This year proved to be wet and cloudy edition. We had 8 amazing participants who were tenacious and incredibly optimistic in their adventure. These are some of the most incredible folks ever! Big thanks to all who participated, Matt for running safety, Andres for hosting the BBQ and campers, Aaron for official scorekeeping and live tracking, and Ariel for his enthusiasm/daily summaries/score tracking. Here are the daily summaries written by Ariel and then pictures and videos below that.
Day 1, July 6
Wil and Adrian hightailed it up to the Snowbird hut but didn’t tag any waypoints along the way. They get +1 for camping and +1 for not being alone, ending the day with 2 points each.
Bryan hiked up Marmot (+1), over to Microdot (+1) and then down to Archangel road side of the ridge. It appears he briefly started heading up towards Didikama cylinder but bailed on that, before heading up to Snowbird hut. He gets +1 for camping and +1 for not being alone, ending with 4 points.
Bri and Julia hiked all the way up the Mint valley, tagging the Mint Hunt waypoint worth 2 points, and also getting +1 for camping and +1 for not being alone. Interestingly Julia’s InReach was glitching around the end of their hike, first showing her at 9k, then 13k, then 18k! Before returning to earth at Mint Hunt. They’re sitting at 4 points each at the end of the day.
Luke headed up Archangel road and Reed Lakes trail. His 2-minute tracking shows he got just shy of the Higher Spire cylinder (+2) so hopefully that’s just a timing-resolution thing and not that he didn’t tag it. He then continued on to the Bomber Hut, also worth 2 points. He gets +1 bonus for camping but is alone (maybe there are hikers there, but no other race participants) so misses out on the other point bonus. Assuming he did tag Higher Spire cylinder, he is sitting at 5 points.
Tony hiked up to Marmot (+1), back down, then to Microdot (+1), back down, then up the road to the Notch and up to Nixon’s camping waypoint which is worth 3 points as one of the official designated camping spots. That puts him at 5 points.
Tom had similar track to Tony though when he got to the Notch he hiked up to the Hatch Peak cylinder. As of the time of posting he’s heading back down and will presumably head up to Nixon’s for the camping bonus. With that assumption, he will end the day at +1 +1 +1 +3 = 6 points (will update if that changes). Participants can move until 10PM so he’s got a bit over an hour left. (Edit after 10PM: confirming he made it to Nixon’s camping cylinder)
Day 2, July 7
Adrian, Bryan, and Wil started at Snowbird Hut and tagged 4 2-pointers: Higher Spire, 4th of July, Bomber Hut, and Neltura. They then flew back down to Bomber Hut at the end of the day and are camping there (+2). They earned 10 points each today. Bryan is in the lead with 14 points (due to tagging 2 1-pointers yesterday), and Adrian and Wil both have 12.
Luke started at the Bomber Hut and tagged 4th of July (+2) on his way up to Snowbird Hut. He then continued down to Archangel Road, tagging Didikama (+1) on the way. He hiked all the way up to the Notch, then up to tag Hatch Peak (+1) before ending the evening at the Nixon’s camping spot, worth 3 points. He earned 7 points today, putting him at a total of 12, tied with Adrian and Wil.
Tony started the day at Nixon’s and tagged Skyscraper (+1) and Hatch Peak (+1). He got a flight back down to Marmot lot area, then hiked up Marmot and flew down to the Archangel camp (+3). He earned 5 points today, ending the day with 10 total.
Tom started the day at Nixon’s and tagged Skyscraper (+1). He then hiked down to Marmot lot and up to Marmot launch, but wasn’t able to get off to fly to Archangel camp, and is back at Marmot lot which unfortunately doesn’t give any camping points. He added the one point to his total today, ending the day with 7.
Bri and Julia hiked back from the Mint Hunt. Sounds like their strategy had been to go up and over to some of the other huts and waypoints but weather and terrain forced them to come back down the way they came (Mint Valley). They ended the day at the Mint trailhead parking area which is unfortunately doesn’t give any camping points. They both ended the day with no additional points added, and 4 total.
Day 3, July 8
Adrian, Bryan, and Wil started at the Bomber Hut and tagged Lynx (+2) before descending to Reed Lakes. They flew down to Archangel Road from near lower Reed Lake, landing in different places along the road. Wil was a bit ahead and got to Marmot parking lot in time to dump camping gear and hike up Marmot, launching and just barely tagging the Marmot turnpoint from the air (+1), landing just a few minutes before the 5PM deadline. Bryan finished with 16 points, Wil with 15, and Adrian with 14.
Luke started the day at Nixon’s and tagged Skyscraper (+1), Microdot (+1), and Marmot (+1). He got a flight down to finish his race! He ended with 15 points.
With 16 points, Bryan won! Luke and Wil each had 15; rules state that tiebreaker is who finished first. Luke landed at Marmot parking lot several hours before Wil so he got 2nd place! Wil got 3rd!
Tony started the day at Archangel camp. Without flyable weather he didn’t really have any points to easily tag, so he hiked up to Marmot lot and finished the race with 10 points.
Tom didn’t have any points to tag today but did hike up Marmot and got a flight in to end his race with 7 points!
Julia hiked up from Mint trailhead parking lot (where she and Bri finished their exhausting hike yesterday), then kept going to the Marmot turnpoint (+1) and got a flight down to Marmot to finish her race with 5 points!
Bri very reasonably decided that the hike in and out to Mint Valley was enough fun (?) for the race, and finished yesterday at the Mint parking lot. Unfortunately the rules of the race are that failing to get to finish cylinder (Marmot lot) is a 10 point penalty, so she finished with -6 points.
After Wil finished wingovering down to the Marmot lot (minutes before the finish deadline), everyone drove down for the post-race BBQ for drinks, food, stories, and prizegiving!
Hatcher Hike and Fly 