Do Advancements in Gear, Nutrition, Support, Etc. Make a Material Difference?

[Gambit McCrae]

I think what people get caught up on is that advances do not make the activity easier, they just make it a degree less hard. The mountain is hard to climb with a 50lb pack on, it is less hard with a 20lb pack, but still hard all the same.

I think possibly instead of statistically looking at this from a % complete perspective, perhaps if we looked at it from a "duration to complete" perspective we could see a lot more change over the years.

What were the average days to complete the trail in 1980, 90, 00, 10 & 20? I bet it shows a decrease each decade, with having the least variance between 1980 and 1990 while having the most variance between either 1990-00 or 00-10

[Traveler]

The Hiker Condition mirrors the human condition, which is why there are no major changes in completion statistics and why the 25% completion rate is likely to remain unchanged. As others have pointed out, it's a mental/emotional strength issue to complete tasks greater than the sum of our parts.

[Astro]

I think what people get caught up on is that advances do not make the activity easier, they just make it a degree less hard. The mountain is hard to climb with a 50lb pack on, it is less hard with a 20lb pack, but still hard all the same.

I think possibly instead of statistically looking at this from a % complete perspective, perhaps if we looked at it from a "duration to complete" perspective we could see a lot more change over the years.

What were the average days to complete the trail in 1980, 90, 00, 10 & 20? I bet it shows a decrease each decade, with having the least variance between 1980 and 1990 while having the most variance between either 1990-00 or 00-10

I would agree with this perspective.