5 days? Yeah right!

[roadtripper]

A phenomenal effort! The conditions are indeed completely terrible. This warm-weather in the middle of winter garbage needs to stop.

I love following these record attempts...best of luck next time, which I'm sure will be real soon!

 

[Dave Bear]

Hale today 1/1/2011

Posted for DaveBear by Mamma Bear....

Hale fire warden trail is broken out to the top, packed solid, if you are still interested in this one Farmer. Needed this one for my 48 x 2. Faced temperature inversion during this hike. Wanted to get a quick post in tonight as I am driving home now.

 

[Raven]

Great effort Farmer! Standing on top of Zealand slowly sinking into the quicksand-like snow yesterday, I felt for ya. It's tough to move at all in this stuff, let alone fast.

 

[Neil]

Time for a Coors Lite!!

More like half a dozen in quick succession.

 

[RollingRock]

Great effort. It was fun watching you on the Spot and seeing your progress. It was good call because looking out the window this morning, it looks awful out there!

 

[Abster]

Always exciting to follow! Great job Ryan! Hope you had fun. Maybe try again in a few weeks

Hanna

 

[mtruman]

Great attempt! Nothing to be ashamed of with packing it in with these conditions. Nothing you can do about the weather (unfortunately). Plenty disappointing I'm sure, but we'll all be waiting for the next big exploit. This one definitely provided lots of entertainment for me for a few days while I was sitting in the office and the house rather than out on the trail where I wished I was.

BTW - great pic Kristina. Pretty much says it all!

 

[MichaelJ]

The weather may have won, but this effort was not a loss! WTG!

 

[Paradox]

Great effort. It was fun watching you on the Spot and seeing your progress. It was good call because looking out the window this morning, it looks awful out there!

Concur, wait'll next year!

 

[Dave Bear]

Its always a treat to follow any of you in record attempts and see what is humanly possible! Marathons pale when I look at all the different conditions and terrain you folks are able to traverse at unthinkable speeds! It was a pleasure for Thor and I to see you after Hancocks and I was glad I was heading North of the notch to hike considering the conditions you had encountered. It was still like late April hiking with snowshoes post-holing but at least I could catch a cool breeze now and then. If the weather were to freeze now we would have some very fast hiking conditions in our future!

Congrats on an awesome four day run! I would love to see some of the stats on how fast you were able to do different sections. Sorry to see it end but Mother Nature often gets the last word on what we can do. Better to roll with her and come back to it when she is playing nice!

 

[Dave Bear]

Paradox, Henry and myself will break this out tomorrow.

Conditions being what they were, only a few areas up high that held a crust would maintain my weight yesterday. What a difference one day can make! Nice effort by you, John and Henry!

 

[FARMER]

One has to ask......what the heck does the young Farmer eat during the hike to replenish the 10,000 calories burned? Gu's and bars of sorts or Suzie Q's and Little Debbie snacks?
And in the evening, is it PBR's and Spam?

I mean 10,000 calories.......that's some serious food intake without loosing some serious poundage.

I guess the answer is: He eats whatever and as much as he wants....

Go dude go![/QUOTE]

I eat and drink on the hour even if i'm noy hungry or thirsty. Even on the longest day (41+ miles) I drank two liters of Hammer Heed eloctrolyte mix. I was eating a thick mix of Hammer Perpetuem endurance fuel, 8 scoops @ 135 calories a scoop mixed in a 22 oz bottle, one bottle was lasting a whole 16 hour day. I was also eating snickers, rice and hummus wraps and peanut butter and honey wraps when I was feeling hungry. I would guess including breakfast, trail food and dinner I was consuming no more than 4000 calories a day. I was suprisied to see that the calorie counter on my heart rate monitor I recieved for Christmas topped out at 9999 calories. But it appears I was burning between 650 and 850 cal/hr. I haven't been on a scale yet but it looks like I lost some weight.

It may be in the blog but I can't get there.

Curious. What's the gear for something like this? Running shoes and MicroSpikes? Minimal pack with minimal spare gear? Tights and a fleece?

Assume that the SPOT emergency will cover in case of an issue (as well as a few thousand people noticing of the dot doesn't move) so no or minimal survival gear?

Can't imagine carrying all the stuff I do for a solo winter hike at that pace and duration.

For most of the time I was wearing thin tights, Wild Things Powerstretch Hoodie, and Event bib shell pants, On my feet I wore Salomon Deemax Dry 2 boots with thin summer weight toe socks. My pack for the bigger hikes (prezzie traverse & Cats, Moriah traverse) was a Wild Things "Guide Pack" One liter fluid one 22oz bottle perpetuem 3 snickers 3 wraps. two pair liner gloves, two merino wool hats, Primaloft mits, Primaloft jacket. Wild Things "Epic" Windshirt, Teckwik balaclava. Cell phone, headlamp extra batteries(two headlamps for night hikes) total weight 8-10 lbs even lighter for smaller single peak hikes.

 

[Lefty E]

We all commend your mental and physical discipline...there was a new Mother Nature taking over, a new splendid lady come to call, she got us all!! I'm sure you'll be trying again and we look forward to following it!!!

 

[Lucky Laura]

Bravo, Farmer. I think most of us were awestruck the first time. To try to do it again faster, after the big dump of snow, followed by the brutally warm conditions- you're a physical inspiration. We all enjoyed following your progress. You're still a Winner!

 

[MichaelJ]

How much of the attempt required snowshoes? Did it end up being all of it?

 

[Becca M]

AWESOME job!!!! I enjoyed following the SPOT. How did you avoid injury/ies????

 

[Gillian]

Great effort Ryan!! It's tough to set a winter record in the spring....but there is always a next time

 

[mookie]

nice attempt ryan and all.
enoyed stalking you via spot tracker

 

[TEO]

[Note: Below is a portion of a post of mine that had been removed, as it addressed the now-removed brouhaha, and was returned to me, at my request, by one of the moderators. After some deliberation, I am re-posting this portion so that it is part of the VFTT record and also because it is referred to in a post that remained a part of the thread. Please note that I am not making a judgment about Farmer's attempt & the associated trail breaking. It's my strong belief that discussing contrary points of view--call it arguing if you'd like--can be both enjoyable, illuminating, and stimulating provided that it is the ideas that are criticized, not the person expressing them.]

The point that Ryan207 raises is a legitimate one, in terms of winter hiking ethics and style, regardless of whether or not you agree with it. After all, having the trail broken out for you is performance enhancing. Does it mean that what Farmer is trying to accomplish is unimpressive? Certainly not, but it is inherently less impressive than if some hiked the same itinerary in a similar time, but had to break a considerably larger amount of trail.

An analogy would be comparing the effort and impressiveness of someone trying to speed hike the ADK 46 prior to the establishment of herd paths versus trying to speed hike the 46 today. Would a current-day attempt be invalid? Not in my view, but it certainly would pale in comparison to an attempt, if there was one, some 50 years ago.

For some, breaking trail is an inherent part of winter hiking. Does this mean that if a trail happens to be broken out, it isn't a true winter hike? Obviously, no. But, over the course of hiking a list or a for a season, one can reasonably expect to encounter unbroken trail, unless you are someone who waits to do a hike until after you know that it has been broken out. I can certainly understand the point of view that considers the latter to be poor style.

 

[ferrisjrf]

Farmer, you evil jerk! Pull down your pants! I'm giving you a spanking!