#125 - David Hedges

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A fall storm, ankle‑deep snow, and a west wind tearing across the Sawatch set the stage—then David Hedges took the Nolans 14 record back by roughly ten minutes. We unpack how it happened, from the early confidence on Antero to a near-collapse between Harvard and Oxford, a frozen night saved by borrowed layers and hot gels, and a final, ruthless push off Massive that flipped the math with miles to spare. The story isn’t just splits; it’s style, stewardship, and what local fluency really looks like when the terrain turns feral.

We dig into route decisions like choosing the Columbia–Harvard traverse when conditions allow, why Princeton is the true make‑or‑break, and how Pine Creek’s flooded willows taxed time and patience. David contrasts a lean, self‑navigated approach with a big‑budget model, raising thoughtful questions about GPX dependency, pacers, and what FKTs are rewarding now. He also walks through working directly with the Leadville district ranger during the La Plata closure—a quiet example of respecting the place you move through fast.

Looking ahead, David shares a sharp slate of objectives that fit his engine: the Tonto Trail, the La Sal Traverse, and SCAR in the Smokies. Then comes the bold target—Aconcagua’s standard route FKT—where altitude physiology, long uphill intervals, and precise downhill pacing become the whole game. If you love FKTs, mountain strategy, and honest talk about what it takes to move fast when conditions say no, this one’s a feast.

If this conversation resonated, follow David on Instagram at D_hedges_, share the episode with a friend who geeks out on routes and style, and leave a quick review so more mountain nerds can find the show. Got thoughts on purity vs pace on Nolans? Drop us a note and join the debate.

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Follow James on IG - @jameslauriello

Follow the Steep Stuff Podcast on IG - @steepstuff_pod

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast.

(00:01):
I'm your host, James L'Oriello.
And today I'm so excited tobring you a special presentation
of the podcast.
This time with Nolan's 14 recordholder David Hedges.
David is fresh off lowering theNolan's 14 record back on
September the 15th.
He lowered the record by about10 minutes to one day, 11 hours,
23 minutes, and 15 seconds.

(00:22):
David braved pretty nastyweather, ankle deep snow,
freezing temperatures, massivedehydration, as well as low
caloric deficits, and was overto overcome some massive
obstacles to lower the record.
David actually originally setthe record back in 2023, and it
was lowered this year byFrancois Dane, who came around
in July to the area and took asmall chunk of time off of

(00:47):
David's record.
And David was able to come backand uh finally in this David vs.
Goliath moment for our sport, uhlower the record.
This was a great episode.
Uh David was pretty kind candidand kind enough to come on the
podcast, debrief just about theentire record.
Um we talked about specificroute choices, like taking the
Columbia Harvard Traverse versusgoing around.
Um so we also talked aboutclosures off La Plata and what

(01:11):
David did by reaching out to thepark service to uh get those
mitigated and just doing a bunchof stuff.
It was it was a reallyinteresting episode, and like I
said, we debriefed the thing inits entirety.
Um, one aspect um I don't wantthis to ever come across, like
it's me being negative towardsFrancois Dane.
Um, but that said, we did debatethe stylistic differences
between Francois and David inthis very Royal Robbins versus

(01:34):
Warren Harding moment for oursport where Francois came out to
the area in July.
He brought a very large group ofathletes with him to kind of
debrief and break down thecourse, had patience with him
for most of the time, um, youknow, stayed in a camper and
just did things differently thanDavid did, who's more adopted
maybe more of the purity andlike dirtbag lifestyle.

(01:57):
Um so we did debate kind ofthose differences between the
two and in the records and umeven got into the nitty-gritty
on the routes they specificallychose as well.
Um and David was kind enough touh be pretty candid about that
as well.
So I hope you guys enjoy thisone.
It's it's it's an interestingepisode, lots of good stuff
there.
Want to thank David so much forcoming on.
Um so yeah, without further ado,David Hedges and the Nolans 14.

(03:26):
David Hedges, welcome back tothis Deep Stuff Podcast.
How's it going, man?
Good, good, thanks, James.
Yeah, man.
I'm excited to have you back on.
Um, same thing with the messageI sent to you after you broke
the Nolan's record again.
The good guys won this time, andI was really excited for that.
It was it was really cool to seeyou go back and uh chase this.
It was especially given thecircumstances with you know

(03:48):
potential closures at La Plata,uh, issues with obviously the
weather was kind of crazy thistime around, and you still did
the damn thing.
So I gotta give you hats off,man.
Amazing record and amazing,amazing undertaking.

SPEAKER_00 (04:00):
Thanks.
Yeah, and I was just thinking,like uh reflecting that you or
like a bunch of people whoyou've had on the pod were
helping out too.

SPEAKER_02 (04:11):
Yeah, Noah, Morgan.
I haven't had Morgan yet, but Iknow Noah was a um Aaron, yeah.
Yeah, Aaron was around.
Yeah, it was like a nice littlefamily of of pod alum were we're
all around, which is kind ofcool.

SPEAKER_03 (04:23):
All right, cool.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (04:25):
How are you?
Uh I know I asked you thisoffline, but how are you
feeling?
How's uh both mentally andphysically uh following the
effort?

SPEAKER_00 (04:34):
Um it's been like I had a I kind of had to take a
forced couple weeks.
I mean, one week seems prettytypical in my experience, and
then last week just was prettyuh it just like didn't feel
good, so I took a step back, youknow, from training.
Just did a bunch of walking,kind of getting back into

(04:54):
strength.
And now, yeah, it's sort of soslowly slowly but surely, but uh
yeah, it's been it's been prettyrough, honestly.
Not so much mentally, but justyeah, just the legs are uh not
really responding.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (05:09):
And we could talk about contributors to that as we
uh kind of talk about the effortand break it down.
Um mentally though, like how doyou feel on this one versus in
2023?
Like, does it feel anydifferent?

