[at-l] "That crazy Coup..."

[Walt Daniels]

I have done 140 lb load on a number of occasions, canoeing. That is a 70 lb
pack and a 70 lb canoe over a portage of 1/4 mile typical with an occasional
1 miler. I would not have wanted to go any further. That was doing the
portages with wife and two small kids with one trip over each portage.

-----Original Message-----
From: at-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:at-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On
Behalf Of Sloetoe
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 10:14 AM
To: indianaatclub at yahoogroups.com; backpackers-149 at meetup.com;
backpackingwithchildren at yahoogroups.com; at-l at backcountry.net;
backpackingislife2 at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [at-l] "That crazy Coup..."

--- In IndianaATClub at yahoogroups.com, V Hurst
<vjl_47 at ...> wrote:
>
> Have you seen this news re GoLite's Demitri
Coupounas?!
> 
>
http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2008/03/the-at-golites.html

### Something obnoxiously put spaces after the periods
in the url, but as I recall it, "Coup" is going for
the non-reprovision distance record, of 620 miles in
40 days, with a 127lb pack at the start, of which
~15.5 is base weight. This works out to 2.775 pounds
of food per average 15.5 miles per day.

### I find this nutsy, for a few reasons.

-- 15.5 pound base weight? That should be an
embarrassment for anyone from a firm called "Go Lite".
I think my winter base weight is ~18 pounds, good down
to 0*F. Sheesh.

-- 127 pounds... for 40 days? He must pack like Sly.
(I picked up Sly's pack at the end of the Wind River
Range, to put it in the back of a pick-up. Poor guy!
At the END of a week+ of hiking, his pack was heavier
than mine was AT THE START, when I was carrying food
for myself AND the boys. Sly just smiled and limped
toward the truck.) 127-16 = 111 pounds for food, over
2.75 pounds/day. Nuts. He's either carrying fresh
fruit (etc), or has a terrific tape worm, or is
carrying food for ~67 days and just wants to bait the
hiking market. (My guess is the latter, and more power
to him.)

-- 620 miles? Nuts again. Or is it? At a reasonable
1.5 pounds per 10mile-day, that'd be 62 days and 93
pounds of food. With a heavier load, it'd be easy to
factor in a "load relief" margin of (111-93) 18
pounds, or 20% on top of the 93 pounds, as the early
miles will "come hard" calorie-wise. The thing is,
we're still talking only 10 miles per day which,
surviving the first 40 pounds of food, as entirely
doable.

-- The anticipated 15.5 miles per day sounds pretty
low, until you remember the starting weight. If he
averages 7.5 miles per day for the first third (I
mean, how far could *you* get with a 100+ pound
load?), and 15+ per day for the middle third, and 22.5
for the last third, the a trip-wise 15.5 miles per day
average comes right into view. Remember, this is the
*average* -- should he take a half-day or something
somewhere, that's got to be made up with extra miles
on "the other side"...

You can see that the penalty for extra weight is
*more* weight, more time, and less miles.

When the boys and I were hiking the Long Trail (2001),
I split the food into 90 mile/10 day shots. The pack
weighed 50-55 pounds with water, with a base weight of
~18 pounds (a 4.5 pound pack and 1 liter of water).
That's ~35 pounds of food, of which I ate about half,
or 1.75 pounds per day. At the time, I estimated I was
carrying 21 days of solo food load. When the boys and
I were hiking Monson->Katahdin (2004), I left Monson
with a pack weight of ~47 pounds, with a base weight
of ~13 pounds (2 pound pack, 1 pound bag), so ~34
pounds of food. The boys were carrying some food too
at the start, but we arrived at Katahdin Stream with a
day's ration left, 7 or 8 days later. (~15 miles per
day?). It works out again to ~1.75 pounds per day, but
this time "times three" (5.25 pounds per day total),
AND with higher mileage days. 

I think this "single shot" record is ripe to fall.
1.75 pounds per day for 40 days is only 70 pounds of
food, not 111 pounds. And that's doing 15 mile
Appalachian Trail days.  So *theoretically*, he should
be able to do this with a sub100 pound load. Even
attaching a weight "load relief" penalty of extra food
for early miles, it's still doable. And even cutting
the average to 12 miles per day (20% decrease), the
111 pounds of food would still be good for 63.5 days,
and 761 miles. That seems a better guess all the way
around.

On the other hand, could you imagine simply GETTING
INTO a hunnert pound pack?

squatstoe

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.
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