New Biking FKT's!

Jonathan Baker, a local Cat. 1 bike rider, has submitted some new times. He was reluctant to do so until I put up his friend Mark Schwab's time. That's why we call these FKT (Fastest Known Times) and not records. There could easily be faster times for all these things (there definitely is faster times for anything that has my mine on it). I don't view this as tooting your horn, but just collecting on local history and hardmen (and women) feats.

Anyway, check out his times for Flagstaff, Sugarloaf, and NCAR.

New record on the Slab!

The first SMSC Flatiron race netted a new speed record on the Slab and a new fastest female time. See the report here.

Buzz Burrell climbs Mt. Olympus in 16 hours car-to-car!

"Olympus was outrageous ... as expected. I was only the 7th party to sign in this year. 18 miles to the bottom scares 1/2 the people off, then the glacier ascent scares off the other 1/2. Almost scared me off too ... I found an 8' log and carried it under my two arms to cross the glacier. Caught up to two guys with full gear at the final icefall, but then they got scared and turned around. I kept going, but it was sketchy ... one crux move over a crevasse onto a 45d slope of slush was not fun. If something breaks loose, there's nobody up there, no one will even know, let alone bother to try a rescue."

2:19 AM Hoh Visitor Center
7:50 AM Glacier Meadows tent site
8:50 AM Blue Glacier
12:10 PM Summit (West PK - highest)
1:20 PM Off Glacier
6:36 PM Visitor Center

5:30 to Glacier Meadows, 9:50 to Summit, 16:17 R/T.

Visitor Center is 573'. Summit is 7969'. Trail to Moraine is 18.4 one way.

Trail is mostly flat for first 12.5 mi, so ran that going up, then
mostly hiked. Ran almost everything coming back, except the 5.4 80'
summit block, the steep snow sections, the crevasse crossing near the
top, when I carried the 8' long branch under my arms across the
glacier, and going over the loose moraine itself.

Fast Ascent of the Grand Wall at Squamish

Kevin McLane and Andrew Boyd (a 5.13+ crack climber) climbed the Grand Wall (presumably just to Belly Good Ledge) one June morning. They linked the Sword, the A0 bolt ladder, and Perry's Lieback into one monster pitch. McLane was home by 9:00am and ready for the 11:00am "Test of Metal" 67km mountain bike race that same morning. Now that's a warm-up for you!

- reported by Peter Spindloe

Slesse time

This isn't new, but I just heard about it from Peter Spindloe, my speed contact in the Northwest.

Perry Beckham (of Perry's Lieback fame on the Grand Wall at Squamish) once did the Northeast Buttress on Mt. Slesse from Squamish back to Squamish in under 24 hours! This is usually a 3+ day ascent for the average party.

New Grouse Grind Record!

I just heard that somebody (Australian, or was it Austrian, mountain running
champion) just set a new Grouse Grind record of 24:18. That's almost three
minutes faster than the previous record (a little less allowing for the
slight difference in distance between the race course and the trail itself).

Peter Spindloe

(The Grouse Grind is a super steep trail that gains 2800 vertical feet in 1.8 miles near Vancouver, British Columbia. See: http://www.grousemountain.com/adv_hik_grogri_mtnrun.cfm)

Buzz Burrell zips up/down Mt. Rainier

"Rainier was very fun, exciting, easy, excellent conditions. Total cakewalk. Slept in the backseat of the rental car, woke up when it got light, sauntered on up in 5:01. Spent :20 on top (plus another :20 talking to people), and was back at the car at 7:11 total."

- Buzz Burrell

Hubers break their own record on the Zodiac

Alex and Thomas Huber ran up the Zodiac a number of times this June, just like they did last year when they whittled the time down from 4+ hours to 3+ hours to finally 2:38. This year they got it down to the just over two hours and then finally did the route in 1:51. Practice certainly does make for perfection. They have probably practiced a route and gone for the speed record on it more times than anyone else. At least on El Cap. If not the most, they must be pretty close to Hans Florine's pursuit of the Nose record. Hans has gone for the record at least six or seven times, so perhaps he still has that distinction.

New records all over the place!

Jon Sargent is taking ownership of the the Slab.

Mark Schwab has the FKT for Magnolia and for Sugarloaf.

Galen Burrell broke Dave Mackey's record for South Boulder Peak - running against Dave no less.

Latest speed climbing news

Lots of activity has been going on in the speed arena. I'm going to try and keep this page updated with new info. If you want to be notified when I update this page, let me know at: bill@wwwright.com