One thing I have noticed and not trying to be critical. A lot of zero days from these early starters, mostly due to the cold and snow. Is it me or does starting a thru in Feb not very economical to do. I read one journal where the guy almost froze to death on his first day.
Did the 2003 class have these problems in Feb starts? I remember the ones who started in Jan 2003 also took a high number of zero days.
GPSBlake
Its funny if you look in the registers from 2002 and 2003 registers you will notice that alot of late feb early march starters seem in finish right around the same time as thos who start in late march - early april.
Digital Ranger
When we thru hiked in 2001, we started Feb 18th and didn’t really take a lot of zeros, IMHO. An extra one here and there (like for the hot springs), but we finished in August 5th, with a week off in the middle for foot problems. Check out the other Feb starts that year, Comer and Jean and Sweeper. We never did catch up to them. Guess it just depends on which journals you read. It is cold though with the early starts and you run the chance of snow (we hit 2 big storms), so zeros are nice to warm up for a day and take a break from hiking in mashed potatoes!
Bramble