2024 Supported14er Speed Record- Francis

[Briere]

Stunning effort...Heck, stunning accomplishment! I don't know how anyone can move this fast.

He posted a message at 5:40 am saying "I'm stopping right here." His blog said that he was experiencing some fluid on the lungs the past couple of days.

Weren't Andrew and Andrea having lung/breathing issues a few days ago too? I understand how the physical demands, possible dehydration, lack of oxygen, etc. can have this kind of effect, but I don't recall anyone having these problems on earlier attempts. Of course, I may have missed a post. Is there something in the air this year?

These are classic signs of HAPE, not surprising considering the extreme physical effort and extended time at high elevation. Unfortunately, the only remedy is to stop the effort and come back down to lower elevations where us mortals operate.

This did have me think; if someone wanted to set the FKT for 14ers, and time and costs were there, wouldn't it be best to train at higher elevation like Nepal or somewhere in South America like Peru on Volcanos? Then 2 days or something before your attempt you fly in and 14k ft feels much easier. I assume the reason it's not done is scouting routes before hand and the big one being time and cost.

[justiner]

This did have me think; if someone wanted to set the FKT for 14ers, and time and costs were there, wouldn't it be best to train at higher elevation like Nepal or somewhere in South America like Peru on Volcanos? Then 2 days or something before your attempt you fly in and 14k ft feels much easier. I assume the reason it's not done is scouting routes before hand and the big one being time and cost.

Not necessarily. This may fall into the idea of, "a little of a good thing is beneficial, so a LOT is better!", but there's always tradeoffs to any training intervention and going hard for too long can be disastrous. Similarly, being at elevation to gain an advantage can also lead to problems recovering. You may gain more acclimatization at the cost of other parts of fitness (muscular endurance, etc). When people train in hyperbaric chambers, they're doing so to survive at the highest elevations, but I don't think they set the chamber to mimic 35,000' thinking that if they can do 35k', 29k' will be a cakewalk.

I think it would take a very, very special person to pull living and training at a higher elevation than you're performing at - a Matt Carpenter type physiology, where their natural cardiovascular fitness is already 1 in several million.

I could see working closely with a coach that can monitor fitness markers to help one figure out when to train and when to rest at what elevation, but that's now more project 2:59 levels of monitoring.

[justiner]

Both of Brett Maune's attempts (2014/2015?) were stopped due to lung issues as well.

I think that was asthma (exercise induced or otherwise). That just didn't end his attempts, that sort of ended his career doing some pretty impressive ultra endurance challenges.

[aldsw]

Super cool seeing Drew out with A2 today!

[Eli Watson]

Great effort Drew, the day this all comes together for you it'll be really incredible. This is a fun time of year in Colorado.

It's interesting to me that even with how fast these contemporary mountain runners are - I mean, they're really fast - they're still all chasing a 40 year old wearing suspenders and cranking out 2000 ft/hr day after day in rough terrain. The fact that the 2015 record has stood this long despite so many really legitimate attempts at breaking it is a testament to just how strong that effort was.

[susanjoypaul]

It's interesting to me that even with how fast these contemporary mountain runners are - I mean, they're really fast - they're still all chasing a 40 year old wearing suspenders and cranking out 2000 ft/hr day after day in rough terrain. The fact that the 2015 record has stood this long despite so many really legitimate attempts at breaking it is a testament to just how strong that effort was.

Wow, it has been a while. I wrote about Andrew's record-breaker back then, for Alpinist: https://alpinist.com/newswire/colorado- ... d-smashed/

I'm not covering any of these attempts this time around (too many other writing projects) but with the surge in popularity of 14ers and FKT records, I'm sure these achievements will get plenty of media attention from other writers and publications. Considering how difficult (to me, unimaginably difficult) these feats are compared to traditional "sports," that's sure nice to see.

[seannunn]

Great effort Drew, the day this all comes together for you it'll be really incredible. This is a fun time of year in Colorado.

