[pct-l] Supported vs Unsupported

[Reinhold Metzger]

David Horton holds the overall fastest PCT record....He did it with a support team.
Joe holds the ''Without Support Team'' record.

There is a saying  ''HE WHO HOLDS THE RECORD SETS THE TERMS.''

Unsupported means different things to different people.
In Joe's mind unsupported means without support team.
Without support team means exactly what it says and does not preclude them from resupplying.

Technically speaking, in my mind, unsupported means no resupplies of any kind....no caches
no Burger stops, no handouts....you live of the land and what is in your pack from start to 
finish....no exceptions.
As Elevator already stated,those were my terms for the unsupported JMT record.

If you subscribe to that philosophy, the PCT cannot be done in a classic unsupported way unless
you use the ''Prestocked Calories'' method or the ''Gathering & Grazing'' method.

Coming to think of it, Switchback would be the perfect candidate for the ''Prestocked Calories''
PCT record.

Remember,....''HE WHO HOLDS THE RECORD SETS THE TERMS''....
Joe holds the  ''Without Support Team'' record and he sets the terms....so, if anybody wants 
break his record, they must do it on Joe's terms, otherwise they are not breaking his record,
but, perhaps setting some other record.

JMT Reinhold

----------------------------------------------

Elevator writes:

After talking with Joe a couple of months ago about this difinition, rest assured it is not fully unassisted or unsupported as JMT Reinhold has described in his previous JMT record attempts.

Joe indicated that any magic (food or cache) found along the trail would be happily consumed without question.  Additionally, on-trail stops like Red's Meadows were acceptable spots for grabbing food from the cafe, which JMT Reinhold has indicated was a big no-no for the JMT Unsupported record.  Different trail, different definitions.

I suspect they are defining a new record here in some ways as they are simply differentiating themselves from others that have people meeting them along the way, hiking in resupplies ect.

Elevator