SPEAKER_00 (05:22):
Um, that's kind of it.
I mean, that's a prettyinteresting question because uh
like I I kind of got probably Imean, I got some media attention
for both.
I don't know if one was more orless, but the first time was
really the first, I mean, twoyears ago is one of really the
first time I got any sort ofmedia attention, which did

(05:43):
actually have more of a impactmentally than than I kind of
anticipated.
So, and I had more on my platecoming up later that year.
I ended up doing like I ended upracing UTMB, didn't go well, and
then I did all these FKTs and Iwas like driving around

(06:03):
everywhere, and it was kind ofhectic.
So this time it's nice to likejust uh relax and like reflect.
And yeah, I I think it's been alot easier, it's been a lot more
positive this year, I think.

SPEAKER_02 (06:14):
Yeah.
Talk about the media attentionthis time around.
We'll get into thecircumstances, I think, around
it.
But there was a good Trailrunnerarticle written.
I know Abby went into depth onsome stuff.
Um, just the circumstances Ifeel like were different from
this one.
Like, I I don't want to peg itas like a David vs Goliath
story, but the only reason I'llsay like the David Gliot,
literally David vs.

(06:35):
Goliath, it was just kind offunny because your name's David,
uh, put nintendo there, but likein the sense where like you
know, there's this big brand ofthe Solomon involved, and like
Strava is like talking aboutNolans now, and it's like on
Instagram everywhere.
And then good old David Hedges,who is this like salt of the

(06:56):
earth human who like putseverything into this, not no no
not flashy, not big sponsors,not this, not that, just a dude
that works really hard, shows upand takes some time off the
record.
Like that to me is like the thehero's kind of story.
Like, I like following that.
I don't know where I'm goingwith that, but what do you think
of that?

SPEAKER_00 (07:14):
Yeah, I appreciate that.
I mean, that was that was partof my motivation.
I thought that was like a cool Imean, it was inspiring, it was a
cool storyline as well.
And I just I like you know, I Ibelieved I was not like I wasn't
reaching to go do it.
Like I I was pretty damn sure Icould if I you know cleared the
rest of my schedule and was justlike I'm gonna train my ass off

(07:36):
for all of August, you know, forsix weeks and really study the
splits and like get a good crew,like I could do it.
Um, I mean, yeah, I did thinklike I mean, you know, like
Francois had like four YouTubeor no, six YouTube videos, like
pro produced the whole thing,like I think 20 sponsored posts.

(08:01):
And it was just like I I can'teven relate.
Like, I don't even know how yougo somewhere like with an RV and
like don't you know go don't gointo town and and like do this
project.
And I don't know.
I mean it's I mean he nailed it.
And yeah, but it was definitelylike motivating that like okay,

(08:23):
well you don't need all that,like that's all super
superfluous, like it'scompletely unnecessary.
Um like I I think like usColoradans and New Mexican Rocky
Mountain people can totally uhlike hold our own against the
Euros, at least in our backyard.

(08:43):
So I thought that was cool.
I mean I didn't I didn't getlike the I didn't get any of the
international media stuff thathe did.
That was also that's also theother it's like it's not just
the the resources you have tolike nowadays in the sport, it's
not just that you know, ifyou're super sponsored pro guy,
it's not just that you haveresources to go do a thing more

(09:06):
effectively or easily moreeasily, but you also get the PR
machine, you know, if you careabout those things.
So I mean he got it.
Was like if you like Google hisname and the effort, like it's
in dozens of papers all over andstuff.
I mean, look at Killian rightnow, it's yeah, it's everywhere,
it's exploded.

(09:27):
Like every couple days, there'sa whole new thing and like a
non-running publication about,you know, so I obviously don't
have a PR person or nothing likethat.
So yeah, but I mean Iron Far andTrail Runner or um not trailer,
but outside run.
Uh Abby picked up on it, andyeah, it was cool.
And uh Finn.

(09:48):
So I love it.

SPEAKER_02 (09:50):
Let's dive into it a little bit.
Going like this might be a hardquestion to answer, but with the
effort coming about, you said tome the last time we chatted um
that it would take someone tobreak the record, and then even
then, you were like, All right,it would take someone to break
the record for me to go back anddo it.
And you seemed um, I don't Idon't want to say hesitant at
that time, but more like, oh,there might be other things I

(10:12):
want to do.
Obviously, the record getsbroken.
Did that change your why?
Was your why different this timearound, or was it still I just
want to test myself againstthese mountains, or was it more
I'm gonna break this damnrecord?
Like, how uh how was yourapproach on this?

SPEAKER_00 (10:28):
Um, yeah, it became about the record.
I mean, because so two yearsago, like I didn't so like uh
Francois, I think, broke it inon July 4th.
Yeah.
And at first I because peoplewere asking me about it, and at
first I just was like, well, Imean, two years ago I didn't
even have splits of mind at all.
I did like two-thirds of it sowell, I did yeah, like

(10:52):
two-thirds of it solo.
And uh and I like had theexperience I wanted to have, and
I like really appreciated that.
So at first I thought like,well, I don't really need to.
I think I've you know had hadwhat I got what I was looking
for, so I'm not sure if I reallycare about the record, but

(11:12):
pretty soon just getting backinto the mountains in like um
July back here in New Mexico, uhI just was like, I was just
really enjoying it.
So I figured I'd head up, testthe waters a little bit for like
a week, do like a 40 somethingthousand foot week, and just see

(11:35):
how camping up high was feelingagain.
And it felt it all went well.
I like was camping with with afriend and did a little bit of
climbing.
And anyways, yeah, I was justlike, okay, I just like really
committed, I think like August2nd or something.
Uh so it took a bit to really,but yeah, I guess I got pretty
competitive about it.

