The 13ers FKT Project

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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thatOneMonoskier
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The 13ers FKT Project

Post by thatOneMonoskier »

As the title of this post implies, this forum has to do with the Colorado 13ers Fastest Known Time (FKT). I suppose this forum's dual purpose is to inform the CO mountaineering community that I am hoping to attempt this, as well as to pick the brains of people around the state who know more than I could ever know about each individual range. The ultimate goal of this project is to see how fast I can summit every peak in CO above 13,000 ft. Deep down, I don't really have a deadline, but since you want to know, I'm curious if it can be done in 365 days. Given the effort I've already put into it on CalTopo, it seems that one calendar year is actually plausible for me, barring injury, an incredibly short summer, and nearly every ridge traverse being way harder than I think it will be (CalTopo is great, though it does make traverses look easy). So, whether you want to help me with this project or criticize my sanity, let's dive in...

Logistically, there are 637 hard ranked peaks above 13k in Colorado - the list I'm shooting for is somewhere in the 670's, simply because if you traverse all the ridges, you end up crossing many soft ranked peaks. My general approach to each day will be starting from camp at the bottom of a basin, gain the ridge, follow that ridge until I've traversed around the entire basin, then end up at my car. Doing it this way I will greatly reduce the amount of loss/gain I need to do and I can summit a large number of mountains per day (anywhere from 2 to 15 in one go). I'll also be able to bail at any point and return to my camp if need be. I'll then drive to the next basin and repeat until I've done them all.

If I commit to doing this project, I will start sometime around July 4th, 2020 down in the Durango area. I recognize that starting in the San Juans is not ideal due to snow, the brutal storms, and the remoteness of some of the peaks, but I've already committed to being down there and driving to a different range to start seems like a waste of time and gas. So Question 1: How much snow is in the San Juans at the start of July? Obviously it depends on how good our winter is this year, but on average can all of the 14ers be climbed via their standard routes? Is Cinnamon pass usually open (to non-super-pimped-out-4wd-vehicles) in mid July? Fortunately my approach means that I'll only have to deal with snow on way onto/off of the ridges, but that could still present a problem.

The biggest crux of the whole project is the Weminuche, as some of those peaks (such as Peak 4 or Jagged) are hella far away from any trailhead. I've accepted that I'll probably have to fastpack through this area, though I know from Simoni's Centennial project that that is no short order, especially if there is snow. Question 2/3: What is the earliest the Kodiak High Route can be done without some kind of flotation? Is it possible to ford Vallecito Creek with in late July, or is the water too high (or will they have fixed the bridges that are out by then)? Any info from anyone who has been climbing down there around that time of year would be greatly appreciated!

Once I'm out of the San Juans, things get a little easier since there will not be snow and access is generally better. Following the San Juans, I'm thinking to knock out the Sangre De Cristos, Elks, Gore range, and Holy Cross Wilderness with the remainder of the dry season. This will leave the entirety of the Front Range, the Mosquito/Tenmile range, and the Sawatch for winter - certainly not ideal but at least (most) of these summits are non-technical and have relatively good access when there's snow on the ground. Is there something huge that I'm overlooking with this plan or any peaks that I absolutely must do in the summer (due to difficulty, access, or just because they have a rock route that cannot be missed, such as Wham Ridge)?

I appreciate any information anyone has on any of these peaks and traverses, whether that be traverses that I need to look into more, routes I should definitely avoid for safety reasons, routes I definitely should not avoid because they are just super rad... anything! Right now this project is in the very early stages and I haven't committed, but I'm curious if this community thinks it could be pulled off.

Happy Trails,
Justin
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by bergsteigen »

What a project! There are definitely ridges that don’t go. There has been a lot of work put into TR’s by myself, Furthermore, Kevin Baker, SarahT, Chicago Transplant, Benners and some others, so that would be a great place to get some first hand beta, all on this site. We all have different levels of tolerance to various scree/talus/etc, and that tolerance has changed over the years.

