The key for me on these long drives is to pull over and take a catnap. On the interstates, there are generally rest areas. It's not so much the lack of sleep, it's that my eyes need a rest from looking at the road.

Here is my longest example: On July 4th weekend in 2008, Mt Rogers in VA was the only state HP I hadn't done where it wasn't expected to rain. From NJ, I left the night before for the hike, probably before 11pm. Although I had plenty of caffeine, I needed to nap twice on the way - and I arrived at Grayson Highlands State Park in VA sometime before 9 am.

I hiked the mountain - no problem there - and then I headed back to NJ sometime in the afternoon. I was still driving as it turned dark again, and eventually I needed to sleep again. Since I was at a point where there were no rest areas, I got off at an exit, parked my car on a main street in a town, put my seat back, and fell asleep for a couple of hours.

I remember that when I got back to my place in NJ, that it had been about 24 hours since I had left previously.

My suggestion is: don't try to do it all at one time using stimulants. Take a nap every few hours.

fatdad wrote:

Joe White wrote:

hamik wrote:I don't think we should glorify long, sleep-deprived drives. At least a couple well-loved members of these forums have died or been severely injured due to car accidents. If you are tired, pull over and rest even if it means missing work or school--you're not fucking with only your life by driving when you're tired.

Yep....just had a buddy flip his rig full of passangers, middle of the night, driving after a super long day and fell asleep at the wheel. Careful folks.

Absolutely. Sleep deprivation is often an understated danger. However (and this is not directed to you specifically but to the general audience), it's also pretty clear that the thread just asked for stories that others might find entertaining. Sharing is just sharing, not "glorifying". As climbers, think how boring our stories would be if we were worried that others might label our tales of close shaves and near misses as glorification of those same dangers.

Good point fatdad

Dan and I climbed the Ortler a year ago. On climb day we got up at 2:30 am, ended up on the summit late (3 pm? I forgot), and back at the car at midnight. We drove home, but stopped so often for naps that it took twice as long. I walked in the door at 7 am Monday morning.

Anyway, I'm glad we took naps. We knew trying to force it was dangerous.

My brother and I drove 36 hours straight to the Bugaboos. We took turns, one person driving and the other person sleeping in the back of the Volkswagon. At first we were driving in 4 hour shifts, then 3 hour, then 2 hour, then 1 hour.... By the time we got to the Bugs were able to drive only 15 minutes at a time before the threat of falling asleep forced another shift change.

Now I commute 2-3 hours each way, alone, sometimes gotta drive home after working a graveyard shift. I carry a pillow, blanket and .357 and pull-over to sleep whenever I need to get some shut-eye.

Nothing as epic as some, but one of my longest days...Memorial Day Wkend 2008.

Basically I started a ways east of Rapid City, SD at about 4am. Took back roads through the Black Hills, a small stretch of I-90W to Buffalo, WY and from there up to Cody and onto the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. Thinking that Bear Tooth Pass would be open I travel ~ 20 (sloooow) miles up 212 to find out it's closed (the sign said it was, but I just had to be sure...) Now I have to cruise through Yellowstone instead of backtrack WY296.

About 24 hrs and 1000 miles later, I ended up at my buddy's in Missoula. Started in foggy mist, hit the Black Hills and Powder River Pass in heavy snow, caught a pretty heavy rainstorm, and then pure sunshine after Cody. I also almost ran out of gas on 296, luckily there is a little general store out there that saved me!

Will remember that one for a long time....

Longest solo , non-stop drives would be from Southern Canada to Colorado. I've also driven from the Bay Area to Boulder and back (total of about 2500 miles) over a 3 day weekend. On that trip, I drove straight through on the way to CO, and took my time on the way back. Anymore, the longest I will drive in a day is about 12-13 hours.

As for the idea of sleeping in rest stops, I will stick to driving long hours before I do that. My brother was attacked with baseball bat in a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, Kansas. When he reported it, the police said is was pretty common.

back on college, along with 2 buddies we drove in a push from NYC to acapulco, mexico (~3000miles)

did the portland, or to benson, az drive on a 3 day weekend a few times ...unfortunately (~1500 miles each way)

portland, or to moab, ut friday after work to monday before work with some climbing inbetween (1000 miles each way)

here's how I think of my driving world:


PS the worse driving experience = driving home after coming off mt hood (~1hr) in the spring...back in the day that we were into such things.

hamik wrote:I don't think we should glorify long, sleep-deprived drives. At least a couple well-loved members of these forums have died or been severely injured due to car accidents. If you are tired, pull over and rest even if it means missing work or school--you're not fucking with only your life by driving when you're tired.

