Anybody hear about these guys?
While we camped 8/1 at Twin Lakes, some guys came through at 1 am by headlamp on their attempt northbound to break the 4 day, 6 hr JMT record.
While at Kearsarge Pass on 8/4 , we met a guy who had come up from Onion Valley in only 1.5 hrs. Said he was on the way to Whitney. I asked him "how many nights, one or two?". He said "none." Planned to do it all as a day hike
Thanks for the link, BG. Those guys made a dumb mistake:
From the article, it quotes Hal Koerner:
but I overlooked the elements of being a fast-packer, the time it takes to filter water and stuff. It took longer than I thought
I guess they haven't heard the old news that filtering/treating is not necessary. The "Dip and drink" method saves a lot of time and energy. This bit itself probably added a number of hours to their time!
Possibly the most embarrassing "record" in the annals of FKTs.
Wolfe and Koerner hit Yos the day I got there, and apparently got in and out with no fanfare. There was no buzz around anywhere I went about them: backpackers camp, Yos village, Curry Village, nowhere. I think I understand why: it has to do with the fact that they only beat Maune by an hour and change. IN their position I wouldn't exactly be crowing. First, they pulled a Joe Namath by publicizing that they were shooting for 3-days or under. Oops. Second the guy with the record, Brett Maune, did it entirely on his own personal resources: training, research, everything. He did it as a fastpacker: left the Portal carrying 22 lbs plus water, no resupply. Wolfe and Koerner did it not only fully supported but fully sponsored by The North Face. With all of that they only beat Maune by an hour and change, not close to the announced 3-day goal. Oops again. To me, that greatly diminishes the technical accomplishment of Wolfe and Koerner of beating Maune's unsupported time by a statistically barely significant amount.
It also emphasizes what an amazing achievement Maune made in crushing the previous supported and unsupported records by something like 6 and 19 hours respectively with his truly astonishing solo effort.