Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Speed Record on JMT

Recently in the San Diego Union/Trib the following article appeared about Reinhold Metzer hiking the JMT in 10 days, 5 hours.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/outdoors/20030929-9999_mz1s29outdor.html

This was already on the board on Sept 30, and it is different,it says he did it in 5 days and 10 hours. So now which one is right. I will go with the Sept one.

As far as I know, the current JMT speed record stands at less than 4 days. See <a href="http://www.snwburd.com/deborah_askew/jmt/peter_jmt.txt">this</a> for details

There are several ways to look at the records. Metzger's 5 days 10 hours was unsupported (carrying everything from the start). Bakwin's sub 4 day trip was with support crew. Also if someone beats Metzger's time, he can still claim the record for someone over 60 years old!

Sorry about the typo. Poor Reinhold. I doubled his time. That's what comes of trying to squeeze in a posting between classes at work. In defense of the man, he is a vet of many John Muir hikes and has "seen all the scenery" and "smelled all the flowers" many times before. He just loves a challenge, I guess. I, myself, perfer a meander, but I do appreciate the effort and determination

Wow! 4 days and 5 days. Unbelievable. My feet would be toast!