High Sierra Topix

longri wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 2:35 pm Even if the letter of the law is a bit vague the spirit of the law is clear. And these guys are pretty much the last ones who are going to feed a bear.

Good point. Unless it is with their own carcass that feeds the wildlife after their endeavor goes totally wrong. But then that kind of fail is technically legal, I think.

fishmonger wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:54 pm Good point. Unless it is with their own carcass that feeds the wildlife after their endeavor goes totally wrong. But then that kind of fail is technically legal, I think.

All regulations and technicalities aside, if I was a wilderness ranger, I wouldn't want to knock for their can as much as give their quads a little squeeze.

I guess we'd have to ask him the question. What did he get out of it, other than a lot of people talking about his accomplishment and a good stretch of the legs? I would suppose that they don't see a lot of the smaller details as they go along, but I'm too busy taking pictures and counting bear tracks to care about catching up to ask.

Ha! I'd never thought of that before. When you die you become food so does that mean if your corpse is not in a bear box or equivalent that you are in violation of the rules for proper food storage? Even though epics happen the odds of one of these guys dropping dead on the JMT is very, very low.

Bear canisters and the likelihood of death aside, I can see the sense in some minimum gear requirement. Official long distance wilderness runs usually (always?) have rules that demand competitors carry items to protect against environmental and other hazards. It doesn't have to be much if you're not going to stop. But if you need to sleep in the rain at altitude it'll probably cost you at least a couple pounds of gear.

The thing is, these FKTs are not official at all. There's no organization. So getting people to voluntarily carry "what-if" gear is going to be a hard sell.

mrphil wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 7:16 pmAll regulations and technicalities aside, if I was were a wilderness ranger, I wouldn't want to knock for their can as much as give their quads a little squeeze.

I'm guilty of being pedantic.

The thing I find amazing about Aure's unsupported FKT is that he had attempted a week earlier and then bailed at Tuolumne due to lack of sleep and becoming fatigued and loopy between Red's and Donahue. Then the next week he goes back out there and beats the previous FKT by nearly 7 hours. The only person that has done it faster is François D'Haene and he did it supported with pacers on the entire route to keep him going.

longri wrote: ↑Fri Sep 21, 2018 8:45 am I'm guilty of being pedantic.

Yes, you is.

psykokid wrote: ↑Fri Sep 21, 2018 9:54 am The thing I find amazing about Aure's unsupported FKT is that he had attempted a week earlier and then bailed at Tuolumne due to lack of sleep and becoming fatigued and loopy between Red's and Donahue. Then the next week he goes back out there and beats the previous FKT by nearly 7 hours. The only person that has done it faster is François D'Haene and he did it supported with pacers on the entire route to keep him going.

Yes, that is astonishing given how much one would expect the previous attempt would (should?) have taken out of him. A recovery lasting weeks, if not months, would be more typical.

Reading his reports I get the sense he is like a wound up spring inside.

I guess another way to look at this is, if you've done the badwater ultramarathon a couple of times and are looking for more-varied scenery (and, cooler temps), this could, almost literally, be a stroll in the park? Cameron