Eddie Bauer guide and Mt. Everest American women’s record holder Melissa Arnot, and guide in training Maddie Miller, are at the summit of their mission to climb the highest peak in every state in the U.S.A. in 50 days.
With the help of Microsoft, the two explorers have tracked their progress using the Microsoft Band every step of the way.
From training to mapping out each peak (48 completed so far), that data is then published and tracked on an interactive map seen here: www.eddiebauer.com/50Peaks. The interactive site also houses videos of the trip thus far including the duo’s social media posts.
Melissa Arnot holds the American women’s world record with 5 successful summits of Mt. Everest. A professional mountain guide since 2004, she has guided on 3 continents, summited Mt. Rainier 104 times, and cofounded The Juniper Fund to support Sherpa families faced with climbing tragedies.
Maddie Miller is a 20-year old college student going into her senior year at Colorado College. In 2013, Maddie summited Mount Rainier with her father and Melissa as her graduation present from high school. From there, a passion was re-born. The mountains became Maddie’s haven and her playground. Her first semester of College was spent in India on a NOLS backpacking and river rafting course, where she spent 45 days backpacking the Himalayas and 20 days on the Khali River. She summited Mount Borah (Idaho) as well as Cotopaxi in Ecuador in 2014 with Melissa.
“Last July, right before Maddie and I headed to Colorado on a training hike, we started wearing the Microsoft Band. I have used a number of fitness tracking wearables and I was skeptical this would feel any different, but immediately I knew it was. The band is small and wears nicely against my wrist, letting me do what I am out there to do – run, sprint, bike – without further thought. I have found myself acutely more aware of my heart rate zones, as the “always on” pulse display shows my rate anytime, explained Melissa.”
We receive a ‘cardio benefit’ for each exercise recorded, informing us of our cardiovascular fitness levels. This lets us know when we need to push to receive kudos for our work in our workout summaries, so we don’t receive a message that we’re just ‘maintaining’ but ‘improving’.
From the Microsoft Health app, Maddie shares her workouts with me so I can track her workouts (including heart rate and recovery time). We live 12 hours away from one another and I have spent the last two months traveling and training in the Himalayas but I always feel like we are able to train as partners.”
Here are 10 ways that Melissa Arnot says the Microsoft Band helped prepare for the Fifty Peaks Challenge.
- Real time checking heart rate during workouts, vital to make sure I’m not pushing too hard (or not hard enough)
- Maddie shares her workouts with me, so I know she is doing the workouts
- Tracking progress on similar courses over time, all my data is stored so I can look back and see my progress
- I log all my workouts into my calendar so I get reminders and I can’t miss a workout
- Checking mileage each day, especially on rest days, helps keep me active while my body gets rest as well
- Mapping! So fun to chart our training courses with GPS and go back and see the elevation profiles
- Quickly being able to see last run on the band, this helps me push my time when needed
- I share my workouts with Maddie, so she can see where I am and what I have been up to, and can even give her ideas if she needs workout suggestions
- We sync our bands with Strava as well, which is really fun so that we can log hikes as well as running and biking
- We are each keeping a log of total mileage and calories burned from the time we started training until the adventure ends! Knowing your data helps you push hard even when you are tired! [24×7]
