The Appalachian Trail is considered by many to be the “Great American Hike”. At 2,175 miles in length, it can be quite a test of your stamina and endurance, but despite all that more than 9000 people claim to have hiked it’s entire length.
The AT is also a great testing ground for new gear as Demetri Coupounas, the president and co-founder of GoLite can attest. He’s about to set out on the Trail for 40 days of hiking in an attempt to break the World Alpine Style Backpacking Distance record which is currently set at 620 miles. It also happens to be the 10th Anniversary of his company, so of course it’s the perfect opportunity to test out their gear.
He won’t exactly be “Going Light” however, as his total pack weight will be 127 pounds according to this post over at the Outside Blog where they’ve posted a brief interview with Demetri. Why is his pack so heavy you ask? Well, for one thing, he’s hoping to carry everything he needs for the 40 days on his back with him, including all of his food. That’s right, he’s going 40 days without a resupply.
In the interview, Demitri talks about how far he expects to go, rededicating himself to the “core mission” of GoLite and exactly what gear he is taking along. Interestingly enough, he’s only taking 15 pounds of actual gear. The other 112 pounds is all food, 8 of which is chocolate. On the brighter side of things, at least the pack will be getting lighter as he goes.
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Would love to do the trail sometime–127 pounds of food…in 40 days?
Hope he has it wrapped well and bears don’t know how to read..lol
Now he has me wondering how much food I eat in 40 days..lol
Moving fast on a trail like the AT will burn a lot of calories. I remember reading recently that it is not at all uncommon to burn 8000+ calories a day on these kinds of trips. That’s a lot of twinkies! 😉
will be very hard.
Across Tasmania’s wilderness I had 40 days of food (well i had 29.2 kg of food excluding the package).
I lasted 49 days with it and lost 10 kg.
but the AT is a hell of a distance. So roughly with about dubble my food (and i guess more experiene and more calorie/gram food) it’s gonna be in my way a 80 days supply but eyah indeed he’s gonna walk a lot.
In any way, just such an attempt is excellent to push the limits. I just fear for his joints carrying such a weight on the back! Maybe he’s a big man, i’m 70 kg and almost 6 feet tall.
will see…good luck
Well, he won’t be going the entire length of the trail. He’s just hoping to go as far as he possibly can in 40 days. Still, he’ll probably put up a lot of mileage.
That is indeed a lot of weight on his back. I’m not sure how large of a person he is, but I’m 6’3″ and 200 pounds, and couldn’t imagine carrying that much weight for extend periods of time. Although, as I said, at least the pack will get lighter as he goes.
So he started on Friday, I assume from Springer or Amicalola Falls.
I was on the AT for a short while last weekend near Addis Gap (Hiawassee, GA area) and ran into some through hikers who had started the weekend before. I might have to go back next weekend to see this 127lb pack for myself!
Get photos! 🙂
And help him eat some of the 8 pounds of chocolate.