Arizona Trail 300 Update Thread

[konaFamily]

joked with I think Fred without spot that it is supposed to be really nice weather now in the campground @ colossal and it is raining a cold, as he dried his gear, to be heading out of the mt. must be nice not that the oracle area is warm

[konaFamily]

max has some weird times on his board  and is in oracle 145 hours ago,  what is going on?    found another one in Tucson where it is 2 hours rrrrr so

[Slowerthensnot]

It's all about the beard.

 

+1   nice

[ScottM]

max has some weird times on his board  and is in oracle 145 hours ago,  what is going on?    found another one in Tucson where it is 2 hours rrrrr so

He's using the same spot unit that Chad had.  So a few points from Chad's ride are on there.  Just ignore any that are 4+ days old -- sorry 'bout that.

[AZTtripper]

Wow what a pace hard work on such a cold day oh wait it's nite.

[AZTtripper]

Kurt's on the move again looks like less then 6 hours stopped.

Looks like alot of others are on the move as well.

It's going to be fun to watch Kurt makes me glad I came home it will be exciting to see if he can stay on pace he could come in close to the record. I may have to set my alarm for 1:50 if I did the math right he needs to be done by 1:57 am tonight.

[Tmax]

This vicarious racing is tough work, but someone has to do it. I'm pumped for the hard day ahead!

[AZTtripper]

It took Spot a half an hour to move me to home base I am planning to get out and do some trail work and try to get something productive done today as well as vicarious racing.

I'll be at 36th and Mockingbird before 9:00 am and driving in to do finnish work on the new boot leg trail. Posted up at http://www.tucsonmtb.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1595

[ScottM]

Sunday AM update.

Kurt is set up well to challenge the record time.  Given all he's been through, he took a quick bivy (maybe 5 hours of downtime?), somewhere between Apache Peak and American Flag Ranch.  How much time he spends in Oracle will be important.  Even with a quick transition and his current strong pace he's unlikely to finish while it's still light today.  That means another dark, epic push into the finish trailhead, an AZT 300 tradition.

Having survived the cold mountains he will now be rewarded with a mercifully cool day to traverse what is normally a hot and largely waterless 90+ miles to the finish.  It should lead to him being able to push the hills and keep the pace high.  There are a few challenges yet, though.  One thing I'm curious about is his flat/tube situation.  When he had to tube one of his tubeless tires back on Bull Springs road (mile ~40) he mentioned he wished he was putting in a 29" tube, not a 26".  I'm not sure, but it looked a little small/light to be a slime tube.  In either case (slime or no), he's heading into the section of the route that has the highest flat risk.  If he doesn't have slime I'd say it's almost a guarantee that he'll flat, likely multiple times.  Even a 26" slime is questionable out there.  I've never had good luck with them in 29" wheels.

There is a bit of clay north of Oracle, but given how dry the soil was (1 month+ since it's seen any rain) I would think it's largely dry by now.  He should have firm, tacky trail instead of dry loose stuff typical of that area.

Route finding is the other challenge out there.  Things have improved in this department with the Antelope Peak Challenge event, trail work and improved signage.  With his religious checking of the GPS I'm sure he won't spend much time lost, but perhaps a little.

In other news, both Stefan and Chris are rolling again this morning.  Stefan pushed out of shelter of the campground at about 2am.  Chris seems to have followed, perhaps an hour behind.  By then skies were clear and the moon was high.  After a brief couple of miles of challenging trail, they hit the paved climb.  It's a hard one to do in the dark, but at least they should have had very little vehicle traffic to deal with.

Stefan is just getting into the thick of the hike-a-bike on Oracle Ridge, and Plesko is nearing the fire station where the Oracle Ridge trail begins.  Both of them are still on a great pace to roll into the top five finish times ever.

It looks to me like Rob and Max split the cost of a high dollar room in Tucson.  There aren't really any motels that are handy to the route, but there is a Hilton at Broadway and Pantano, and that's the area their SPOTs indicate they stopped last night.  That's good thinking by both of them.  They likely had the chance to dry all their gear, gorge on food and get a solid night's sleep.  They are both still on a sub 4 day pace, having already merged on to the AZT near Redington Pass.  I'm stoked to see both of them still at it and making good time to boot.

Marshal bivied at La Sevilla campground, the same spot Chris/Stefan/Kurt spent the miserable night in the rain.  He should have had a much more pleasant one, enough that he was up and moving a couple hours before the sun rose.  He's looking good to take a day+ off his time last year, rolling into Tucson just now.