(11:55):
Um at the same time, what I diddifferently this year was I did
some scouting because there werea few line innovations I wanted
to check out.
Um, but mostly I kind of used anexcuse to go like I, you know,
spent some time in Lake City orlike I helped out at high five a
little bit and San Juan Softy.

(12:17):
So I kind of like I realized Ididn't need to, I didn't have to
go like totally obsessed on thelines like I did last time,
which was fun, but I figured Istill had a memorized, it wasn't
that complicated.
So it was a good excuse to justcheck out some other 14ers or
13ers, and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (12:37):
This year was a little bit different too with
weather.
The the time that you pick torun it in, obviously, there was
uh if I remember your read upcorrectly, like the descents
were not so straightforward andeasy because there was a lot
more snow and ice, stuff youcouldn't bomb like you normally
would have been able to.
You probably could have gonesignificantly faster then.
Would you would you agree withthat?
I don't want to saysignificantly faster, but

(12:58):
there's definitely more time,you think, there.
Would it would you agree withthat?

SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Yeah, arguably, arguably, if like my whole like
if my fueling went perfectly andthere wasn't snow, it could have
been an hour or two.
So yeah.
On the other hand, it wouldn'thave been exciting or as pretty.
I mean, I also had I think itwas uh 11 half hours of night of

(13:23):
dark, you know, of uh running inat night, like last light to
first light.
So that's pretty significant.
I mean, that's four hours morethan early July when I did it
last time.
Uh so yeah, there's kind of alot of things.
It was a lot more epic thistime, that's for sure.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (13:41):
Was there lower lows than the previous time?
Like, were you more in your headat all?
More like I should be runningfaster, like looking at splits
or anything like that, like, orwere you able to just kind of
focus?

SPEAKER_00 (13:54):
Um, I think actually last so last time part of the
reason why I wanted to come backwas because I may have mentioned
this on the last podcast, but uhI ended up through a series of
unfortunate events, had to do2023's attempt on the hottest
ever day in Leadville.

(14:14):
And you know, I mean the wholething is above 10,000 feet, it
drops to like 98.5 uh betweenPrinceton and Yale.
And Princeton is incrediblyexposed.
Like that whole ridge, you know,I'm sure you know, like is it's
like a mile and a half ridge,all south face south exposure,

(14:35):
and there's you know no water atall.
Um, and I think I hit that atprobably you know midday, like
full sun.
So two years ago I got and Ididn't take enough water in
Alpine.
So I got incredibly cooked onPrinceton, and it took hours to
recover from the dehydration.
So, in a way, that was wayharder.

(14:56):
And way, I mean, that was abigger low.
Both both years, I definitelyhad a thing where I was like, I
didn't I didn't dwell in it,like it wasn't I wasn't like
super pleased, but I wasn'tconsidering like bailing or
anything.
I was like just very focused,and there's so much distance and

(15:16):
time and variables to make or upor you know, gain or lose time
that um it wasn't thatstressful, but yeah.
I mean, this time I, you know, Iwas shivering like super windy,
up high, really cold.
And that was frustrating, youknow, just like, oh my god, I'm
I'm burning extra calories tonot shiver.

(15:37):
That's like extremely wasteful,you know, at at between midnight
and 3 a.m.
or something like this.
Is so I didn't really have ultralike the classic low points in
either of the attempts, but I Ithink actually two years ago it
was if there was like an acutelow point, it was lower than
this time.
Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 (15:57):
Yeah.
Wow.
I so you would probably take youwould take the shivering over
the the dehydration then.
And it's what it sounds likeokay, fair enough.
Yeah, yeah.
I think I would too.
It's hard to say.
I mean, like, I don't know,you're right up on Strava was
really beautiful.
Like, I and I was you try topicture like these peaks and and
traversing these peaks and youknow, with snow on them and just
the backdrop with the aspens andeverything.

(16:18):
It's so it's gotta be sogorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 (16:20):
Yeah, it was incredible.
It was honestly like the mostbeautiful sort of uh setting to
do anything, um, especially thatfirst day, like going up
Princeton, it was insane.
It was so nice, like uh becauseyou know, most of the snow was
still intact down to whatever itwas 13 13 1 or something.

(16:43):
So uh yeah.
I mean I I really yeah, like itdidn't go perfectly, but uh I
can't like I can't complain,like you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (16:56):
Let's uh pivot a little bit.
I want to talk to you about youruh just the the group of people
you put together, like just someamazing humans between Noah
Williams, Morgan Elliott, uh Iknow Aaron Tun was there.
Like there was quite a fewpeople like in your corner, man,
and like really rooting for you,like wanting you to do this.
I mean, they had like a littleat the end, it was really cool.

(17:17):
There was like a little uhfinish line, like a little
finish line tape for you tobreak.
And I don't know, it's just likeit seemed very special, like
this whole group of Americanslike really rallied behind you
for you to go break this damnthing.
Like, how did you like werepeople reaching out to you once
you put the announcement out, orwere you kind of recruiting in
the background to try and getsome folks out there?
Like, how did you assemble thisgroup of people?

