seem "so close" in retrospect or from the sidelines, but in the moment, when the weather sucks and you're wrecked, sleep-deprived, and disoriented, it may not be close at all. Still, it's an incredible effort. Reading Brett's trip report makes me never want to try this, and amazed that someone has gone a half-day faster.
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