[pct-l] The Twin Heresies of Demetri Coupounas

[elisenme2 at gmail.com (Carl & Judy Rush)]

If I ate that much dried fruit I would be spending alot of time
squatting in the bushs.


On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:29:27 -0800, Wayne Kraft <waynekraft@verizon.net> wrote:
> If this has already been discussed on the list, then just tell me to shut up and go back to my corner. I am interested in the techniques Demetri Coupounas (Coup), CEO of Golite, used last summer (2004) to hike what he calls the "Triple Gem" of hiking: The John Muir Trail, The Long Trail and the Colorado Trail. He hiked each trail without resupply and without blisters. Heresy #1: Coup's diet consisted of dried fruits and nuts. He cooked nothing and carried no cooking gear. Heresy #2: Coup carried two pair of trail runners, swapping them out when one pair got wet. His account of all three trips is on the Golite website, but it's not easy to find:
> 
> http://www.golite.com/team/athletes/coup/index.asp
> 
> The reports are fairly detailed and found them interesting, but most of his techniques were not revolutionary or unheard of, except for the twin heresies, I mention above. I'm wondering if others have tried this approach and what your evaluations of these techniques might be. The following are relevant quotes from the trip reports.
> 
> Food on the JMT:
> 
> "As an experiment, I tried carrying 100% raw, no-preparation required foods with me. The staple wasmangoes, but there were also plenty of dates, pecans, macademia nuts, and kelp. The experiment went fantastically. I found that I needed far less raw food than I do cooked food to keep me feeling great and moving well. I consumed only 1.6 pounds per day. Having packed almost 3 pounds per day for an 11-day itinerary, I soon started looking for people I could give food to. These I found, thanks mostly to the fact that I was giving away macademia nuts I suppose. Over the trip, I parted with 12 pounds of food and still had 2 pounds left over at the end! I will pack far less next time. Basic strategy was to (1) eat all the fruit I wanted at each rest stop; (2) then have a handful of nuts to keep my body burning fat all day long; and (3) finish with a piece of kelp for electrolyte mineral balance and to keep my teeth pretty clean in between brushings/flossings. I'd follow this trio up with lots and lots of water."
> 
> Food on the LT:
> 
> "The 100% raw food experiment that started on the JMT continued on the Long Trail (see my JMT write-up for background). This time I packed right finishing the very last of my food at the Massachusetts border, 3.8 miles before getting to Mass Route 2. I went through about 1.6 pounds of food per day, and lost about 17 pounds of bodyweight in 13 days, dropping from 197 to 180 - this too was planned and welcomed. I had a great variety of dried fruit including mangoes, bananas, papaya, jack fruit, goji berries, figs and dates, andnuts including macademias, pecans, pistachios, and almonds. I bought all of the fruit from Nature's FirstLaw (www.rawfood.com) and Whole Foods Market, both sources I recommend highly for their premium quality and freshness."
> 
> Food on the CT:
> 
> "The 100% raw food experiment that started on the JMT and Long Trail continued on the Colorado Trail (see my JMT write-up especially for details). It was a comedy of errors this time, though mercifully, several of the errors virtually cancelled each other out. First, I packed way too much food. I wanted to be very conservative given the remoteness of much of the trail and the possibility of major storms, so I planned on 21 days and 1lb, 14 oz of food per day - more food per day than I ate on the previous two trails. But shorter days meant fewer hours of hiking and this more than offset increased calorie burning due to cold. Now and then I wished I didn't have so much food to carry, and about 1/3 of the way in, as a near perfect illustration of the precept "be careful what you wish for" I lost almost 8 pounds of fruit due to molding taking my total fruit supply down from 31 pounds to just 23 for the whole trip. I may never know what caused the molding, but my best guess is that the freeze-thaw cycle most days impacted the fruit much more harshly than the California and Vermont temperature swings, which, while just as great, did not cross the freezing threshold. Since the fruit was my primary carbohydrate source, I immediately cut my hiking pace to burn an even higher percentage of my calories from fat, including body-fat. The high daily mileages I racked up the first week allowed me to do this without undo concern. I did start sleeping with my fruit though :-~). In case of a second major snow storm, I overcompensated, hoarding my calories until the final 2 days when I knew I would be below 10,000 feet and all but home-free. As liberally as I ate from there, I still came out with 4 pounds to spare - about enough for 3 nights survival in a snow cave. The good news is I could've handled 21 days; the bad news is I carried 4 pounds of extra food around 500 miles and it's just sitting in my kitchen still. Just as on the previous two trails, I lost over 1 ? pounds per day starting at 193 ? pounds and ending up at 169."
> 
> Re shoes on all three trails:
> 
> "In fact, my feet looked just the same at trips end as at its beginning. Here is what I attribute that too: [Several factors are listed, including:] 2 different pairs of Montrail shoes - I wore the Vitesse for about 170 miles, and the Masai for about 48, mostly after getting the Vittesse wet 3 times, in the middle of the hottest days, and the last day when I had the lightest load, the variety that 2 different pairs of quality shoes afforded my feet was welcomed . . ."
> 
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