I was planning a 75 day unsupported AT thru-hike.. then I looked up the record and it is 60.5 days.
I haven't decided if i'm going to go for it or not. I REALLY want too!
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I was planning a 75 day unsupported AT thru-hike.. then I looked up the record and it is 60.5 days.
I haven't decided if i'm going to go for it or not. I REALLY want too!
Just go out and do what you can do.
Hike it a couple times, and then go for the record.
The guy who hiked the AT unsupported in 60.5 days, Ward Leonard, had done a TON of miles on the AT beforehand -- he hiked the trail three times just in that one record setting year! The guy who owns the unsupported record for the Pacific Crest Trail, Scott Williamson, was hiking it for the umpteenth time when he did it. The woman who just set the record for a supported AT hike, Jen Pharr, was thru-hiking the AT for the third time. The guy who had the record before her, Pete Palmer (edit: the person I was trying to describe here is Andrew Thompson, not Pete Palmer, as LW pointed out in a subsequent post), had made at least two attempts before he set that record. I hope you see the trend here. Treat your first long hike on the AT as an enjoyable learning experience.
HUGE difference between a 75 day hike and a 60 day hike
And now I remember why I usually don't post things on here..
Well, you could have announced that you were going to do it closer to your start and said you thought you had a good chance because you're in really good shape and/or have a lot of willpower. Then the rest of us would sit back and wait for signs of your inevitable failure to break the record. That usually happens on day 1. You'd be one of many that hit the trail without the experience that are doomed to failure.
The record is very tough to beat right now, and I don't believe any amount of physical fitness or willpower can allow the record to be broken without a good deal of experience. Now if you don't necessarily have to have that experience yourself, but it means having a really good support team that can give you tips on how to waste the least amount of time in camp/town, carry the least amount of weight, how to cope with closures and fires, deal with illness or injuries and all the other things that come with a great deal of experience. You can't afford to make many small mistakes.
The A.T. speed record is about 47 days and completed by Jennifer Pharr Davis, trail name Odyssa. I think that was her third attempt but not sure.
Hers was supported. This is unsupported.
Tenn_Hiker,
No need to get too discouraged by the feedback you read on this forum. A lot of this is sound advice and can be treated as warm-up practice to combating the inevitable negative voices encountered inside one's head after yet another 36+ mile painful rain-soaked day on the trail...
The reasons for quitting are nearly infinite: any new unsupported/self-supported record will be recognized by only a small minority of those who care about these records in the first place. The tremendous feat of thru-hiking the trail in sub-60 days is destined to always be a footnote to the higher-profile FKT (which I believe will remain a supported record).
Your interest in this 20 year old record admirable and should be pursued. Just please be sure to document your attempt. There are some good suggestions for doing so on Peter Bakwin's FKT site.
-Matt
I think a good benchmark for the unsupported record would be to hike to Pearisburg in 25 days, which is an average of 25 miles per day. If you can reach Pearisburg in 25 days, you have a shot...go back to Springer and start north.
The jump from 25-36 would not be nearly as bad as the jump from training to 25 per day in my view, plus you would get your trail quirkks worked out, like blisters, shin-splints, etc...take a week off and do some light maintenence training and go for it! Furthermore, the run to Pearisburg would prepare you for this feat, you might find after averaging 25/day you are no longer interested in going for Ward's record.
Good luck, a guy called Gailee Man from Israel came very close recently on his first hike, very close, he has a trail journal you can read.
is Gailee man the one that stoled someones hat at carter notch hut? someone ran him down and ask why he took it, and he replyed "cause i needed one" i apoligize if it was someone else.
on another note i followed his record attempt the best i could, i thought he was well off the pace and then the journal entrys came less often and his mileage picked way up in new england, im probably wrong but something seemed a little off. please correct me if im way off base, i was writing down his daily milage from his journal, if someone has his itinerary please post it. i don't remember actually seeing the day to day progress after vermont or something like that, just that he finished and it was like 10 days less than i thought it would be. sorry if im wrong! no yellows or blues on a record attempt please :-)
You might have company. This guy is going to try to break the supported record. http://www.sportiva.com/live/live-ar...record-attempt
Thanks for the advice, I'll be sure to look at that sight. I'll comment back on this post when I know for sure if i'm going to try it or not.. and I know that no one really cares about the record.. it's more of a personal thing, to see what I can do and push my self a little bit. If I fail, then I fail.. no big deal to me
Must be someone else. I was a PCT thru last year, trailname Malto. And take my face off the wanted poster, I have plenty of hats.
tenn_hiker,
No offense meant in my remarks. There have been so many "record attempter" over the last couple of years that don't have a prayer of even finishing a trail let alone carry a pace like they have planned in their excel spreadsheet. I was giving you an opportunity to share why you should be taken seriously when so many before you have been delusional. There were many that told me that my PCT fast hike wasn't possible and that I better have a plan B. That just increased my motivation to prepare and train and may have been the difference between success and failure. Regardless of whether you are doing a record attempt or not I documented a lot of the learnings that I had from my training and actual hike here:
http://postholer.com/journal/viewJou...entry_id=20018
There may be a couple of useful nuggets in there for you.
