Seven years ago a crazy idea was hatched out of an online discussion on 14ers.com, how many 14,000ft peaks was it possible to climb in 24hours, and what would be the optimal linkup? I love 14ers, and I love logistical challenges, so I set out working some variations and timing, scouted a few lines and put some wheels in motion. I made my first go at the linkup in July 2013 as a training run leading up to UTMB, ultimately bowing out after tagging Sherman in 18h37min, for a total of 9 summits. At the time it was a good first effort, but I felt that I had a left a lot more potential out there and that 12 was feasible on a good day. Since 2013 several others have improved upon my original 9 summits, pushing the number to 11 summits in 22h, though still no one had crossed the 12 peak threshold.
After a summer of running around the mountains, I was searching for a little inspiration, something to cap the summer and add a little extra motivation to the weird race-less Covid year it’s been. The opportunity presented itself, so I worked the schedules, lined up a driver and was set to go. Friday morning at 430a my friend Misti picked me up and we headed out for the Mt Evans Rd, the starting point for the journey. At 6:11am on 9/18/20 I clicked the watch and started jogging up the Rd to Mt Evans. It was cool and breezy, smoke hanging in the air from all the wildfires, but on I ran. I hit summit lake at 1:10 and busted up the NE slope to the summit (1:43). For some reason I thought I was behind schedule so I cranked my way across the Sawtooth, gasping as I scampered around the snow on Bierstadt, hitting the summit in 2:38. Even though it was a Friday it was a bit of a cluster, so I wasted no time and hammered down the trail, passing dozens upon dozens of onlookers, not even registering their comments or questions, reaching the Guanella Pass Rd, and eventually 11000ft at 3:25 (10min ahead of schedule).
I jumped in the car, and Misti promptly took off for Stevens Gulch as I packed my water, food and gear for the next leg of the journey. The word of the day was ‘efficient’. We pulled up to the Stevens Gulch TH, I jumped out, poles in hand and headed straight onto the trail for Torreys Peak. I dug into the trail, and found a steady rhythm up and over Torreys (5:31) and over to Grays (5:55). Thankfully the trail wasn’t too busy and CFI has done some great work, allowing me to cruise at a quick pace back down to the car where Misti had a cup o’noodle waiting and off we bounced down the Stevens Gulch Rd, next stop Quandary!
We had a good rhythm going, I’d stuff my pack with food, water and gear, eat something solid and do some recovery work on my legs while we drove. After a short nap we navigated our way onto the Blue Lakes Rd on the South side of Quandary Peak, where I again hopped out of the car at 11200ft, intent on making quick work out of the dirt road section. I soon crested the dam at Blue Lake, and struck off on the climbers trail headed for Cristo Couloir. My semi-secret shortcut and little known fact that it’s only 2mi from 11200ft to the summit of Quandary via Cristo (1mi gaining 2300ft!). I’ve always been good at digging my poles in and just grinding out slow vert, so that’s what I did. Reaching the summit of Quandary Peak at 9:06 (1:24 from the car) to cloudy cool skies with only one other person in site. I made quick work of the steep loose descent, getting back to the car in 37min (9:43)! Then began the frantic recovery and repacking effort before we hit the Kite Lake Rd, this would be the shortest turn around, and with a long loop of the DeCaLiBron to come.
Misti dropped me at 11100ft on the Kite Lake Rd at 10:07 (4:45pm) and I began the long slog up to Kite Lake and Mt Democrat. After 10hours I wasn’t feeling as spry but I just kept grinding away, for the first time starting to struggle a bit on the uphills, reaching the summit of Mt Democrat at 11:52 (1:45 from the car), slower than I’d hoped for, but still on pace overall. I made decent time over to Mt Lincoln (12:48), spurred on by a bitter cold wind that froze my fingertips. Soon after I crested Mt Bross as the evening light faded into blackness, I paused long enough to take in the fact that I’d had the entire DeCaLiBron to myself, a rare occurrence. The darkness made the rocky descent far tougher than I’d expected, and I rolled back to the car at 14:13. For the first time all day I was a bit beat up, and was looking forward to the long drive over to Missouri Gulch, a chance to rest and recharge before the long night ahead. I refueled and napped as Misti drove, and before I knew it we were bumping down the Winfield Rd, screeching to a halt because we’d flow right by the trailhead!
