GPS Tracking data for White Mountain Hiking

White Mountain

   There is another 14,000er named White Mountain near Bishop, CA.   I also analyzed the GPS tracking data for this Hiking.

   This hiking was on July 12, 2014.  It took about 7 hours round trip.  According to the GPS tracking data, the round trip distance was about 15.5 miles (25km) with 3412 feet (1,040m) elevation gain.  The trail head is already about 11,811 feet (3,600m) and the summit is 14,252 feet (4,344m).  This is one of easiest 14,000er mountain in the United States.

   Since I started hiking right after I was arrived at the trail head without any sleeping.   I had been driving overnight to get there in the previous night.  So my condition was not very well.   I started slowly intentionally in the beginning.   However after a small descending, my walking pace was getting faster.  After that was slowing down significantly.  As usual, I just focus on ascending part, the moving speed is something around 0.8 ~ 1.0 [m/sec] except the last part near the summit.  The last part is relatively steeper and the walking pace needed to be slowing down.   The overall pace 0.8 ~ 1.0 [m/sec] is a bit faster than the managed pace by heart rate for Mt. Whitney Hiking.   Even if I did not have much weight on my backpack, it seems to be over pace in such elevation.  The average heart rate is getting higher.  I probably adjust the moving pace without intention after it reaches 150 bpm.

   I had a clear symptom of high altitude sickness during this hiking, it was probably the worst one within 5 years and the working pace was slowing down significantly near the summit.   I originally thought that was due to my condition with much less sleeping in the previous night.   However, after looking into the data, I would think it might be due to over pace.

 Moving speed for White Mountain Hiking

 Average Heart Rate for White Mountain Hiking

 Elevation for White Mountain Hiking

   After this hiking, I started managing the pace based on the heart rate.   This trail is overall gentle slope and it might be easy to walk faster in the beginning, therefore, people might tend to be faster.  Also, there are some sections where have small descending on the way to the summit.   That is another reason people tend to be over pace.  If I have another chance to hike over there, I would like to try to slow down based on the heart rate to see how it goes.   Since camping on the trail is prohibited, almost all people hike to the summit is a day trip.   It might be hard to adjust the over pacing during a day trip.  Thus, this is another good example, we could optimize the walking pace with the heart rate number.