Figured I would put this in it's proper place.
Expect more to come.

i will give some updates on how he's doing on schedule once I see him at the end of day one.

Hey everyone,
I just dropped off Michael Popov at Lone Pine for his pre-acclimatization preparation of the JMT (Supported) attempt.

Michael broke the Unsupported Record last year by over a day and is now trying to seal the deal for JMT.

I will be helping him out at Woods Creek on night one and on night three at Reds Meadow.

I will also be pacing him while he leaves Reds and when he comes down from Donohue to the end.

The split times we are working on will be to try to get the record below 90 hours.

His daily stops will be
1. Woods Creek Bridge
2. Piute Creek
3. Reds Meadow

Daily mileage will be.
Start at 0600
1. 51.8 miles over 18 hours.
2. 58.2 miles over 20:45 hours.
3. 52.8 miles over 18:45 hours.
4. 56.8 miles over (finish by 0000)

I will be around to answer any questions for today and tomorrow, then I am out of here.

Here is a link to our reports of the Unsupported attempts from last year.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/8943/index.html?skip_to_post=64130#64130


Wish him luck...

I hope Michael has a good time. Dropping the record below 90 hours would be a big deal but with proper support and good acclimation it is a real possibility. Unlike the unsupported record, the supported one is from Whitney Portal not the top of Mt. Whitney.

I finished my first thru-hike of JMT last Thursday night at 11:35 pm (Aug 28th). Michael was up on Whitney and came out of the hut to show us good places to sleep up there (there were 9 of us who made the trek up the mountain in the dark - surreal). Really nice guy, best of luck to him. Actively encourages others to challenge his unsupported record. "It's more fun that way."