Hard to say about everyone else.  I'd guess that Fred might have joined in on the hotel with Max/Rob.  Jefe is a wild card.  Possible he's caught up to Chris and Stefan with their big rest / warming at Molino Basin.

Can't wait to see how it all plays out...

[jobes]

Wow, grueling conditions this year.  Kudo's to these guys.  Amazing. 

[krefs]

Talked to Kurt last night - he said climbing Mt Lemmon in those miserable conditions wasn't too different than a lot of training he'd done this winter, so he was warm when I started talking to him (cold by the end of his burrito break). He had ambitions to break the course record - I'm tempted to set my alarm tonight as well!

-Maggie

[Pivvay]

From what I can tell, it seems that the last time that Chris's SPOT registered, he and Stefan are still together.  How long does it take, in normal conditions, to get down to Oracle from Summerhaven?  This is the section that Chris was most excited about, so I'm hoping he's having a good time!

-Marni

(Go get it Kurt!!!!)

[ScottM]

Talked to Kurt last night - he said climbing Mt Lemmon in those miserable conditions wasn't too different than a lot of training he'd done this winter, so he was warm when I started talking to him (cold by the end of his burrito break). He had ambitions to break the course record - I'm tempted to set my alarm tonight as well!

Thanks for the update.  I checked Kurt's blog and it sure seems like he's used to much worse.  Check out his pics on this entry:

http://krefs.blogspot.com/2009/03/goodbye-dirt.html

Kudos to him for carrying gear appropriate to the conditions.

From what I can tell, it seems that the last time that Chris's SPOT registered, he and Stefan are still together.  How long does it take, in normal conditions, to get down to Oracle from Summerhaven?  This is the section that Chris was most excited about, so I'm hoping he's having a good time!

I agree, I think they left together and are probably still together.  I may have misread a point in my update above.  It's about a 5 hour trip, normally, from Summerhaven to Oracle.

[Chad B]

Some pictures of today's route...well done guys! I know I would not have been able to ride through this storm, I hope all three of them can make the mad dash for the finish tonight! 

Marni, I think it takes about 5-6 hours from Summerhaven to Oracle.

Oracle Ridge


Oracle


Antelope Peak Section




Boulders Section after Antelope Peak


Picketpost, end of the route. All downhill from here

[timroz]

Chad - what was your original GPS mount?  I would like to avoid that situation.  I usually need my duct tape to stop the bleeding or hold sidewalls together.

[Chad B]

Chad - what was your original GPS mount?  I would like to avoid that situation.  I usually need my duct tape to stop the bleeding or hold sidewalls together.

I used the prescribed garmin backing for the GPS, worked wonders for about 1.5-2 years until this trip. Scott had the same problem right before the AZT 300, I think he was riding Sweetwater when his mount (on the back of the GPS also) broke. They seem to be tough little critters since they survived that long.

[ScottM]

Kurt bypassed Oracle and has already hit the Antelope Peak section of the AZT.  Very impressive!  He must have carried a fair amount of food from Tucson.

There was a route change this year that allows racers to bypass Oracle.  He stopped at the Kannally Ranch house to fill up on water.  In previous years the detour to Oracle was pretty much mandatory.  I'm excited to see someone take advantage of the route change.  He's sure set up for a smoking day out there.  I think he'll take several hours off the record time as long as everything continues to go well.

Go Kurt!

[PirateGirl]

Amazing! Sounds like this year suits the cold-weather folks well. Previous experince with those conditions is a big help.

Everyone is doing awesome out there!

[Pivvay]

Just talked to Chris from Oracle.  He is there with Jefe (who stayed the night with them under the little shelter by the bathrooms).  He said Stefan should be right behind them.  They were stocking up on food and then going to head out. 

Chris said last night was pretty horrible.  He is very impressed with Kurt for heading up.  Chris and Stefan were both soaked, all their gear was soaked, and they knew if they tried to head up Lemmon there'd be a good chance they wouldn't finish.  Chris said heading up even this morning was brutally cold, but at least they had the sun and a warm day to look forward to.  They said the road was icy and Jefe apparently went down once on the ice, Chris didn't.

He sounds much perkier than the last time I talked to him.  They are hoping to make it to the finish in one push as long as they stay together, but if the group breaks up Chris said he might have to stop and sleep a bit at some point.

-M   

[ScottM]

Awesome, thanks for the update Marni.  Glad to know where Jefe is, even if he went down on the ice!  I've done that myself up there.  It's going to be a long push for them, into the evening, but hopefully the cool temps and firm trail will make it quick for them.

Here's a 3 minute video showing a replay of the race up until about an hour ago, using the SPOT tracks and TopoFusion.  Watch the red dots move!