2014 14er Speed Record Attempt

[zinj]

Did something happen at the Denny Creek TH? I show him arriving at 1:18 AM but not hiking until an hour and 40 minutes later. Still well on his way to the record, but I was surprised to wake up this morning and see he hadn't summited Yale.

Looks like he's bombing through Yale now. Maybe Posse Bad Dad finally decided to take a short nap? All members must be feeling pretty ragged by now...

[thebeave7]

Hmm, wonder if the North side of Yale is too snowy for a descent, that would have saved him a fair bit of time getting over to Columbia/Harvard, now he'll have to drive all the way around.

Eric

[Steve Knapp]

He had to get some sleep I suppose, before climbing Yale. The Sawatch trailheads are so close together there isn't much time to rest on the drive.

His plan for Yale was an out and back. Probably figures he'll need some rest before the next big segment. He wanted to be at the N Cottonwood trailhead at 7:35 am, so he's behind that but still doing well. Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, Belford, Missouri are next. Then a night hike of Huron.

Yale is where it all ended for Homie, that brings back memories. Go Andrew!

[zinj]

I know he's already done some nasty traverses in bad light (Gash Ridge, LB-Blanca, the Wilsons) but I'm looking at the (lower tech) LONG mileage he has ahead of him today and am just shaking my head

[Kapelmuur]

He had to get some sleep I suppose, before climbing Yale. The Sawatch trailheads are so close together there isn't much time to rest on the drive.

As somewhat of a training geek, this is the part of the effort that I find most interesting: optimizing the sleep/effort ratio for the greatest performance return over the 10 days. Would be interesting to see how different sleep strategies would impact the effort.

For example: would a full night's sleep halfway through the effort pay dividends on days 7-10? Or would you lose so much time (say, 8 total hours) that you couldn't possibly be able to make it up no matter how much the sleep might boost your average speed? Also a full night's sleep might have the exact opposite effect than the one intended, if the body were to "shut down" in order to repair itself, leaving you more lethargic and sore than if you had just cat-napped.

Anyway, it's a good chance that none of the rules apply during an effort like this, other than The One Rule: "Keep going."

[justiner]

Although, I don't have four kids Sleep dep. isn't an easy thing to, "train". You can't get rid of it, you just have to endure it. It can be not so much fun. Feelings of doom, hallucinations - gotta be careful.

I'm pretty impressed at Andrew's performance, especially since he's said he's had no time to properly train the body for this. He's got loads of experience, though. The interesting thing is to see if he can keep going, or if he breaks down. His times have been pretty great so far. Body holding up well, too (as I can tell from my vantage point)

[BillMiddlebrook]

He's on the dreaded Columbia scree slope! I bet he doesn't even notice.

I wonder what music he's listening to?

[jdorje]

I think Andrew is getting more sleep than those before him, making up that time with his faster traverses. Cave dog went through a period in the Sawatch where he never allocated sleep time, but his times during that period weren't amazing. For instance, he took 4:16 on the Antero Tabeguache traverse, while Andrew took 3:07 and then slept an extra hour in the car before Princeton.

The body deals with lack of sleep better while exercising. We all know this from times when we sleep four hours and then do a day hike, but supposedly it applies over longer timeframes as well. However I would be concerned about the shutting-down possibility if you let the body think it actually has a chance to rest. As I recall, Homie slept in a bed in Buena Vista shortly before his body quit on him.

[matt pierce]

Damn impressive effort - anxious to see how it all ends

[BillMiddlebrook]

There's nearly 1600 people on the site right now - are we all just watching Andrew? lol

[bergsteigen]

There's nearly 1600 people on the site right now - are we all just watching Andrew? lol

What else is there to do? Work?!?

[mtgirl]

There's nearly 1600 people on the site right now - are we all just watching Andrew? lol

Yes......