After a quick double check of my gear and food stores I bid Misti farewell and set off into the darkness. I put on some music and just focused on strong and solid movement upwards. I was hitting my splits as I neared treeline, but I could feel the strain in my breathing. As I began to climb the endless switchbacks to Mt Belford I knew I was in for a challenging night. My lungs felt congested and I couldn’t seem to get a full breath, forcing me to take breaks far more often that I wanted just to catch my breath. The switchbacks seemed to drag on forever, made worse by the lingering snow and ice that further slowed progress. At this point I was feeling very demoralized, moving as fast as I could muster, reaching the summit of Belford in 2:31 from the trailhead (18:16). It was dark, cold and I was struggling mentally to stay motivated.
I pushed on to Oxford, once again forced to dodge a bunch of awkward snow and ice blocking the trail, reaching Oxford in 0:47 (19:03), far slower than what I know I’m capable of. On the summit of Oxford I did some fuzzy math, realizing that at my current pace it was gonna be tough to break the current FKT of 11 summits in 22h. When I’d started up from the trailhead 11 summits seemed almost a certainty and 12 seemed very reasonable, but now I was struggling to fathom climbing 11 in the allotted time. As I descended back to Elkhead Pass I was able to talk myself out of the funk….you know these routes, there’s still time on the clock, so keep pushing forward until you run out of time, nothing is certain.
The grind up Missouri felt like death, but I pushed on as hard as I could. 13000ft…..13200ft….13500ft….. dodging a few more snow patches, and not happy to see that my scree shortcuts down the SW face of Missouri was blocked by drifted snow from the prior week’s storm, so I’d have to go around the long way. At last I crested the summit of Missouri Mt, summit #11 at 21:00, giving me an hour to traverse the ridge and drop 3000ft to Clohesy Lake, a task that felt nearly impossible at the moment, but still off I went.
I pushed across Missouri’s NW ridge as fast as I could move in the dark, the whole things is a blur in my memory. I finally turned West and began to drop, astonished to find that the popularity of Nolans had hacked a real trail into the ridge (when I began scouting 13 years ago, no trail existed). This gave me a fighting chance, because descending 2800ft on a steep rough trail in 40min was definitely within the realm of possibility! I charged downhill as fast as my legs and lungs would allow, sliding out now and again, but losing elevation in a hurry. At last I dropped out of the upper basin and began descending to Clohesy Lake. The final mile of trail seemed to take forever, but as I neared 11200ft I turned my path straight down the tundra to the lake, collapsing on the edge of Clohesy Lake at 10991ft at 4:01am on 9/19/20, 21hours and 50min after starting my journey on the Mt Evans Rd the previous day. There had been so much doubt and uncertainty the previous 4hours that I’d actually make it to this point that I was relieved, excited, exhausted and beat to shit. The only thing left to do was trudge my way out of the mountains and back down to the Winfield Rd.
Since I don’t own a jeep this meant walking/yogging a slow 3mi back down the jeep road in the coldest part of the night. After wading through the river (twice) I walked up to Lana (my Rav4) and woke Misti to give her the good news… I’d done it, though barely. I’d set out the ultimate goal to climb 12 14ers in 24hours, and while I’d fallen short of that goal, I’d still managed to climb 11 summits and just squeeze in under the previous FKT by 10min, covering 22,300ft of gain and 48.7mi. It may not have been a perfect day; with all the physical struggles and the additional challenges added by the smoke and snow, but it had been one hell of a journey through the mountains. I’d over come the persevered despite the mental struggles and uncertainty, trusting in the process rather than giving in to the doubts. Though that 12th summit still lingers….Mt Huron, I’m coming for you.