Here’s my personal list of linkages: http://otinasadventures.com/index.php?p ... &smap=co13

Good luck!
Last edited by bergsteigen on Mon Feb 03, 2020 7:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by justiner »

* I would get your rules in place. I'm kind of in a school of thinking the FKT's should be mostly human powered. I never got the, "use a car" thing, myself. I may be in the minority. But it just seems like a cannonball run, if only in part, after that.

* Wem is going to be interesting. Are you going to have supplies brought up to you, and just keep a high camp? Multiple trips?

* Figure out what the hell you're going to do about the private property issues. Bartlet Mtn. A lot of the southern Sangres.

* Why start so late? I would think May would be a better start time.

* Hard one to really guess on how long it would take. It took me 4+ days to do 9 Cents in the Wem on foot, but I did like 6 dozen peaks in the Sangres in a week. But I think it really shouldn't be underestimated how some of these long hauls are going to leave you pretty fatigued.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by RobLowe »

I’d be worried about compounded mental fatigue more so than physical fatigue. The mental side of it becomes harder than the physical as your body gets used to the high mileage days. Also compounded risk, although the use of a car minimizes that as you can cherry-pick where weather is not at.

I agree with Justin on starting earlier. Keep in mind that not all years are created equal: I’d pick a year where there wasn’t much snow over winter and start early spring in the less complicated ranges (front, mosquito, ten mile, sawatch, sangres) to get most bang for buck and reduce travel/car use. Switch to the Elks, Gores, and San Juans toward summer when snow is gone. Switch back to the easier ranges when snow comes back.How are you going to get that much time off from working?
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by cottonmountaineering »

Q1: Average people start summiting the Weminuche 14ers with snow climbing gear in July. Cinnamon pass opened July 16 last year
Q2/3: Seasons vary from year to year, anecdotally early July in 2018 was similar to September in 2019 as far as vallecito flow is concerned. I did Vestal in early June of 2018 completely devoid of snow, 2019 it's likely there were snowfields that persisted into winter. IIRC Jagged had snow on the normal route Labor day of 2019, weminuche bicentennials had snowfields labor day of 2019.

Other: I think you might be overlooking some real basic stuff, these questions are easily researched via trip reports... From what i've seen people who are successful with these kind of goals have already climbed in all the ranges in 4 seasons. Maybe doing the top 100 or 200 and you could get the lay of the land?

Good luck
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by dhgold »

To get some idea of what the snow pack has been like year to year, check out the individual peak pages on Listsofjohn.com. Each page has a snow depth link that takes you to the NOAA page for the current snow depth centered on the peak in question and extending about 17 miles east and west and 12 miles north and south. These pages are useful in this configuration, but for your purposes you could change the date and redraw the map to see what the snow pack was like at a certain date in the past. I've found the NOAA snow depth maps to be crude tools but much better than nothing.

In general, the snow pack varies hugely year to year. For example, in 2018 you probably would have been able to safely ford the Vallecito where the bridge is washed out at the end of June. In 2019 this crossing probably would have been angerous at the end of July.

Also, my consistent observation is that the Sangres melt out weeks before the San Juans. Instead of starting in the SJs in July you could start in the Sangres in June and possibly have them finished before starting the San Juan around the date you'd intended. I think you'd want to avail yourself of June's longer days and weather that is usually stabler than July's or August's.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by thatOneMonoskier »

Thanks Otina! I know there's tons of TR's on this site, it's just nice to have a list like that laid out.

[*] Regarding rules: I thought about doing it all self powered, but to try and survive the winter would be a nightmare. Plus having a car to hunker down in seems vital for recovery, which is no doubt very important. I'm thinking to go with the accepted standards for the 14ers supported record according to Cave Dog, outlined here http://www.thedogteam.com/14ers-Web_Pag ... Rules.html. Those are all pretty self explanatory, with the following modifications/add-ons: For the Colorado Rule, it doesn't matter to me if my car is parked <3k below the summit, so long as I dip to 3000 feet below before finishing the loop. My logic here is that there will be long days, some of which will likely end in a storm; rather than take an extra hour at the start of the day to hike up to road and lose valuable safe time at altitude, I'd rather trudge through the rain after the hard work is done for the day to get that extra 500 feet. I don't think where you start in your 3000 up/down loop matters, so long as you dip below 3000 feet below at some point (the website says this is still up for debate... I'm not sure if a verdict has been reached?). Beyond that, I'm not going to accept a ride down back to my car even after descending 3000 feet by my own power; I'm out there to hike, not hitchhike. I also like the "no guiding" rule, which isn't on that site. I haven't yet decided if accepting outside aid is bueno or not - obviously using the car makes everything easier, since driving into town isn't a big deal, but if I could get gear drops and rides, it'd make sense to just traverse entire ranges in single pushes (similar to Nolan's)... Thoughts?

