Trip Reports

The JMT, PCT, TRT, and lastly the AT ... what happened on the big trails in 2014? JOHN MUIR TRAIL (JMT) The JMT is one of the premier backpacking trails in the world, running 223 miles through California’s Sierra Nevada from Mt Whitney to Yosemite Valley. It is a fabulous route: remote, rugged, committing, but yet with generally good weather, excellent (though rocky) trails and…

Summer 2014 Mountain Madness Summer has wound down, and it was a hot one for FKT action in the mountains. Some people REALLY like climbing mountains ... LOTS of mountains! Let’s take a look ... [caption id="attachment_1721" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Andrew Hamilton on Capital Peak - photo Stefan Griebel[/caption] COLORADO 14ers Depending how you count, there are between 53 and 58 peaks in Colorado over 14,000…

The Wind River High Route is possibly one of the best backpacking routes in the world. It runs along the spine of the Wind River Range in northern Wyoming, probably the most wild and remote range in the Lower 48, is modeled after the famed Sierra High Route, and thus is mostly off-trail and above timberline.  I put together the great team of Andrew Skurka…

June 21, 2014 - - - The “Tenmile Traverse” is a classic long mountaineering route near Breckenridge, Colorado, which links ten summits uncreatively named Peaks 1 through 10. But, the route covers only half of the Tenmile Range, and the lower, easier half at that. The true Tenmile Range Traverse” (TRT) is simply the entire range, which adds six high 13ers and some really gnarly terrain…

It's 5am on April 17, when a Ford F250 pulls into the dark parking lot. Peter Bakwin and I say hello to Elaine, who fills us in on local lore while driving an hour and half out to Pasture Wash, where we are dropped off by an abandoned cabin. We shoulder our packs and navigate straight west across the flat and featureless plateau until the…

Spring is in the air. This can mean many things, but for Peter Bakwin and I, spring means, "go to the desert!" This year we were going for full value: a 3 1/2 day, 110 mile backpacking route starting from the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, thru the very remote country of Beef Basin and Fable Valley, and down into the bottom of Dark…

March 14, 6 AM, Canyon Overlook Trailhead Jared Campbell and I are in Zion National Park. It's a cool starry morning, and we immediately are enjoying scrambling up the white and red sandstone in the total darkness, our headlamps illuminating tiny circles in the smooth rock. Hey wait, it isn't supposed to be dark ... we timed our 6 AM departure based on when "Civil…

“Let your instincts guide your steps … he’ll take you where you most love.” – Kilian Jornet For several years I have maintained a simple website dedicated to recording and documenting Fastest Known Time (FKT) efforts on various trails, routes and mountains. “Fastest Known Time” essentially means the same thing as “Speed Record”, while acknowledging it is the fastest time that we know about, as some…

My family moved to Boulder in the summer of 1968. On May 5-9, 1969, hard rains produced the biggest flood in decades. As a 7-year-old the 3 feet of water in our (unfinished) basement seemed super cool, sort of like having an indoor swimming pool. Growing up in Boulder the “100 Year Flood”, was part of the local lexicon, like fallout shelters were for families…

Last weekend's Leadville marked the return of Scott Jurek. Scott, as Anton told me last year, is "The Man" - 7 straight WS100 wins, Spartathlon, Badwater, 24 hours, etc - it is unlikely anyone will do that and hold that stature again. And he'd been out of competition for 1-3 years (depending on how you figure it). Can he come back? Is his time past…