[pct-l] Level playing field

[Eric Lee (GAMES)]

Tortoise wrote:
>
In most competitive endeavors, there are rules for the competition and
those that get caught violating the rules usually are usually disqualified.

Scott and Joe's hike may be their personal best. HYOH doesn't mean the
rest of us have to approve of the hike or consider the record legitimate.
>

The very idea of a serious, validated, official record for thru-hiking the PCT is ludicrous when you think about it a minute.  The conditions vary from year to year, day to day, and minute to minute.  Attempt your record-setting thru-hike during a low snow year?  Yeah, you have a good chance of breaking the old "record" set in a high snow year while having an easier time of it and expending far less overall energy.  Waste half a day because you were unlucky trying to hitch in to town for resupply?  Well, too bad - you're now half a day behind where you ought to have been.  Where's the level playing field in thru-hiking?  There isn't one.  Come on people, that should be obvious.

Any so-called record in thru-hiking is dependent as much on luck as on skill.  Obviously, only skill will get you *close* to beating the record, but given the small differences in physical abilities among the ultra-athletes doing these speed-hikes, only luck is going to allow you to actually beat it.

If Scott and Joe end up setting a new so-called record, that'll be interesting in an armchair "gee-whiz, imagine that!" kind of way, but there's nothing remotely official, verifiable, or qualifiable about it.  It's a record that's only meaningful in the context of the precise circumstances that Scott and Joe experienced, which can never be duplicated again.  I'm pretty sure that Scott and Joe understand that, and the rest of us should too.

Eric