[*] The Weminuche is still up in the air. I'm thinking to do a Grenadiers traverse in a long day, but the rest is hard. Maybe run Vallecito Creek up to Jagged, then traverse south on the ridge. Maybe traverse North on the ridge and bail every now and again back to Vallecito and back to the TH. If I use the train it'd be way easier, but I'm trying not too because that feels like cheating and because I'm on a budget. So that is still TBD.

[*] Private property is on the radar. I know if I don't do them, I won't have 'done them all,' but there's such a huge level of arbitrariness to so many components (13,000 feet, where Colorado's borders are, etc), that I might just draw another arbitrary line and do the publicly accessible 13ers. I'll try to get access through the respective owners, but that's still a big question mark.

[*] I'm starting late because I need to a) train my face off, b) enjoy ski-mo season, and c) make enough money to not work that much for a year (I'm on online STEM tutor, so I make my own hours. It's ideal if you live in your car and don't pay rent :thumbup: ). These three comments on starting earlier does have me thinking though, so it's something I will seriously consider, especially if the SdCs melt out that much sooner. In that case, snow in the San Juans isn't such a big deal because I won't have any obligation to be there in July.

[*] I'm sure I'll fatigue, but this seems like something that needs to be done at a sustainable rate where I'm not pushing too hard each day. Last summer I climbed mountains 6 days per week for two months and didn't feel fatigued after that - that success is one of the reasons I want to try such a big project. When all you do is hike and recover, it's not too brutal.
Last edited by thatOneMonoskier on Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by thatOneMonoskier »

And thanks for the answers cotton! I did look some of those things up before posting, I was just curious what locals' experiences were.

I did not know NOAA had depths around the state, so thanks a ton for that resource dhgold! And thanks for insight on snow melt - I guess starting earlier is logistically a better idea that I hadn't considered due to previous (loose) obligations.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by TaylorHolt »

A few others to consider with accessibility issues are Kiowa and Arikaree. I believe it's illegal to access Kiowa at all, and you can only access Arikaree from the west. The Boulder watershed is off-limits.

Good luck! That's quite an endeavor, and I look forward to following along.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by Tornadoman »

4thPlaceAtFieldDay wrote: Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:57 pm A few others to consider with accessibility issues are Kiowa and Arikaree. I believe it's illegal to access Kiowa at all, and you can only access Arikaree from the west. The Boulder watershed is off-limits.

Good luck! That's quite an endeavor, and I look forward to following along.
I thought there was no legal way to access Arikaree at all?
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by Tornadoman »

The concept of a 13er FKT got me wondering what the current FKT would be? Any 13er finishers care to share their completion times?

A couple other thoughts on your trip... I agree with the folks who think starting earlier is wise. The Sangres and southern Sawatch melt out earliest, so maybe getting a bunch of those peaks done in June would be beneficial. I guess another option since it is a 365 day window would be to finish on those peaks next June. Hmm...

Private property- I think the biggest concerns are Bartlett (can CMC just remove it from the list already, that mined out ruin can't be ranked anymore can it?), Kiowa/Arikaree, and to a lesser extent much of the Culebra range. It will probably be possible to gain legal access to the peaks on Cielo Vista Ranch property, but I believe that at least Mariquita and De Anza (and maybe more) are owned by a different ranch and don't know if anyone has had luck getting legal access.
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Re: The 13ers FKT Project

Post by thatOneMonoskier »

Since there are quite a few peaks with limited access, what list have 13er finishers considered complete? I imagine all of the Cielo Vista Ranch peaks are fair game since there is public access, but it seems that the 637 list is not legally attainable.
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