It's interesting to me that even with how fast these contemporary mountain runners are - I mean, they're really fast - they're still all chasing a 40 year old wearing suspenders and cranking out 2000 ft/hr day after day in rough terrain. The fact that the 2015 record has stood this long despite so many really legitimate attempts at breaking it is a testament to just how strong that effort was.

I think the difference between CaveDog and Andrew is a significant one. CaveDog moved very quickly but if I remember correctly did not have a lot of non-traditional link-ups of mountains. Andrew on the other hand is a very good climber and was able to do crazy things like the Bells traverse in the dark, Satan's ridge, etc. Honestly when CaveDog set the record it was a huge improvement from the previous record and I did not think it would be broken for a long time. That is a tribute to Andrew.

Top level mountain runners are very fast for 1-5 mountains, but that is a different world than stringing together 58. Kind of like the difference between the world's best 10K runner vs. the world's best 100 mile runner.
Edit add: I saw a top level mountain runner on a 14er about 10 years ago (name is failing me now). He was wearing short running shorts, socks, and shoes. Nothing else. He was holding one water bottle. Nothing else. Moving crazy fast. I remember someone commenting that he could probably smash the 14ers FKT, but to my knowledge he never made an attempt. Wish I could remember his name; it sucks getting old.

Sean Nunn

[rcole_2000]

Sounds like Tony Krupicka

[seannunn]

Sounds like Tony Krupicka

That's him; Anton Krupicka. Really nice guy; posed for pictures with our high school girls.

Sean Nunn

[Jorts]

Top level mountain runners are very fast for 1-5 mountains, but that is a different world than stringing together 58. Kind of like the difference between the world's best 10K runner vs. the world's best 100 mile runner.
Edit add: I saw a top level mountain runner on a 14er about 10 years ago (name is failing me now). He was wearing short running shorts, socks, and shoes. Nothing else. He was holding one water bottle. Nothing else. Moving crazy fast. I remember someone commenting that he could probably smash the 14ers FKT, but to my knowledge he never made an attempt. Wish I could remember his name; it sucks getting old.

Sean Nunn

I have to push back on your statement about top level mountain runners being fast for 1-5 mountains. Yes and no. Andrew and Andrea are proficient through technical terrain and they move deliberately with consistency. Not sure if Andrew would consider himself fast but Andrea holds the Nolans record. Shes fast AF.

But I digress. Mountain fitness for performance over time and distance is a conglomeration of variables. Aerobic threshold (floor), anaerobic threshold (ceiling), economy, durability, stamina, strength, power, top end speed, and there are more.

Maybe by “top level mountain runners” you just mean mountain runners who excel at top end speed and anaerobic threshold but not stamina and durability? Not that the two are mutually exclusive. I consider myself a decent mountain runner but I’m much better at economy, durability and stamina than I am at going remarkably fast over only a small handful of mountains. Erin Ton is fast but she has also demonstrated the ability to do multi-day linkups.

Running down mountain trails instead of hiking down them saves a lot of time. And a decent mountain runner can maintain doing that for days on end.

What I think sets A2 apart is their ability to dig deep and function proficiently with a massive sleep debt. It’s incredible.

[bdloftin77]

What I think sets A2 apart is their ability to dig deep and function proficiently with a massive sleep debt. It’s incredible.

And durability, too! Sounds like they went through a bit of hell on this last attempt, though we'll hear more as they share a longer trip report.

[Gulf_Coast_Hiker]

What I think sets A2 apart is their ability to dig deep and function proficiently with a massive sleep debt. It’s incredible.

Oh, that's an understatement!! The whole 12+ days were epic, but what they did the last 3 days was just remarkable.

The only thing I'll add about what "mountain runners" can or cannot do is that it all comes down to what you're trying to accomplish. Training for the Pikes Peak Ascent or Marathon is a whole different game from training for Tor des Geants. Naturally, the farther you go the slower you'll be, with very few people like A2 being in their own category.