Great Himalaya Trail (GHT) - live tracking

Viking, you bring up an interesting topic.

The GHT is not a Disney movie with singing unicorns prancing about in a field of daisies. It is tough out there, and it will take its toll on not only body but also mind.

Now, mentally as a team they have a huge advantage. They have twice as many mouths to mention a joke or to go "Wow, Look at that!". Positive vibes tend to be contagious and that should help them along no end.

Physically though, they have twice as many limbs. That's more feet to potentially get blisters, more hamstrings to get tender after 20 days continuous effort and of course twice as many stomachs to feel the effects of bad food or water.

Its not an easy call as to who gets the overall advantage

AndrewP wrote: Now, mentally as a team they have a huge advantage. They have twice as many mouths to mention a joke or to go "Wow, Look at that!".

Or "I once went to the dentist..." - good old Nguza Ridge...

Thanks Andrew, it's going to be very exciting to see how they go.. you set up the perfect drama by doing it first!

Either way, anyone who does the GHT in anything close to your time should be compelled to add the initial B to their name so we can acknowledge they're a beast!

Still no sign of a tracking website.

Their flight into Simikot yesterday was cancelled due to bad weather. Hopefully they get there soon.

In the meantime, they are in for a cold start. Simikot (at 3000m) temperatures for the next few days come in just above zero:
www.yr.no/place/Nepal/Mid_West/Simikot_Airport/long.html

Once they arrive in Simikot, they need to make their way to the start at Hilsa (3800m). And when they turn around, 10km into the run they go over a 4600m pass. Both of which will be a lot colder.

Andrew, am I right in thinking that if they break your record, you will still have the solo record?

@ Macc
They should set off tomorrow, tracking website is here:
www.redbull.com/int-en/projects/ryan-sandes-great-himalaya-trail/live-tracker

Once again, they have some useful techie support behind them that has set up a really cool webpage that will show their progress. I really need to figure out how to do that! In theory, it will show their location, cumulated distance, time and elevation gain with a comparison of where I was at the same time.

I intentionally went out hard, so I did the leg between Hilsa and Simikot in a single day: 75km with 3080m ascent and 3750m descent, max altitude of 4530m. It will be interesting to see what they try.

AndrewP wrote: I intentionally went out hard, so I did the leg between Hilsa and Simikot in a single day: 75km with 3080m ascent and 3750m descent, max altitude of 4530m. It will be interesting to see what they try.

Super early days, but they're going out hard.



Big respect to them for going for this. They are both fine athletes indeed! But Andrew your achievement impresses me even more regardless of their outcome Alone, no sponsors

At day 1, it is far too early to make any calls on relative position. So many factors will come into play - avoiding injury, weather, permits, route finding etc. A fast start means very little over a month long event.

@AndrewP - is your ghost dot on the Red Bull tracking site based on actual GPS data that you sent them or estimated based on less-granular CP times? Seems off to me at the moment since you wouldn't have taken 20+ hours to get to Simikot? Or did you?

I am not sure of the ghost dot. When I saw them reach Simikot, I was "20km behind", which would have made sense from a "I averaged 50km a day" point of view.

They do not have my actual splits, but would have access to the trip report I did which says I got to Simikot on day 1, and then took another 2 days to get to Gamgadhi. Those 2 days were actually very hard, as they squeeze in well over double the altitude gain/loss in only slightly more distance.

I also wonder about the elevation climbed stat, as that was steadily rising while they were doing a 2000m descent from 10-30km into the event, so it is possible that is a ratio of distance covered thus far to total.

While I am "ahead", I am going to sneak this one in


Why their dot has not started moving by 9am local time is a mystery to me, considering the 4am start the previous day.