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Bad Climber
Trad climber
The Lawless Border Regions
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May 12, 2016 - 03:19pm PT
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Amazing stuff. Mosquitoes scare the crap out of me. They drive me nutz even in the Sierras. I think in Alaska they get up to five or six pounds each? Two bites and you're totally exsanguinated. Bring shotguns. Fully auto. Belts and belts of ammo.
Rock on.
BAd
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
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May 12, 2016 - 03:41pm PT
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Dave,
You do the most cutting-edge Paragliding Vol Bivouc expeditions. Truly amazing. Very inspirational. Have an incredible adventure, but be safe. May HaShem watch over you and protect you. I would like to see you successful. It'll be truly amazing.
Blue skies.
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Chugach
Trad climber
Vermont
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May 12, 2016 - 08:29pm PT
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Amazing. But, tell me about paragliding, don't you either need steady breezes or thermals? DOes the A range have either?
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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May 13, 2016 - 02:00am PT
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Air goes down, air goes up. Even in cold places, the relative temps drive the circulation. These guys are pros at finding the rising stuff. It is quite an art.
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Klimmer
Mountain climber
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May 13, 2016 - 09:11am PT
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True.
Free flight pilots: Paraglider pilots, Hang Glider pilots, Sail Plane (Glider) pilots, we all get really good at micro-meteorology. You have to.
If you don't, your on the ground way too soon wishing you were back up there in the sky.
But it can be nasty. Dave seems to be at home in the Owens Valley, some of the strongest flying conditions in the world. He has a great background for this. And he has an unbelievable threshold for fear. He has to. He flies the Owens Valley in the summer in a paraglider.
Amazing stuff he has done and is doing.
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kunlun_shan
Mountain climber
SF, CA
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May 13, 2016 - 07:40pm PT
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Jiggler, thanks for posting that Northern Rockies Traverse video. "Unknown pilot".. ha ha :) Their flight over Robson is incredible!
Good luck with your trip, Dave and Gavin!
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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 14, 2016 - 08:50am PT
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Looks like they started at the confluence of Stony river and Tired Pup creek. Made it north a ways. Just east Mt. Mausalous as of 11:18 pm Friday.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 15, 2016 - 02:18am PT
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man this is so sweet. that vid of will and gavin's traverse is epic... while the thought of throwing oneself like a leaf to the wind over these big ranges is inherently mind boggling seeing that vid of the rockies traverse [including some of gavin's shall we call it gung-ho flying] hammers home how far out there these guys are pushing it...
based on the maps it looks like david and gavin flew about 15 miles the first day and i'm guessing [assuming the track is accurate] that they spent yesterday hiking on valley bottom for about another 10 miles...
gnarly way out there stuff...
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 15, 2016 - 10:46pm PT
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another tenish miles today... based on the track and speeds i'm guessing they are, as with yesterday, likely still hiking on valley bottom.
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BigB
Trad climber
Red Rock
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May 16, 2016 - 01:20pm PT
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ho mannn that vid of the rocky mtn traverse is awesome stuff! makes me wanna try it...
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labrat
Trad climber
Erik O. Auburn, CA
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May 16, 2016 - 01:42pm PT
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Wow! Have fun!
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labrat
Trad climber
Erik O. Auburn, CA
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May 16, 2016 - 03:23pm PT
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He's flying right now!
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 16, 2016 - 10:19pm PT
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looks like a little over 20 miles travelled today...
looks like he/they hiked up a ridge for a couple miles, then after a couple hours of waiting were able to get flying... he/they then flew for about 15ish miles following ridge tops before landing about half way up another ridge... this looks to have led to needing to hike a couple miles to the top of said ridge where he/they then flew for another 2ish miles... it seems like a strange place to have landed this last time so i'm not sure if maybe they're still flying, but there hasn't been an update for a bit so barring technical difficulties with the updates it's currently looking like maybe he/they have had to land for the night...
so in four days it looks to me like they've flown about 32ish miles and hiked another 25ish miles for a little under 60ish total miles traveled to date...
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
ne'er–do–well
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May 16, 2016 - 10:34pm PT
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"fair winds and following seas"
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 18, 2016 - 12:01am PT
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they're still hiking...
about 7ish miles of hiking on mostly, what i'm guessing, are rocky river beds, so far today... based on the forecast their later 6:30ish start to the day was likely due to rain and cloud all day...
between real time gps, google maps and spot weather forecasts, i'm not sure if this is stalking or following... hahaha...
oh well... i can't help it as i'm super psyched for them.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 18, 2016 - 10:40pm PT
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more hiking today... looks like they tried to get to the top of a ridge but, due to likely either terrain or weather, got pushed back down to valley bottom again... about 6ish miles so far today. weather forecast isn't looking great for the next couple of days, so there maybe more hiking in store.
puts them at very roughly 32ish miles of flying and 38ish miles of hiking to date... or a total of about 70ish miles since they started six days ago.
