New Routes: Death Valley Off Road and La Ruta

[ultrawill]

I have a few FKT's I'd like to post but want to check if they fit your criteria first. One is the La Ruta de los Conquistadores mtn bike route, which I ran last year (81 hours). The other is an off-road north to south crossing of death valley from park border to park border; not an actual trail, just a bushwhack during august. the third is the solo category for wild west relay, which is a sanctioned race (so I don't know if that fits the criteria).

Please let me know which of these are postable. Do I just start a new thread in the appropriate category?

Thanks.

[Peter Bakwin]

What constitutes a good FKT route can be a bit subjective. Running a whole named trail is obvious. Some people have run logical segments of a full trail, such as the part of the AT that passes through Shenandoah National Park, for example. To me, that makes sense as an FKT route. Circumnavigations of a terrain feature (mountain) or region, or linking up existing trails to traverse a region (e.g., Trans-Zion) also make sense. Or, routes / link-ups that have been done by many people over time. Usually there is just some sense of "logical-ness" or "classic-ness" to these routes. You just feel it.

As to your particular routes:

I am unfamiliar with the Ruta de los Conquistadores. Is it a logical route, or just a bunch of trails that are used for the mtn bike race?

Crossing Death Valley sounds cool (ha!). I personally don't really resonnate with the idea that an FKT would have to be set during a particular time window (e.g., August), but I suppose that could be a stipulation for some things. Mountaineers certainly keep different records for summer and winter ascents of things. You'd want to post your exact route.

We have generally not reported FKTs for race courses. These records are kept elsewhere & are easy to find. I think there are valid exceptions for courses that cover a whole trail or other classic route, I think there are 1-2 of these in the Australia-NZ section.

So, there are no hard rules. You should ask yourself if it seems to YOU like a good route for an FKT, and if so, why? I mean, why did you want to run the Conquistadors thing?

I'd certainly welcome other people's perspective on what constitutes a good route for an FKT. It is something that hasn't been discussed much. I've certainly wondered whether some that I've posted really qualify. But, in the end if you ran a cool route and had an interesting experience that's what really matters!

[ultrawill]

Thanks, Peter. The la ruta course is from coast to coast across costa rica...its a big international bike race but no one had run it (some attempts). The logic lies in its point to point (coast to coast) and historic (explorers route) elements. The DV crossing also had previous attempts...just off road north end of park to south end. More of a bush whack but we tried to take the most direct route possible. Hard to do, so route would prob be a little diff every time.

Anyway. Both were crazy fun. I'll post and let the "group" vet it. Does that work?

[Peter Bakwin]

Sounds good. I look forward to your reports. I'd say that as much route beta as possible will be important for these. GPS tracks would be great.