Idk why it quoted that other guy too..?
:-?
He won't make it. His comments show how little he knows about the trail.
Example. The Green and White Mountains are the hardest part. I'd say at least of those who have hiked the trail would give the nod to the Mahoosucs of Maine. Someone who has only read books would parrot the Whites and I don't know where he got the idea of Vermont.
More telling - he says no one has broken the record northbound. Completely false. Most of the earlier records were northbound.
He obviously has some skill and ability, but that is not enough to set the supported record. He'll need endurance of a scale far beyond that of a any endurance race. He'll need luck with weather, and an experienced support crew, which he does not have, at least in regard to the AT. At this point, it sounds like he has less experience than a typical thru-hiker planning a six month walk.
Like many have said already, he should walk the trail first and really learn the trail's idiosyncrasies. Then he should consider whether he wants to shoot for a record.
This makes me sad in so many ways:
His grammar is very poor (doesn't Sportiva proofread his stuff?).
He was convinced he could run 50 miles per day on the AT because he got beat up on a Everest trek (a trip that thousands of people of all abilities take every year) and then failed to run the 50 miles from Lukla to Jiri in one day (a well-trodden trail at lower elevations that has been used for hundreds of years).
"My goal was not to beat this but to shatter (sic)." (in reference to the record)
Where have we heard this before?
"I'm sure you could shoot and or stab most ultra runners and they would still finish the run. Why? Because it makes for a cool story and that feeling you get from doing something that difficult (sic)."
This is almost unreadable.
"But because she was a women it made such huge news." (in reference to Jennifer Pharr Davis' record).
Now I'm really getting upset. http://adventure.nationalgeographic....r-pharr-davis/
"My thing is this. Speed is relative, fun is not."
ug?
I have no problems with trail running, setting records, etc. HYOY! I am not predicting he won't set the record. He is obviously a fine athlete. I wish him the best of luck as I do all thu hikers. Let's just say I probably won't be routing for him as I was for JPD.
"Everyone I ever meet hiking or running is amazing. Everyone their own story (sic). I love it. 2,184.2 miles of smiles. I will however be packing heat just incase (sic)."
I'm getting sic
"I hope that I can go out there and entertain people while I put myself through hell. I want people to be so inspired they donate money to the American Cancer Society." I'm not feeling inspired or entertained, sorry. Neither is my wife (cancer survivor - 10 year).
"I guess this comes back to the word endurance. People misuse this as a word for stamina. This is not true."
Actually it is true. Look it up.
Sportiva, Cliff, and Petzel have all chipped in free stuff to sponsor Mr. Blanton.
I skimmed through that guy's blog. I think he would get more pats on the back if his own hand wasn't in the way. Three things come to mind when I try to read that poorly written drivel. 1.) What a tool sack. 2.) The joke with the young bull and the old bull standing on top on the hill looking down at all the cows. 3.) A saying that we had at a past employer of mine, "you can run, but you'll only die tired".
Isn't there some truth to this though? Did the previous record breakers make it into the NYT and the National Geographic?
The woman who broke the unsupported record last year seemed to be actually enjoying the hike, not just going for some speed record for the sake of the record by relying on dozens of other people. A lot of professional marathon runners could easily break her record if supported by a couple of dozen people and could make money from doing so. They run a marathon in 2 hours. I doubt they would have much trouble doing a marathon in 3-4 hours in the morning and another in the evening, even with some elevation gain; this would be more than enough to break the supported record.
I am not one of them, but I would think so. Many people who hike quite a bit could manage 4 miles in an hour, but I suspect most would find this pace unsustainable, while being able to sustain about 2 miles an hour for 10+ hours (perhaps 4 and 2 should be 3 and 1.5; it does not really matter for my point). Likewise, if one can cover 26.2 miles in 2 hours with 100% effort, it seems covering the same distance in 4 hours, even over slightly hillier terrain, would be no big deal for them, just like walking 8 (or 6) miles in 4 hours for many of us, and it is something that can be done twice a day, day after day. With a good a support team, they would not need to carry anymore than they do on their actual marathons.
