Non-hiking deathmarches

[Gamehiker]

In 2004 I was one of 4 adult chaperones along with 11 High School students (including my then 14 year old daughter) whose 1st day of April Vacation went like this:

Leave Portland at 2:30 AM
Drive to Manchester
Fly Manchester-Charlotte-Mexico City
Go thru long customs line at Airport
Picked up by two drivers in SUV's and cram the 15 of us and luggage for a week into them and set off.
At first traffic light my driver (a native Mainer) survives a shake down attempt by the police.
Drive to city of Puebla
Eat large spicy burrito type things filled with Chicken and French Fries, I think.
Finding a gas station with the gauge on empty only to find the station without electricity for 15 minutes.
Leave Puebla for Oaxaca drive 130-150 km/hr on winding mountain roads in the dark.
Drive thru toll booths guarded with machine gun carrying troops
Arriving at Mitla our destination at 11:30 PM CST only to be greeted with no beds ready for us. So we had to move a bunch of furniture around. Meanwhile there had been a wedding next door so we drifted off to sleep listening to bad mariachi music that kept going most of the night.
The return trip was slightly less eventful. We took an overnight bus back to Mexico City (which the state dept. tells Americans not to do) but it was my first sleep in 2 nights.
Would I do it again?
Of course!
Jim

 

[prino]

Lyke Wake Walk

This Death March was my first real "hike"... 40 miles over the North Yorkshire moors. It's literally a death march as it's where the locals used to go to bury the dead in medieval times.

Unfortunately I was wearing brand new cheap boots and my blisters were so bad, I had to drop out 5 miles from the end.

 

[peakbagger]

Three state challenge on the AT. Start in Virginia, go through Maryland and end up in PA. Frequently done by AT thru hikers.

 

[brianW]

Three state challenge on the AT. Start in Virginia, go through Maryland and end up in PA. Frequently done by AT thru hikers.

How about West Virginia?

 

[MonadnockVol]

Albuquerque to Phoenix

Years ago, my friend Jeff and I were presenting at a scientific conference in Phoenix, Arizona. Jeff had the idea that we should ship our posters Fedex to our hotel and then fly (with our dismantled bikes) to Albuquerque, NM, reassemble our bikes in the airport, and then bicycle from there to Phoenix. We gave ourselves four days for the trip.

Things started going wrong from the beginning. About the only way to get from Albuquerque to Gallup, NM was superhighway. We were each carrying about 40 pounds of gear in panniers which made the bikes handle funny. The shoulders of the road were littered with glass from broken beer bottles and Jeff went through four inner tubes and two outer tubes. (I was riding a mountain bike equipped with Kevlar street slicks and didn't have a single puncture!) And one evening as we were pulling into a hotel parking lot, the bolt that connected Jeff's bike rack to the back of his seat broke and the rack, panniers, and all spun backwards (pivoting around the rear axle) until it hit the ground. That brought Jeff's bike to an immediate stop and he went over the handle bars. A few hours earlier we had been descending the Mogollon (sp?) Rim where you drop 3,000 feet in a few miles and if the rack had broken then, it probably would have been fatal.

But the hardest part of the trip was the steady head wind. The sun heats the desert, the warm air rises and other air rushes in to fill the void. Pedaling hour after hour against a steady wind was REALLY, REALLY draining.

Oh yeah: our second morning Jeff announced that he was out of water. I split mine with him and we pedaled 42 miles before we found a place to get more.

I don't really talk to Jeff any more...

 

[jniehof]

What about RAAM? Or do sanctioned / race events not count?

I certainly don't set the rules on what "counts". Randonnées are somewhat supported; races usually moreso. (But I think the Arrowhead is unsupported.) Mentally I put them in a different category but I don't have a good reason why.

I suppose I'd define "death march" as a sustained, mostly continuous effort where the conditions and your body are the main challenge and competition a distant second, if at all. Does one get close to a full night's sleep on RAAM?

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I certainly don't set the rules on what "counts". Randonnées are somewhat supported; races usually moreso. (But I think the Arrowhead is unsupported.) Mentally I put them in a different category but I don't have a good reason why.

I suppose I'd define "death march" as a sustained, mostly continuous effort where the conditions and your body are the main challenge and competition a distant second, if at all. Does one get close to a full night's sleep on RAAM?

RAAM is as much about the lack of sleep as anything - the clock starts when you leave the west coast and stops when you get to the east coast - how much you sleep is up to you.

Tim

 

[chinooktrail]

Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic Race

how about this one?


Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic Race
This race is serious. Started in 1982, it is perhaps the first true wilderness race after the one Otzi the Ice Man ran against the guy with the bow and arrows. The race has a starting point and a finish point, somewhere in Alaska, with no required or set route. No traveling on roads. No motorized vehicles. Carry everything. Drop nothing. No food or equipment pick-ups or drops. Serious grizzly bear country, and they can run faster than you, and they are the least of the hazards. The race area changes every three or so years. Some of the winners over the years have been very innovative in route selection and techniques, as have some of the losers. Usually a 3 - 6 day race, in the summer.

If you have not done the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic, do not too widely brag about any extreme adventure races you have done. If you have done the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic, and survived, you might not brag about things anymore.

For more race information check the contacts on the Events Page.

One description of the race: "Just a group of friends who like to party in two places, about 150 - 175 miles and a week apart."


I have had the immense pleasure of meeting and talking with (and making gear for) two of the racers who have not only entered and finished this race, but one has won three times, and the other young man twice. These guys are amazing, very humble and quiet about their amazing achievements.

The more I read about this race, the more in awe I am of the people who enter and attempt to finish.

Any race where the only rule is 'to get from point A to point B while staying alive' seems like a certifiable 'deathmarch', and with any luck not in the literal sense, to me.

I really need to give an extra 'hell yeah, you go girl!! to Nora Tobin. She not only has done the race more than once, but entered in '08 only 9 months after having extensive back surgery for 3 shattered vertebrae from a skiing accident. The body cast was removed less than 4 monthes before the race.

Wow, way to inspire the rest of us, you go girl!

 

[rup]

Dave,

I don't see a 'reply' button to this thread on the site, so I hope this hits.

I was in B&N in NYC today, and by chance, saw the book by Peter Browski: "At the Mercy of the Mountains', which covers hiking disasters in the ADKs.

Seems approp to this post.

 

[jrichard]

When I think of deathmarches, I think of ultramarathoners. Of course, these people trail for it. Maybe that doesn't count.

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

AMC Hut to Hut

All the AMC huts in a calendar day, with one route being Madhouse--> Cata--> Pinkham --> Lakes --> Pah --> Zool --> Ghoul --> Flea --> Lone, which is over 50 miles, with a record from 1963 that we think still stands (12 hr, 11 min). Sounds much more appealing than the Barkley.

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=18973&highlight=hut-to-hut

 

[David Metsky]

Non-hiking deathmarches.

 

[TCD]

How about REAL death marches, where lots of people actually died? Like Mao's long march, or the tragic Donner journey. We use the term "deathmarch" very lightly today.

 

[MichaelJ]

Non-hiking deathmarches.

Any time Bubba has to drive to a VFTT Gathering.

 

[Oldsmores]

How about REAL death marches, where lots of people actually died? Like Mao's long march, or the tragic Donner journey. We use the term "deathmarch" very lightly today.

wow. There's GOT to be another forum for that thread...

 

[TCD]

Yeah, I know it was kind of grim. I just threw it in there for perspective. Back to our regularly scheduled programming...