A.M.C. Hut to Hut traverses

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Communist conspiracy being led inside our doors and under our noses by Dr Wu?

Watch out WU, our eyes are on U
EyesOfCoco.jpg


As for the record story:

I want to believe!! :D
 
cbcbd said:
As for the record story:

I want to believe!! :D
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Hey, let's hope the story is true. Nice story if it is!

I've had my say in the argument and I promised Dave that I wouldn't post no more. But I want to add this: Having been born in 1975 I've only had basically intermittent periods during 3 decades (I did no hiking in the 70's) to hike. The mountains were still there but the community must have been so much different during the 60's, or the 50's or 40's or beyond that -- periods from which I have no chance of experiencing first hand. Reading stuff from before I was born makes me wish I had a time machine to go back and see it from all those differenct perspectives.

Stinkyfeet said:
I'll bet I'm not the only one who would love to read Alex's & the others' stories --even if he/they wrote a "trip report" today relaying what they remembered of their times, the weather, what they wore & carried, etc. I think it would be a fascinating read! Think you could talk Alex into writing one, Thom? :)

Of course, whatever the record is, it can and will be broken. It would be interesting to see what kind of times some of the top ultrarunners could do on the hut traverse...
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Agreed and Agreed. Hope I didn't offend too many.

-Dr. Wu
 
dr_wu002 said:
I don't care much about records.
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That makes two of us, at the minimum.

I like to challenge myself, I love to photograph and share my adventures with others, but I think I have made it pretty clear in my writings that it's all meaningless in the end. In that respect, I don't think my reasons for taking on various challenges are all that different from those who came before me, regardless of what decade you are talking about. There seems to be a tendency to romanticize the folks of "the early days" as if somehow they were morally superior to the current crop of mountain travelers.

"It" was "no big deal" then, and "it" still is.

But "it" sure is fun!
 
One more tidbit.

From "Forest and Crag"'s "Superhiking" chapter:

....In 1927 (Irving) Appleby was back, whirling south to north this time ( on the Long Trail), and announced a new record of ten days and nineteen hours. By this time he was basking in the limelight of celebrity. On Mansfield he arrived at the Summit House at noon to find a "big crowd there. Splendid welcome". Writing from Boston to fellow publicity lover James P. Taylor, he reported,

During the coming two weeks the boots that I wore will be on exhibition in the main window of a big shoe store on one of our busiest corners. They will have my whole outfit in the window, including several pictures. I estimate that over a million people will see the exhibit and a big show card will tell the story.
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Ahhh the good old days, when men were pure of heart and did it solely for the adventure. ;)
 
Tim Seaver said:
One more tidbit.

From "Forest and Crag"'s "Superhiking" chapter:

....In 1927 (Irving) Appleby was back, whirling south to north this time ( on the Long Trail), and announced a new record of ten days and nineteen hours. By this time he was basking in the limelight of celebrity. On Mansfield he arrived at the Summit House at noon to find a "big crowd there. Splendid welcome". Writing from Boston to fellow publicity lover James P. Taylor, he reported,

During the coming two weeks the boots that I wore will be on exhibition in the main window of a big shoe store on one of our busiest corners. They will have my whole outfit in the window, including several pictures. I estimate that over a million people will see the exhibit and a big show card will tell the story.


Ahhh the good old days, when men were pure of heart and did it solely for the adventure. ;)
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Only a million people, eh? Wonder if those who post their exploits here on the Mutual Admiration Forum watch the number of hits their threads get?! ;)
 
Doing it for the adventure

Each and every person I've ever met who does something like this has done it first and foremost for the adventure. To imply that people do this stuff so they can post it on a website is absolutely absurd in my opinion.
 