The current supported record is certainly very impressive, but I think it is something that a professional marathoner could easily beat and ``professional" is an appropriate comparison to make in this case, given the support crew. For this reason, I find unsupported records more remarkable than supported ones.
This is the guy who emailed me (at LightHeart Gear) looking for donations for his socks, 20 something pairs of shoes, a GPS watch and an MP3 player
I agree with you. I have no interest in how fast someone can run the AT when they helpers cooking their meals and giving it to them when they pass a trailhead or have their tents set up for them when they arrive or crash in a comfy RV. But if you carry your own gear and actually hike the trail and cook your own meals and set up and break down camp then you've got my attention.
I think she meant the sportiva guy going for the supported record.
Good luck with your attempt. Since you are young, you should have no joint issues slowing you down, but over 35 mpd, for 60 days straight, in downpours and in 100-degree heat, no matter the terrain, is still hell of a lot.
I would completely disagree this. Let's look at a slightly different comparison. Marathon running vs. ultra trail running. I doubt even the most elite marathon runners would be competitive in say a 100 mile ultra. They are just too different. If there was a pool of folks that could be competitive with the supported record it would coming out of trail running crowd not the marathon runners.
As far as Jennifer Pharr Davis only getting the press because she is women..... That is a bunch of BS. She got the attention because it was a huge accomplishment to do what she did. I believe Skurka won that honor doing a long fast hike but JPD accomplishment is at least equal to Andrew's. I doubt there are many folks out there that have done multiple 40+ mile days that wouldn't agree that she deserved the recognition.
Finally about Mr Sportiva Running Man, He has done nothing yet, just declare a bunch of foolishness. He should be a bit more humble until he "walks the walk" Reminds me of Sam Fox that was going to shatter the PCT last year. Great athlete but completely clueless on the nuiances needed to break a record. I suspect the unsupported record will go down in the next couple of years, the supported I believe will last a while.
Find it pretty amazing that people can lay down these kind of miles on the AT. I am 53, in decent shape, weigh 230 - with a 30lb pack that is 260lbs for every step. My average is 12 miles and as we all know, you earn every step. That is one of the cool things, to me, about backpacking, especially on the AT.
When you hit those nice easy spots, embrace them, they will soo end.
Arnold Palmer says that golf is 100% mental.........ditto most things in life, but on the AT there also a huge physical piece - the human body was not built to go at this pace for 40, 50, 60+ days in a row. Anyone who thru hikes has my total respect, trail runners I would bow down to!
Good luck to anyone who goes after something like this................ran into a guy at Partnership Shelter in March, 63 miles from Damascus, he got these in 2 days, took me 5. To each his own.
Good Luck, see ya in Damascus 10-15 days from the start if everything goes well.
Let me know if you need anything.
Sorry I thought I'd read you were going north, or maybe you've changed your mind.
Well, start plus 35-38 about right to hit Damascus?
I also tend to be more respectful of the un-supported style too but everyone has some support. It might be someone sending packages from home, cell phone to shuttle service into towns, a campground night, a slack-pack (which I don't do btw) - - the question becomes where do you draw the line because it's not so clear. If you have a chase vehicle and a local "crew" then you ARE clearly supported but how much support can you receive and still check the "un-supported" box? - - I really don't know - - maybe it's just a "hike your own hike" thing .....
Papa D, this is indeed a very good question.
I believe that the new standard for an "unsupported" thru-hiker speed record should be set in a similar "no vehicular support style" such as what's been upheld by Scott Williamson and Adam Bradley on the PCT:
‘I will NOT have anyone following, or otherwise meeting me in prearranged manner to give me support. I plan to do this hike as a backpacker, carrying all of my food, equipment, and water between resupply towns. I will walk into supply towns to pick up mailed, prepackaged food boxes or to purchase food, then walk back to the trail via the same route I came in on. I will not be getting into a vehicle for any reason during this attempt, or skipping any section of trail. If I receive a lift from any vehicle or skip a portion of trail (no matter the distance) the attempt is off. I will be following the official PCT route, taking no detours, road walks or alternates of any kind.’
I think this would be a good way to set the new standard for future attempts on the AT because clearly hitch-hiking can be a slippery slope into prearranged shuttles, which can be a slippery slope into an even more supported attempt.
In case anyone is interested, map man did a great job of working out the logistics of just such a hike (in a southbound direction):
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/show...46#post1229946
a unsupported record attempt is just the same as a traditional thruhike, just alot faster!
pre-arranged rides are a no-no and i think the cell phone thing should be frowned upon !
hitch hiking is part of a thruhike, you might get a ride in minutes or maybe an hour, but calling someone on your cell phone just made it a supported hike IMO
get creative and rides can happen :-)