SPEAKER_00 (17:39):
Um, it was a bit it was 50-50.
Like, well, I also had uhseveral folks from Santa well
from New Mexico come up too.
So that was like I didn't askthem directly, but everyone was
like super stoked on it downhere.
So that was like really helpful.
I mean, just like you know, veryencouraging throughout the whole
building.

(18:00):
And uh a couple guys came up forthe uh from New Mexico too,
which you know is not thequickest trip in the world.
Um, but it looks like they Imean it was the cool thing too
was that like it was I mean, Iit seemed like people like legit
enjoyed seeing it go down, whichwas really like gratifying too,
because I, you know, I never youknow it's because I always

(18:22):
assume it's gonna be a burden,basically.
I'm sure in some ways it is, butuh but yeah, I mean I I wasn't
like asking people to I didn'thave pay besides Noah and and
Morgan, like I didn't have sothat was the last you know, I
didn't have like pacer pacers,like no one was doing work for
me exactly.

(18:42):
Like I was doing all the nav,you know.
Um which is how I want, youknow, that's how how I think it
I honestly think that's how itshould be for Nolan's.
Like I feel like you should thatjust gives you that connection
where like you know you reallyhave that connection to the
route and you should kind ofknow it and be able to kind of

(19:03):
just move through the terrainyou really have like invested
in.
But anyways, yeah, so I had abunch of folks come out.
I think I like wrote onInstagram, like just asking if
anyone was free, so that acouple people wrote reached out
from that, and then I I directlyasked a few others, and uh yeah,

(19:26):
it seemed to all work out prettywell.
Um, I mean it was quite a lot tohandle logistically, and then
the big thing is that I only gotthe go-ahead from the park
ranger, I mean from the forestranger on uh Monday.
So, and I was initially gonnastart on Saturday.

unknown (19:47):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (19:48):
So that so I didn't really so then I put my
spreadsheet together, likeeverything was because we even
like discussed when I would gothrough the area.
Um which in the end didn't seemto matter all that much, but I
just to be kosher.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (20:02):
Let's talk about that.
Um, let's let's let's put hitthe brakes and get into that.
So um what was it?
It was La Plata that trail wastechnically closed, correct?
And you had worked, yeah.
Talk talk about how you hadworked with uh kind of the local
forest service to kind of getthat figured out.

SPEAKER_00 (20:17):
Yeah, so the story is uh in so I did that effort on
uh September 14th or so,something like that.
Yeah.
And like the last week ofAugust, I think August 22nd, uh
the park officially, I mean theForest Service, sorry, not the
park, officially closed theentire north aspect of Plata,

(20:40):
like all slopes, because acamper had not put out their
campfire and they had like lefttheir bait pen and all the shit
in the classic.
And it, you know, it like itstarted a pretty small forest
fire.
We locked out with the monsoonslike really kicked in hard right

(21:03):
like the next day, pretty much,or like two days later, but it
still was I think 125 acres max,which is something.
I mean, the Forest Servicebrought out I think 45 people to
uh uh fire personnel to work onit because it was in such a
sensitive area between you know,right on the um uh independence

(21:26):
pass road there, and uh, youknow, there's some private
property and and right on theyou know, one of the most
popular trails in the state.
So they just provision, youknow, they just closed it, like
no access at all.
They didn't want anyoneinterfering with fire
operations, and they didn't wantanyone to get hurt basically.
So I like got really stressedout because I was like starting

(21:51):
to put this together and likereally counting on I trained so
hard, and so I was just liketrying to email and call any
contact I could possibly find.
And I knew it might take weeksfor them to even see anything
like that.
But luckily, the ranger inLeadville, um, the uh district
ranger was like really, reallysympathetic, like really helpful

(22:14):
and understanding.
And he didn't make any promisesat first, because we you just
can't tell what the weatherbasically was like, okay, if
there's zero chance the fire isgoing to spread and the fire
personnel basically clear out,then you're good to go.
But that's like really hinges onall you know the weather being
getting a lot of rain, like etc.

(22:35):
etc.
Not that you know, not windy.
So meanwhile, like I know someother people were interested in
doing Nolans, and as far as Iknow, no one actually reached
out.
Obviously, I I don't know forsure, I didn't ask, but a lot of
people just kind of gave up ordid something else.

(22:55):
Then Killian climbed, he he didElbert and Massive, then went
and did the Elks, then came backover and went up Ellingwood
Ridge, yeah, and with like theKoros guy and stuff, and was
like there was a fire closure,so we had to take an uh

(23:16):
alternate route and go upEllingwood.
Well, if he had bothered to lookat the map, uh that was also
closed, so they all broketechnically.
Yeah, so anyways, I I feel likeI just like didn't want any sort
of controversy.
So I got I got permission.
He was like, Well, you'll havelike a four or five day lead

(23:37):
time.
Do you think that's enough toput everything together?
I'm like, Yeah, it's gonna haveto be enough.
And so in the end, that's yeah,I got like a five-day lead time,
but then it was so rainy at theend of August and into
September.
He was like, Um, I'm pretty sureI'm gonna lift the order sooner
rather than later, anyways.
And then when I called, so thenI was so I was gonna start on

(24:00):
Saturday, and the weather systemthat was supposed to move
through Thursday, Friday moveduh slowed down.
So Saturday was super stormy aswell.
So I called him again to try tomove back 24 hours, and then he
said that um that was fine, andalso that he was gonna try to

