[pct-l] Class of 05 thru-hike completion rate?

[david at emeraldlake.com (David Plotnikoff)]

Hello from a long-time list-lurker and section hiker.

Just wanted to check if I somehow missed a PCT-l digest with the final
tally on how many made it thru on the crazy, upside-down, back-and-forth,
snow-crossed, yo-yo year that was 2005. I recall talk of Meadow Ed and
others waiting to get the names from the final registers at Manning, but I
didn't hear anything after that.

Particularly in a wild year such as the one we just had, I'm wondering if
comparing the registers at Campo and Manning is really the best course
here. I would never tell these guys how to do their job, but let me ask a
question:

Wouldn't it be more accurate to start by defining the set as all thrus who
were issued a permit by the PCTA for the entirety of the trail, nobo or
sobo -- and then create subsets based on who signed at Campo and Manning
(regardless of when they signed,where they started, where they finished)?

 That would eliminate mis-counting people such as myself -- who started
(and signed in) at Campo and only intended to go as far as Whitney. I
wouldn't want my 800-mile hike to be calculated into the overall success
percentage for the class. (In other words, I don't want to drag down the
curve... )

Last time I checked, Beau "Puck" Baker was the man at PCTA central who was
in charge of issuing the thru permits. Perhaps an inquiry with him might
yield a better raw list of class members and then we can work from there?

Again, these were just questions I had. And in no way would I want to come
across as telling anyone else how to do the success rate calculation ...
The numbers I've heard kicked around without attribution are just all over
the map. My personal guess, based on the experiences of those who hiked
roughly when I did: 25 percent border-to-border success rate.

Maybe we should have a betting pool ...

See you on the trail,

DP