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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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May 22, 2016 - 07:30am PT
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Bump for updates.
They haven't moved since 17:29 on May 22nd. They stopped at the Tatitna airstrip, so perhaps they had to abort.
Hope they're safe.
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F
climber
away from the ground
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May 22, 2016 - 08:12am PT
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Maybe they are resting up at a food cache? The tracking data shows a lot..... Looks like an attempt to get high, lots of time 1/2 way up a peak, then turnaround, and then more hiking along rivers to the airstrip. They crossed Brush Creek. That sounds super fun. I hope they didn't get burned out on bush whacking and bail.
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nah000
climber
no/w/here
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May 22, 2016 - 11:03am PT
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after i posted a bunch of those updates, i found a better info source, over at Gavin's facebook page.
he's been sending texts out via his InReach device, so there is good first hand info there... and with that info i can see that some of my earlier guesses were a bit off... specifically, the one where i guessed they were hiking on rocky river beds.... bzzzzz... wrong: they were post-holing through snow. they have however had some alder bashing days, which i would have guessed based on some of the places they were at on the topo maps relative to tree line. overall, sounds like an unfortunately high hard work hiking though snow and alder to flying ratio. [to update some of the previous guesses based on first hand info found in some of Gavin's texts and] to recap what they've been up to on each day so far:
-1: first night out: their camp was buzzed by a grizzly according to Gavin.
0: last food cache was made, but weather kept them from getting started...
May 14: Week 1: Day 1: hike about 3ish tough steep miles up to ridge line. flew 10ish miles in what looks to have been a big long sledder down to valley bottom and then hiked another 4ish miles.
2: valley bottom hiking over a pass for 9ish miles. G wrote: "Getting our ass handed to us today. Postholing hell for the past 10 hours. Grizzly, Caribou, Fox and all kinds of cool critters so far." this included a grizzly that followed in their tracks and then passed them.
3: more brutal post holing valley bottom hiking for another 9ish miles.
4: they hiked up a ridge for a couple miles, then after a couple hours of waiting were able to get flying... they then flew in what G called "COLD rippers" for about 15ish miles following ridge tops before landing about half way up another ridge... likely this was to grab their first food cache, which they were successfully able to find... this looks to have led to needing to hike a couple miles to the top of said ridge where they then flew for another 2ish miles...
5: 7ish miles of hiking post holing through snow due to rain and cloud all day...
6: more hiking... they tried to get to the top of a ridge through alder bashing and steep hiking in order to launch but due to bad weather, they had to hike back down to valley bottom again... about 6ish miles for the day.
7. 10ish miles during another all day brutal hike. G says: "AK is kicking our ass."
Week 1 Totals: 80ish miles total with 27ish of that flying and the other 53ish on the ground hiking. they made it to and found their first food cache on day 4.
May 21: Week 2: Day 8: 5ish miles hiking but as G put it: "Huge score! Got to the Rohn cabin on the Iditarod trail. STOCKED w food! Wx terrible. Will rest and refuel. This leg of trip is saved. Happy boys!"
9: rest day.
10: they're currently on the move again, and have hiked 2ish miles so far today... weather isn't looking the greatest for flying today, but tomorrow is shaping up nicely according to at least one forecast...
if one takes a look at their planned route on Gavin's website one sees that the Rohn cabin was only about a third of the way towards their second cache [relative to their first cache] which means when Gavin wrote on May 18: "4 miles good on route and massive energy burned. Will not make next cache on the ground" he wasn't joking and so he also wasn't exaggerating when he said on the 21st that: "This leg of trip is saved." after they did find the food stocked cabin...
best of luck to those dudes.
while i haven't done much, i've done enough backpacking around denali, to know that i'm pretty happy to be sitting in my arm chair right now. hopefully they can start getting more flying in, because so far this sounds like a bit of a backpack from hell...
but you can't have a good adventure without some suffering, and they both seem to enjoy the sufferfests, so good on them as i certainly am enjoying their adventures from afar...
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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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May 22, 2016 - 11:07am PT
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Nice man! Thanks for the update!
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