(24:21):
lift the order for the weekend.
Nice.
Uh in the end, they didn't quitemanage to do that, and they
ended up so I passed throughMonday at like seven, six
thirty, and they lifted theorder on Tuesday.

unknown (24:36):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (24:37):
So yeah, it was all it was kind of like dramatic.
I mean, it's obviously it's justlike this small section in the
grand scheme of things, and itwasn't exactly like dangerous or
like crazy or anything, but youknow, it was another wrench in
the equation and uh somethingelse to figure out.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (24:57):
No, and I think it's really I think not just the
audience, but I think fans ofyours and just folks in the in
the space in general can reallyappreciate the fact that like I
don't know, I think there'ssomething very important about
reaching out and you know tryingto work with the local groups to
make sure that like that's allkosher and it's all good to go.
And like I don't know, you justyou it you did the right thing,

(25:18):
and I think that was veryimportant and definitely says a
lot about character and just thewhole thing.
So it's it's it's pretty coolstuff.

SPEAKER_00 (25:25):
Yeah, I mean, I think I think anyone in my
situation would be frustrated, Iguess, but not everyone would
take the time to like you knowleave nice voicemails and like
emails and stuff.
I mean, it was yeah, I don'tknow.
It's it's not rocket science,but I think obviously, I mean uh

(25:46):
the other thing was like LakeCounty, where Bloodville is, you
know, has I I studied uh I got adegree in regional planning and
um and Lake County has theirboard of commissioners meeting,
you know, a couple times a week,and they all they put it on
YouTube.
Obviously, no one watches it, sobut like you know, like the two

(26:06):
hour.
But I found the meeting wherethe forest service and the fire
personnel presented, and youknow, these guys put guys and
girls put like incredible amountof effort into these things, you
know, it's it's their job, butit's also they really care.
And so I watched the whole thingand like took notes and like

(26:26):
brought it up with the ranger,and I think that went a long way
because uh, you know, it's Ithink a lot of these like public
service don't, you know, theywork so hard and they get no
recognition at all.
So the fact that I like pay tookany amount of time to like hear
them out, you know, and hearwhat they were actually doing on

(26:46):
the ground, like not just assumenot just assume the fire was
like no big deal, yeah, but likeactually like figure out what
the situation was.
I think, yeah, I'm I'm you know,I think that that definitely
went a long way.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (27:00):
Well, like I said, it's it's one of those things.
I don't know, one of the bestquotes I ever heard from Anton
was like, he just is very hesaid to me on the Mumidara pod,
like just about reallyrespecting people that like
really fall in love with thezone and do everything they
possibly can to learn everyaspect about it.
And like one of the small littlethings is you know, uh, you

(27:22):
know, watching the you know,watching that meeting and
learning more about like what'sgoing on with their fire
mitigation and like the justthat little thing alone like
goes a long way, you know.
I don't know.
So I I think it's kind of dope.

SPEAKER_00 (27:33):
So yeah, I mean it's it's I like all the events
recently.
It's so easy to take for grantedthat this is just like forest
land and like it's protected,but just there, just sitting
there.
But no, it's like no, likethousands of people are spending
their entire career likemanaging these lands for us,
yeah.
Like for no financial, you know,probably taking pay cuts from

(27:54):
other things they could bedoing.
And so yeah, it's I think it'sit's worth it at least like you
know, having some gratitude andlike respect.
So no, I agree.

SPEAKER_02 (28:05):
Let's uh let's pivot back.
I do want to get back to thecrew aspect.
We talked a little bit aboutMorgan Noah and just the group
on the ground kind of puttingthings together as well as you
know the group from Mac NewMexico.
Uh, I know Morgan paced you forsome of the sections where you
got super cold.
Can you can you talk about that?
Like you were did you borrowclothes from him too?
Like, how did you how did thatsituation go down?

SPEAKER_00 (28:27):
Yeah, I'm so I made a huge mistake on my
spreadsheet, basicallyunderestimating how much I
needed to eat.
And then I got I was gettinglike real nauseous just trying
to chew anything, just from likea throat fatigue or something
thing.
Uh so there was that.
So I I also bummed a lot of foodoff of him.

(28:49):
But yeah, also I I mean I campedbeneath Shavano at Angel Shavano
or sorry at blanks on Saturdaynight and when when it was
snowing, and I got thereprobably like 5 30.
So I honestly had no idea howsnowy it was.
And it was like the classicfirst day of fall, like of real

(29:09):
fall weather where we'd all justbe in t-shirts like after dark,
no big deal.
Like just you don't really thinkabout it, you know, that it's
gonna be 15 miles, 15 degreeswindshield uh uh on the ridges,
and uh so and I was just like sothere were so many crew people

(29:31):
to manage logistically that Iwas just like pretty overwhelmed
with getting all my shittogether on just before
starting.
So basically all I had to do waslike get my buddy uh my puffy
jacket and like some pants, butI just didn't I just didn't do
that.
So yeah, I had to bump all thisclothes off.

