Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board New record Whitney to Yosemite

While we camped 8/1 at Twin Lakes, some guys came through at 1 am by headlamp on their attempt northbound to break the JMT record.

They did it:
JMT record

Also:
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. Anyone see him?

Hi Great seeing you last week hope you had a safe trip home Good summer seeing so many old faces and Tom . These guys may have stopped in the store the other day had on the same shirts and looked like they had a story????

Had a nice talk with crazy Jack last night new record on PCT 44 days and second place a lady at 45 days, summer is not over for new records , so this would be whitney twice in a day for 44/45 days ? trouble with records they only bring out the next crew!

I'd have to question the claim of 55 miles per day non stop on the PCT. Scott Mexico to Canada 1980

Hi,

When I was in the backcountry in the early season this year, most of the hikers I encountered on the JMT were PCT hikers. They seemed to be really moving along, as lingering snow and raging creeks were not a factor this year (as, say, in 2011). One PCT hiker did not even have to worry about hiking out for resupplies. He said each of the two mules that hiked with him was carrying 80 pounds!

My rough guess was that at least one third of the PCT crowd were women. The strong emergence of female participants in distance running has already been recognized over the last decade. Our daughters are fortunate to be growing up in an era were there is wider participation of women in sports.

Good luck to all PCT hikers.

Jim F

I passed the Mule Guy while I was heading SB from Horseshoe Meadow. I thought it was a really cool scene... I would have been making one of them carry me though!

One of the jokes floating around the WPS, was about all of the trips I kept doing (in my mind) back to the PCT (north of Langley) after running across (on that same day) the most gorgeous young woman from NH (I believe)... She was solo NB, finishing off the PCT, after having to leave the trail previously due to work commitments.

A WAG would be that about 1/3 of the Thru-Hikers I came across this year were female.

Richard, sorry I missed you.

In my experience in Argentina, laden mules easily made 20 miles/6,000ft up and 20 miles/6,000 ft down daily. We could not keep up carrying 55 lbs ourselves. I think they made about 4 mph.

This year on JMT, some in our group were impressed by the number of women this year. One chauvinistic comment by me was that one young woman was able to talk gibberish non-stop and yet impressively breath and outpace all of us climbing Muir Pass. All the others we met were perfectly normal, as were the males.

We had a great time seeing Doug for the first, third, third, and twenty-third times.
[img][IMG]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/4660/x3zq.jpg[/img] Uploaded with ImageShack.us[/img]

And in 1980 when I did the PCT I had the honor of walking every step with a Ms. Marlis Cutler - now Marlis Buchanan. One the kindest and toughest humans I know. She and the two other women I knew finished the thru hike that year, now 33 years ago, we're something of pioneers back then.

I did the Ski Hut trail today and way more than half the people on the trail were women, and most of them were in all-female groups. Were all the guys home playing video games?

I started hiking in 1960 when I moved to Colorado. Sometimes I would see a mixed couple backpacking, but it was unusual. Shortly after I moved to California, in 1964, I saw a group of 4 women backpacking on the JMT. I thought that was a pretty exciting development. Little did I know that it would lead to tutus on the E-ledges.

It's great to see society becoming more inclusive in all aspects even though the battles aren't over.