2014 14er Speed Record Attempt

[John Prater]

(sigh of relief) 11:09 point had him at Needleton.

Andrew: 1:23 to Windom, 2:04 to Sunlight, 3:30 to North Eolus, 3:44 to Eolus, ~4:47 back at the start, ~6:39 back at Needleton

Me: 1:22:12 to Windom, 1:58:28 to Sunlight, 3:10:05 to North Eolus, 3:25:32 to Eolus, 4:17:15 back at the start, 5:56:55 back at Needleton

Cave Dog: 1:41 to Windom, 2:44 to Sunlight, 4:25 to Eolus, 5:07 back at the start, 6:53 back at Needleton

[zinj]

how could you tell? I only see him at the Animas River at 10:59...

I am making the assumptions that a) the train was not extremely early and b) he did not fall into the river crossing the bridge.

Heh...should have I said I didn't see him quite at the Animas at 10:59...then there's that short bit of sandy-track to (run?) to get to the bridge. I was wondering if you have a better refresh than I do somehow... I'm kinda lagged on the Iridium updates.

I do see him at the train station as of 11:09, no updates since to suggest he's on the train.

[its_not_a_tuba]

how could you tell? I only see him at the Animas River at 10:59...

I am making the assumptions that a) the train was not extremely early and b) he did not fall into the river crossing the bridge.

Heh...should have I said I didn't see him quite at the Animas at 10:59...then there's that short bit of sandy-track to (run?) to get to the bridge. I was wondering if you have a better refresh than I do somehow... I'm kinda lagged on the Iridium updates.

I do see him at the train station as of 11:09, no updates since to suggest he's on the train.

LOL. The real giveaway was that he was walking again once he got to the river. Upon reflection though I guess if he got to the river and saw the train driving off in the distance he would have been walking then as well... in the other direction back up the mountain.

[justiner]

Anyone know what's the cause of the lag? No updates for like 40 minutes then they all filled in. Delorme? Wordpress? Both?

It could be a lot of things, but it's mostly the nature of the beast: a tiny, consumer-grade handheld device attempting to talk to a satellite, which then communicates to an earth-bound server, that needs to update some database, put up the pretty map - it's a major headache. I don't even want to think of trying to deal with the security and validation of all this data - it makes my head spin. Now do that all for a customer base that's large enough to make this all profitable for Delorme, knowing that they themselves have competition in the exact same space. Most especially since they WANT it to work well enough, that people use these devices as a way to perhaps call for help.

Another thing we'll see is weird/nonexistent gps points because of interference from weather, trees and terrain. Box canyons especially seem to like to thwart a good GPS lat/long.

Can't comment on Delorme, but SPOT devices have a button interface that's a little less than intuitive. Knowing that you're tracking - really and truly, while in the field sometimes can be questionable - especially if you're tired. The, "Check in/OK" button may/may not? turn off tracking. And the whole, "After 24 hours, let's turn off tracking altogether" feature. I've only played with a Gen 2, want to get my hands on a Gen 3 and see if some of these issues have been addressed.

Lots of experience with fun tracking problems in MTB ultra races. Even where you put the device can effect their performance greatly - is it in a bag, on its side? Is it next to another GPS device? A lot of these things are hard to manage and control when you're running up and down a mountain! These devices make or great armchair race watching, I'm hoping there's time for the team to update the blog to fill in some of the blanks we'll see. Sometimes not knowing why there's been a drop in points, or a large stop makes for a lot of the drama. Could be an injury, could be a dropped device!

[zinj]

I'm going with alien abduction as the reason Andrew has disappeared. Close enough to the 4-corners for weird stuff to happen, right? I don't envy his upcoming dirt-bike cross of Ophir Pass.

[rocky_mtn_high]

Good points Justiner. We all know from Homie's adventure that armchair tracking can become addictive. When some friends and I were climbing Denali, a lot of friends and family were following us via SPOT, and on summit day we suddenly appeared to have fallen a few hundred feet down a face and into a crevasse, presumably. It was just a satellite blip, but it caused a bit of consternation for those following us closely (especially for my parents)!

[Corn]

On his map page, if you click on the "User List" title it will pull up the tracking details. It also appears that he has allowed people to "locate" him by requesting his current location. Delorme did have some trouble with the units shutting off unintentionally, but recent updates (as long as a person updated their device) took care of that. For most of my trips my Delorme has been really accurate with only one or two little blips off route but still not to far off. The unit does have a screen and a history section where the user can check to see how many location points have been sent and also the stats to his current location, elevation and speed. just putting out a little info for those not familiar with the product

[Kojones]

Made it to Silverton! Next up: Wilson group tonight.

Kojones

[pbakwin]

I'm going with alien abduction as the reason Andrew has disappeared. Close enough to the 4-corners for weird stuff to happen, right? I don't envy his upcoming dirt-bike cross of Ophir Pass.

I think this would qualify under the rules as long as the aliens drop him 3000' below the next summit...
http://www.collective-evolution.com/201 ... bductions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[its_not_a_tuba]

I'm going with alien abduction as the reason Andrew has disappeared. Close enough to the 4-corners for weird stuff to happen, right? I don't envy his upcoming dirt-bike cross of Ophir Pass.

I think this would qualify under the rules as long as the aliens drop him 3000' below the next summit...
http://www.collective-evolution.com/201 ... bductions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I guess that depends on if you believe a UFO is not a form of an aircraft which are not allowed per CD's rules.

[zinj]

Brother Cave Dog indeed had foresight. I only just realized that eventually someone would want to try this with a helicopter TH-TH transfer

[dsunwall]

I don't envy his upcoming dirt-bike cross of Ophir Pass.

I saw Ophir pass from San Joaquin ridge last weekend. It had been plowed but there was still a lot of snow, lots of slippery areas I'm sure, maybe ice. 2 wheels on ice........... not fun. I didn't look at overnight temps.