(29:52):
Noah I mean sorry, off Morgan.
Um which uh yeah which he wassuper nice about um i mean he
gets cold too you know so he wasprepared and luckily we were
able to time it like with thetracker so he wasn't luckily he
didn't have to spend an hour ortwo up on oxford he got there

(30:14):
like 10 minutes before uh sothen we like just kind of tried
to book it um as soon as we metlinked up i like i put on like
his extra uh windbreaker andlike maybe gloves hand warmers
for sure that was huge yeah itwas that cold it was because it

(30:37):
was just super windy from thewest yeah so like going up
oxford and columbia especiallyearlier in the night columbia
but uh yeah oxford was just likeso it was like 40 mile per hour
winds you know just freezingyeah and you just couldn't hide
um for the entire climb abovetree line um yeah so then we we

(30:59):
carried over you know oxfordbelfou went uh down so yeah that
that scree slope in Missouri wasprobably like the best case
where it's like every time I'vebeen up there in the summer it's
it's bomber it's like the bestscree in the saw watch for sure
nobody know exactly what you'retalking about yeah yeah that
that's a cool section such acool section so nice and all the

(31:22):
little scree was frozen togetherlike for the entire scree slope
so it was super treacherousbecause there's still some big
big guys like falling down on usbut all the little ones wouldn't
budge so we were just like youknow barely just trying to like
stay upright and um yeah it wasjust like kind of like one thing

(31:45):
after the other same with Huronlike Huron that trail was just
iced over like the trail partthe off trail part just pretty
treacherous um I mean arguablythat's makes lets you save your
legs I don't know that's true uhyeah but yeah and then we like I

(32:07):
don't know I had some like I hadsome of his beta gels the ones
that the at cis gels that likeare like you should only take
two of these a day or somethingand um I like really rallied so
it was huge like between thehand warmers and his company and
uh some like synthetic sugar andwhatever the hell else they put

(32:28):
in there um I like really turnedthe corner so we like booked it
we like really ran hard toWinfield and that was kind of
like when I because I I wasquite behind when I but by the
time I saw um Morgan I'm not atleast an hour I think so it was

(32:49):
basically as soon as I saw himwe started making up time.

SPEAKER_02 (32:53):
Yeah and that was like between midnight and five
six or something oh wow you soyou got behind pretty I mean you
said you had an hour obviouslyyou finished 10 minutes uh about
what a little bit more than 10minutes ahead of him or ahead of
the record what um you were Idon't know it's it was hard for
me because when I was followinglike Morgan did a great job of

(33:16):
putting up stories of trying tolike tell and show where you
were and how much time youneeded or had like to get the
record.
Like when did you start gainingtime on on Francois?

SPEAKER_00 (33:26):
At what point did you start to realize that you
put it away oh yeah I didn'trealize I so okay so I started
strong actually even though thatwas like the snowiest bit the
first three um but I was I wasup on him I was probably five to
ten minutes up on him after onAntera which I was super stoked

(33:48):
on because I was just feelingreally good.
And like it was one of thoselike you know when you're you're
kind of in race mode the theankle deep snow doesn't
necessarily slow you down toomuch.
So um at least likepsychologically so I was doing
good there and then I think Istarted getting behind already

(34:09):
on Princeton and kind of startedhemorrhaging from Princeton
onwards like through the firstpart of the night.
So Yale.
So it was Princeton Yale.
It's actually interesting soPrinceton for everyone who's
ever done Nolan's is like trulymake or break yeah for I there's

(34:31):
no like I mean the the firstpart of the descent is like
really annoying and kind oftreacherous.
Like you could actually quiteeasily like break your leg.
Not that I don't think anyone'sI know someone like broke their
ankle on Tab watch once but uhanyways yeah it's always like
make or break like peopleusually have rough time on

(34:51):
Princeton and I I actually thinkthat Francois ironically
hammered it too hard becausethat's the only reason I can
think why he ended up slowingdown by the time he got to like
you're on La Plata.
Because so going in Francois I Iknew that I'd seen also Justin
Simone I'm not sure if you knowJustin.

(35:12):
Yeah yeah yeah he I don't Idon't know him super well but he
um he was like making all thesedata graphs with like all the
data he could find on peoplewho've done Nolans and their
pacing progressions.
So it turns out that Francoishad made up all this time on my
previous record from basicallysort of Princeton and Yale.

(35:36):
Yeah like Princeton through toOxford.
Interesting and then by Lapladahe slowed down to my pace
completely and by and I hadslowed down to Joey Camp space.
Okay.
So we all like regressed but thequestion is why he slowed down
that much I don't know I guessyou'd have to ask him yeah but

(35:58):
so yeah so I like was movingokay Princeton Yale Columbia
Harvard traverse but it was Iwas kind of just like a little
bit behind behind and then I hita real low spot descending
Harvard going up Oxford kind oflike what I was talking about.
And Harvard was kind of annoyingbecause it's that's like this

(36:18):
pure north south ridge and umand I did the Columbia Harvard
traverse which is like a littlespicy but the Harvard descent
specifically had like reallydeep snow drifts.

(36:38):
So then I really I think that'swhen I I think I lost like 30
and then I made a huge mistakeon the very bottom part of
Oxford and Pine Creek was like afull on lake because of all the
rain swamp so it was like cold Ihad to wade through like a
quarter mile of bullshit swampand willows and and and for the

(37:04):
river I couldn't find a bridgeover the river.
So it was just like so terribleand so I think I just lost like
30 minutes immediately.
Gotcha in between Harvard Columbuh Oxford so I so in other words
I didn't get behind too bad oranything through the first half
of the run but it was reallythat crux Harvard to Oxford and

(37:25):
then and then I kind of slowlybut surely started making it up
making up and then once I Iended up missing my crew in
Winfield just by like aunfortunate accident.
So I was like truly depletedgoing off Laplada because I just

(37:48):
I like hadn't had sodium fornine hours uh because I'd messed
up and then missed up all thestuff.
Anyways yeah I was reallydepleted and getting like really
frustrated but I think I kind oflike held on so then when I
finally was able to down like aton of just carbs in uh when I

(38:09):
saw my crew at you know beforeheading up Elbert uh Noah picked
me up and I think we we gainedwe basically started to match
him so by the time we got to topof Elbert we were nine minutes
back.

