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Fitness program tracked fatal hike

An avid hiker who perished in the High Peaks last weekend liked to keep track of her trips using a fitness tracker that can be viewed online. The program shows not only her remarkable fitness accomplishments, but also her final hike on Friday, March 4.

Hua Davis, 61, of Wilmington, Delaware, died hiking MacNaughton Mountain last weekend. Forest rangers found her body, and the cause of death was ruled to be hypothermia due to exposure. She was wearing sneakers and fleece sweatpants, and had no emergency gear with her, according to the coroner who handled the case.

The tracker shows her pace and distance as well as calories burned, average speed and other parameters. According to its record for March 4, Davis started out at 6:31 a.m. For about the first 3.75 miles she maintained a pace of between 2 and 4 miles per hour.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said its forest rangers found Davis’ car at the Adirondak Loj trailhead. The typical path from there up MacNaughton, which does not have an official trail – only herd paths – takes one through Scott Clearing, 4.1 miles from the trailhead, and Davis’ tracker appears to show that she took a break there. Her actual path is unknown, but on the tracker, at 4.17 miles her speed dropped to 0.2 mph, which would likely indicate a break at or near the clearing. At this point she had hiked for two hours and eight minutes.

For the next two hours, she covered a little less than 2 miles while her pace fluctuated between nearly 5 mph and barely moving. At the 6-mile mark, her speed dropped to zero, indicating another break. For the next mile-and-a-half her pace was again uneven, ranging between 0.6 and 2.5 mph, and at 7.5 miles, her pace again dropped to zero. This is likely when she was on the summit, as the round-trip hike of MacNaughton from Adirondak Loj is about 15 miles.

This is where the fitness tracker’s trip report ends.

Rangers found Davis’ body on the western slope of the mountain, not too far from the summit. She had apparently tried to start a fire with the meager provisions she had with her, but was unsuccessful.

The trip report also shows Davis’ elevation. It is unclear what type of device she was recording the trip with, but smartphone or smartwatch altimeters typically have a wide margin of error in determining altitude. For instance, Davis’ altimeter shows a starting elevation of 2,090 feet above sea level, but the actual elevation of the Loj is just shy of 2,200 feet, according to topographic maps of the area.

The maximum elevation gain she achieved is 3,238 feet, according to the altimeter, which is well shy of MacNaughton’s official elevation of 3,938 feet, although she apparently made the summit and perished on her way down.

According to her family, Davis snapped a few pictures of herself on the hike, including a selfie at the summit. Davis’ daughter Echo said that in that photo, it looked like her mother was starting to show signs of hypothermia, such as a swollen face and frozen hair.

All told, the trip report for Davis’ final hike shows her hiking more than 7.5 miles with an average speed of just over 1 mph for a total recorded time of six hours and 55 minutes.

She had run or walked every day leading up to that hike. She logged 0.65 miles on March 3, 3.68 miles on March 2 and 3.66 miles on March 1.

She logged 107.3 miles in the month of February, including a 50-mile walk and an 8.9-mile hike. On that hike, at Rickets Glen State Park in Pennsylvania, she clocked an average speed of 1.65 mph.

Since joining the online tracking site in 2012, Davis had logged more that 1,400 workouts with a total of more than 6,730 miles running, walking and hiking. She hiked more than 1,500 miles last year and 1,390 miles in 2014.

The tracker shows Davis had hiked in the Adirondacks extensively. For instance, on March 13, 2015, she hiked Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong, Gothics and Sawteeth mountains in just under 15 hours. That round trip is 19.3 miles.

Close call in Catskills

In a trip report posted on www.adkhighpeaksforum.com in early October of last year, a hiker reported meeting Davis in the Catskills while climbing North Dome and Sherrill mountains. The report said she was dressed only in sneakers and sweatpants, and was soaked through.

“She explained that on the way up N.D. she took off her raincoat and took off with out it,” forum user John Fellows wrote. “She said she backed tracked for 1 mile or so and couldn’t find it, but keep going on to Sherrill.

“She was soaked to the bone, sweat pants, sneakers, and almost hypothermic! … I told her she should come with us and we’ll give her a ride to her car, which she thought was just dandy.”

Davis, who went by the screen name Wa Wa on the site, replied, “first time ever SOLO bushwhack on North Dome and Sherrill. I guess, I just selected the BEST DAY!! Thanks for saving my life, without you I don’t think I could make it.”

Davis’ family said they hope that others will learn from her mistakes and be better prepared when they venture into the woods. They expressed regret that her unpreparedness had put rangers and others in danger. One of the responding rangers fell through ice in the backcountry after Davis’ body was located.

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