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Stinkyfeet: I will ask my fellow OH / VFTT lurker friend if he knows of any documentation of physical exploits by AMC employees in the 60s, as he is a history professor. One possible source might be the logbooks that are stored on shelves in each of the huts, where hut croos would commonly record interesting daily events, along with comments written by the guests (known as "goofers" at that time). For example, I am pretty certain that I recorded something in the Zealand hut logbook about the two H2H "marathoners" who stopped by for a few minutes in 1968, on what they thought was a sub-13 hr pace. Johnny Waterman, Guy's son, also stopped by Zealand hut as a teenager that summer on a H2H traverse, although I do not remember him saying anything about going after Alex's record.

cbcbd: great photo!

dr. wu: and your photo, too, of Rich "El Guapo" Garces!!

Tom Rankin: what, no insurance or workmen's comp issues in NY? That was definitely the major concern for huts management about illegally packing heavy loads, given the possible short-term effects of injuries and long-term effects from compression of spinal disks, etc.

ColdRiverRun: the knickname "MacPhool" was obviously a play on Alex's last name, as most OH had knicknames, like AT through-hikers, but also probably a take on the possible dangerous side of such physical exploits?

Timmus: OH lore includes a French Canadian construction croo person in 1962, I believe, who carried eleven 200-pound loads of concrete mix down to Lakes from the summit in one day (he was paid by the pound), so that was 2200 pounds (1000 kg) and 37.4 miles (if my math is correct(?), like a Pemi loop with all of the side trips), with half of the mileage under a 200-pound load. Lakes was always the toughest pack in the huts for those with bad knees. I have heard this record described by OH croo from that time frame described many times.

Dr. D.
 
Dr. Dasypodidae said:
ColdRiverRun: the knickname "MacPhool" was obviously a play on Alex's last name, as most OH had knicknames, like AT through-hikers, but also probably a take on the possible dangerous side of such physical exploits?
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The huts also have nicknames, such as Zool (Zealand) and Ghoul (Galehead) so it fits in perfectly.
 
Dr. Dasypodidae said:
Timmus: OH lore includes a French Canadian construction croo person in 1962, I believe, who carried eleven 200-pound loads of concrete mix down to Lakes from the summit in one day (he was paid by the pound), so that was 2200 pounds (1000 kg) and 37.4 miles (if my math is correct(?), like a Pemi loop with all of the side trips), with half of the mileage under a 200-pound load. Lakes was always the toughest pack in the huts for those with bad knees. I have heard this record described by OH croo from that time frame described many times.

Dr. D.
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That actually sounds more impressive than the H2H, Neil hasn't aged to well since then! :p So with these carries like the 300 lb one that was a throw it on your back and go type of thing? That one would be like carrying Timmus, Stinky and an 80 pound pack down a mountain! :eek: I wonder if he was wearing Addidas too? These guys should be in the "Impossible is nothing" adds for Addidas rather than Reggie Bush! :D
 
skiguy said:
... As Dr. Wu has stated pre 1960 there is zero record keeping ...
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You mean they didn't even bother to scratch some records of these events on the walls of their caves?
 
skiguy said:
As Dr. Wu has stated pre 1960 there is zero record keeping.
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I believe that what he actually said is that the times that were records prior to the '60s have all been broken. There are certainly paper records of finish times in competitive events as well as hiking speeds, but as people die off or move to other interests they may not be readily available.
 
Timmus, "Each of us has an El Guapo to face" vient du film _The Three Amigos_, lequel se refere a plusiers Westerns, notamment _The Magnificent Seven_ (lequel est derivatif des _Seven Samurai_ de Kurosawa).
 
Boo Wu

Citing track and swimming records is probably the worst example you could use since both those sports have been rendered irrelevant and unwatchable due to widespread drug cheating.
Hopped-up anorexics and buzzed-out aquatic bints.
Current state of track and field: The joy of victory, the agony of the drug DQ and the tragedy of the funeral ten years later.
Jim Ryun (1962) is the last to break the 4-minute mile as a junior and in a meet restricted to high-schoolers. I don't believe anyone has jumped higher over his own head than Valeri Brumel did in the 1964 Olympics.
 
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