SPEAKER_03 (38:23):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (38:24):
Um which I don't think Noah actually told me
exactly but he he did know thatand then we like we actually
nailed the descent off Elberttoo which is kind of saying a
lot because it's a little it'sit can be pretty cruxy that late
in the day but we find foundlike an amazing line and then

(38:45):
and then I really struggled onthe massive climb.
So we were nine minutes behindFrancois again on the top of
massive oh my god dude thatthat's crazy so in other words
we yeah we we didn't know I hadit in the bag until like two
miles to go at best.

SPEAKER_02 (39:04):
Wow so photo finish then it was basically a photo
finish and I didn't have anyconfidence that I'd be able to
really run the pipeline orwhatever that trail's called to
the fish hatchery I mean the CTand then it becomes uh maybe
it's just a fish hatchery trailbut uh yeah I just had no I

(39:25):
couldn't predict like if I'd beable to stride out but like yeah
eventually I was able to andwe're just yeah just kind of
like yeah counting minutesbasically found it within you
that's not I also couldn't thinkof a better besides Morgan
Morgan's amazing but like Icouldn't also think of a better

(39:46):
person to have for those lasttwo mountains besides Noah who
knows those mountains so well umliterally living like right
there like that's a good that'sa good and he's so fast so
that's a good person to haveit's not bad right there.

SPEAKER_00 (39:58):
Yeah because you can mess up massive really easily
yeah and yeah and massive islike his jam like that's his
that's his backyard that's likeexact he knows like every inch
of it so skiing and running andeverything.
Yeah so yeah it was likeincredibly clutch and also he
was like really nice about ittoo so you know until it became
like really crunch time.

SPEAKER_02 (40:19):
Uh did he push you at all?

SPEAKER_00 (40:21):
Like he did he like let you know like hey we gotta
we we gotta fucking go like thisis this is yeah yeah yeah like
as soon as we summit it becausehe I think he realized that
there wasn't much he could do topush me along on the climb.
It was just going to be a slog.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (40:37):
Because I mean I was I was eating and drink I was
drinking carbs as much as Icould um and it did get pretty
warm by then but uh yeah so butas soon as we summoned he's like
okay it's it's it's fucking gotime like we're it's this is
like your last chance so damndude that's so crazy how close

(40:59):
it came um one pivot back toColumbia Harvard you said in it
was in your write up that thistime around and you said this
before you took the ColumbiaHarvard traverse you didn't do
that in 2023 correct no no no nodo you think it was a better
move to take the ColumbiaHarvard traverse this time or I
mean ideally okay say you'redoing it in July and there's no

(41:22):
snow and you're good on waterlike you didn't just get super
thirsty and you get there atlike 7 30 so you do the whole
thing at you know before sunbefore dark yeah then 100% it's
a good idea I think the reason Idid I went low last time around

(41:43):
was because uh I was I wasn'tactually solo for that no I
wasn't I was with Henry Harrisokay but since it was so hot
there is a creek Frenchman'screek I believe in that basin
there um but it adds like so wefilled up a bunch of water um

(42:05):
but it does add like 500 feetish avert and like I mean the
boulders aren't that bad butit's also not that much better
than like not that much easierthan just doing the traverse so
I think two years ago includingthe water fill up I did from
Columbia to Harvard I think Iran like 150 Francois ran like

(42:28):
135 going low.

unknown (42:30):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (42:31):
And I don't know I don't actually know what I did
this time because it was all itwas all at night like it was all
and like pretty icy that's whatI was gonna ask like that's the
reason I was getting to it I'mlike dude there it had to have
been super icy up there yeahluckily it it could have been
way worse for sure but yeah Idon't know why I mean because

(42:52):
it's all above 13 so I don'tknow why uh it wasn't as bad as
the you know some of the summitareas but yeah you mostly mostly
the snow wasn't too the icewasn't too much of a factor but
uh in training I had split like111 not pushing at all so I was
actually really jazzed on thatbecause I was like well it was

(43:13):
like at least 20 minutes easyfree time just because of a
better line so but that was partof the thing that uh kind of
bugged me about Francois'sattempt is that like I studied
it and then like some friends ofmine who were really nerds about
this studied it and he stuck tomy lines in the Alpine like like

(43:35):
exactly even when it wasn'tnecessary at all used your GPX
file then more or less yeah andhe's sponsored by Suto.
So not only did he use my GPXfile but he had a pacer with him
at all times.
And they used my GPX file.
So he didn't do any navigationand he stuck to my lines which
was like an amalgamation ofJoey's lines Andrea and just

(43:57):
whatever I'd figured outpersonally.
But in other words like so hehad just taken for granted that
I had done the perfect crap butthat's not necessarily true you
know I mean like you know withina little tiny here and there
like like for instance Yeah likehe was exact he like didn't
deviate a single foot from my2023 lines and it was like not

(44:21):
there's a you know unlimitednumber of kind of ways you could
go off Yale so I mean justthrough the just through the
airline air airplane gully so uhyeah it was kind of ridiculous
but yeah but that was kind ofthe only instance where I sort
of got them on the route becauseI was looking at other ones but

(44:44):
to be honest they're all prettymuch that they were all slower
all the better all theinnovation all the potential
changes.
Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 (44:53):
What did you think and this is not shade I'm just
curious like well what was upwith the whole the sticker the
whole sticker thing at the topof every mountain or like the
patches or whatever like onsocial media.
Did you see that like that hewas doing I'm like what what is
this?

