I first heard of Brett Maune for his John Muir Trail FKT (Fastest Known Time), and finally got to meet him this year after his trial run of part of the California 14ers FKT route. Now he has done it again, with an impressive new FKT for Mount Whitney, climbing the Mountaineer’s Route in a blazing 1h56m54s. Both the JMT and Whitney have seen numerous attempts by good athletes, so these are hard records and proud accomplishments.
This year has been a good one for FKTs. The ones of most interest to me include:
- Longs Peak and the Grand Teton by Andy Anderson — To me, these are the most impressive FKTs of the season, since both peaks have seen attempts by some of the best athletes around.
- The High Sierra Trail by Leor Pantilat — This is a popular trail of reasonable length, and it is good to see it get some attention from a fast trail-runner.
- Gannett Peak by Anton Krupicka — Though I think there is room for a faster time via the standard route by a fast trail runner, this time via a non-standard route is impressive.
- Innominata on Mont Blanc by Killian Jornet — I don’t know the route, but Killian is an incredible endurance athlete, and it is fascinating to see what he can do on more technical terrain.
Interesting that I wrote, but did not post, this last week after reading your Evo “Loop” entry. Glad to see someone finally pushed it below 2:00!
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Fastest Known Time is probably soft for (you on) the MR on Mt. Whitney too. (2:07:20(?) up.) I’ve broken 3 up, so figure you could go sub-2. (It is, afterall, only a little over 4 miles.)(The C2C is 3:08 still. The old “up record” was recently beaten, but the climber was shattered and couldn’t keep up the pace on the way down.)
Why don’t you come down and knock that one off before things start to ice up on the route.
As always, I’m amazed at how fast you can move!
I didn’t realize it was so short. I’m not sure I have the cardio capacity for a climb rate of over 3k ft/hr, but I’ll definitely think about it.
you could probably do 3k/hr all day. what’s your time up baldy from village / c2c or something on stead trail?
I did a 2h3x Cactus to Tram when I was in shape last fall, slightly slower than Brett. I’m alright at vertical per hour, but not in the same league as the top ultra runners these days, much less Killian Jornet.