Fair enough, but consider that you're telling people not to glorify activities that sometimes get people killed... on a climbing site.

I haven't made too many nonstop drives, as I tend to like to stop and see whatever's interesting along the way. So I suppose my longest would be through less interesting country... the run I used to make from Chicago to the Denver area, 1000 miles or so. A full day, but not excessive.

Grand Junction, CO to Zapo, MX in 34 hours with two people driving....it was my first driving experience in Mexico and I was pretty terrified by the length and areas we drove through....really made for a great tour of Mexico's western coast though.

My worst experience with driving straight through was last summer. I went up with a large group of people to climb Borah Peak. We arose at 5am to climb and I quickly realized that the group was... well... of mixed fitness levels. I trusted some of the more patient climbers to lead the group up the mountain and left the group trying to be the first summit of the day. I wasn't quite first - arriving at the peak around 8am - and I spent a long time waiting for my group at the peak. At noon I decided that there was a chance that my group was not fairing well so I left the summit and hiked down to find them. I came across them at Chicken-Out Ridge where three of them were chickening out. The group was a good 2 hours from the peak but insistent on making it. I wasn't in the mood to stop them, so I offered to help lead the less-brave hikers down the mountain. I reached the trail head by 1:30 and was fully expecting a wait of at least 2 hours for my group to be back. Three hours later I was getting nervous. When 4 hours rolled around I started climbing back up. I made it 3 miles up the trail before the worry came over me that I may have missed them. So I hiked down. They weren't at the bottom. So I hiked back up, nearly making the summit. Same worry came over me. I hiked back down. Anyways... They finally made it down at 9:30 that night, officially the last group off the mountain. We decided, somewhat against my wishes, to drive the 3.5 hours back to Boise. We stopped for dinner at Arco and were on the road by 12:30, my 19th hour after 2 hours of sleep the previous night. I was driving a smoker/altitude-sickness-sufferer home. He fell asleep. I was left driving alone, in the dark, in a smoke-filled car. I gasped fresh air through the window the whole way home. Finally, at about 5am, my 24th hour (after climbing a mountain twice(on two hours of sleep)) I arrived at my front door. There were some close calls with sleep, but I found that the chilly august air blowing through the window performs admirably as an anti-sleep aid. I slept until 4pm.

Fin

In the last few years I lived in Boston, early 90s, I caught the cave diving bug. The best place to cave dive in the US is North Florida, so twice a year I and two friends would drive 20+ hrs straight through from Boston to High Springs outside of Gainesville and 20 hrs back at the end of our trip (eventually I got tired of this and took a job for a couple years in Tampa to be closer to the dark side, but until that time I regularly did the 40+ hr round trip). We'd rotate drivers every four hours, so the drive was not so bad, and when one of my friends bought a used ambulance, it even became comfortable since one of us could sleep on the cot in the back. Several stories stick in my mind from some of these epic drives. One was the time I was at the wheel, driving north through rural Connecticut on I81 towards Sturbridge MA. I had started before dawn, it was early morning, and I was awake but a little bleary eyed, while my buddies were dozing. All of a sudden I heard a huge bang and watched as the windshield bowed in directly in front of my face. I had been driving past a golf course, and someone had hit a ball out over the freeway, which then hit my windshield at 80+ mph. Strangely it didn't shatter, but I remember the slow motion moment as the ball and deforming glass were headed for my face. That woke me up.

The other memorable moment occured before my friend had bought the ambulance. To minimize the damage to any of our own cars, and because cave diving involves a *lot* of gear, we'd rent a big van to do the drive. What we'd do was call around to find someone who'd offer a weekly unlimited mileage rate, and often that was a mom-and-pop car rental operation. On one of the trips, we rented a van from a local car repair shop. When we picked it up it had 200 miles on it. When we dropped it off at the end of the week it was damp and sandy from a week of hauling wet gear, and had over 4000' miles on it. The look on the shop owner's face when we returned it and he saw the mileage was priceless, especially when we reminded him that he *had* offered us unlimited miles...