SPEAKER_00 (45:06):
No I think I missed that.

SPEAKER_01 (45:07):
Uh I was like what are we doing here?

SPEAKER_02 (45:09):
Uh it was weird.
I don't know.
I was just like dude you justlost so much time just waste
like wasting the amount of timeto just like put up the patch
and like take a photo with thispatch of the the peak's name on
it and then the put it I don'tknow anyway it's it's a
different conversation.
But um do you think he's did hespend a ton of time like
scouting then is that likethat's the the big question like

(45:30):
obviously he probably hedefinitely scouted it.
I know probably did it like anice chunk if not the whole
thing but like you one of thethings I just really respected
about you is like you bathed inits streams, you slept in its
soil like you did everything youpossibly could to learn
everything what it seems likelearn about this thing.
Which shows this is why you gotthe record.

SPEAKER_00 (45:52):
Do you know if he like how much like scouting he
did or like what the deal is umI so it looks like he did about
two weeks of scouting and theway he did it which was
interesting was he did like Ithink it might have been just
under two weeks like maybe 10days but he did like three 30
you know 50k runs and then likesome easy shakeouts.

unknown (46:14):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (46:15):
Who knows if he posts everything I have no idea.

SPEAKER_02 (46:17):
Yeah but uh and he was like in a gigantic RV with
uh the other guys in thematching outfits so which it
seems like they were in matchingoutfits the entire trip too
which is even more funny like itwasn't just the it wasn't just
the attempt uh the whole timeyeah I mean I like I said I'm

(46:38):
not trying to pile on Francoisbut there was some funny things
that they did that are like whatare you guys doing like uh I
don't know I just and I don'twant to come off as like uh an
asshole but like I think thething that you and I think you
pick up on this too and you feelvery similarly is like this line
is like really important to thepeople in Colorado and like just

(47:00):
one of the this FKT in generaland the way you go about it is
entirely the like everything.
It's really important.
And I don't know do you feel thesame way?

SPEAKER_00 (47:10):
Like the way they went about it was just different
than the way maybe someone likeyou or others would have
approached it maybe JoeyCampanelli uh and others of the
past yeah I mean yeah I'm tryingnot to yeah like I don't
honestly want to like throw hugeshade because no no no no no the
sport's changing and I like Itotally get it.
Like I don't blame him at all.
Maybe I'd have differentfeelings if I missed it.

(47:33):
But um I mean Joey Camps liketold me like he he had seen all
these like speedsters I think hecalled them like you know pro
trail runner dudes Americantrailrunner dudes try Nolan's
and he would just thought it wasa joke because they like didn't
respect how hard the route wasand didn't put the work in but

(47:53):
like a huge compliment last timearound was that he was like well
you were one of the only likerunner runners to really put the
work in and I I like reallyappreciated that and I mean I
mean like look Francois I meanwho knows what the finance
situation look like he wanted toNolan's he had heard about it he

(48:14):
had known people going way backwho had tried it and he had had
this on his bucket list and youknow I mean he got all this
custom gear from Solomon to doit which was kind of nuts but
you know he he carved out two orthree weeks in his schedule to
go do it.
So that I mean that's prettycool.
That shows like that Colorado'slegit I mean he did he never

(48:36):
said it was hard anywhere onlineuh which is like the classic
Euro thing.
I mean Killian did you knowKillian did the last 12 peaks in
like 48 hours or 50 hours orsomething and all he said was
like I was very surprised to seethat Nolan's was at least 50%
off trail.
I'm like you know you could justsay it's hard like it like

(48:59):
what's the big deal like yeahokay there's no there's like
pretty much no fifth classscrambling like great but um
like it's a legit burly routelike it's it's fine.
But I mean yeah I mean I I thinkthat's the cool thing though
still like in our sport it'scool that like okay Francois can

(49:19):
have huge budget and like customgear shoes literally molded to
his foot you know and thencustomized for Nolan's and and
matching French guys leading theway but um but uh like he's the
greatest hundred mile mountainrunner of all time and I was

(49:41):
able to break his record becauseI was you know not because I'm a
better athlete but just becauseI put the time in.
Yeah.
So I think that's cool.

SPEAKER_02 (49:54):
Yeah it says a lot about hard work.
So no I'm just reallyappreciative that that you went
after it and you went and gotit.
I I gotta I don't want to shiftgears too much but I do I have
do have other questions outsideof Nolans that I do want to get
to before time is up.
Um but as we close this one outI just want to ask you like if
like like it's it's trulylegitimized Nolans in a lot of

(50:16):
ways like and there's definitelytime to be found for you.
Like do you think you'll go backand do it again next year or are
you going to wait for someoneelse to try and do it again?

SPEAKER_00 (50:24):
Oh I won't do it next year no way.
No I mean yeah it's interestingbecause I kind of I kind of
screwed myself over by doingNolan's and whirl kind of like
this I mean I've been at it forI've been I feel like I'm deep
into my career but I guess Istill have hopefully some good
you know 10 15 years left butand but I only say I screw

(50:47):
myself over because those arelike kind of like two of the
most legit competitive alpineroutes there is there are uh so
there are other ones to I'm forsure I'd like to go but it's
like I don't I'm not necessarilylike looking at the map in
Colorado being like I want todevote six weeks preparing for
anything else again.

(51:09):
But I think that's healthy.
I don't know I mean there'sother things that I'm inspired
to do.
But uh yeah I don't I don'tthink I'll go back I mean you
know one of the othermotivations for doing this just
like in the same theme of likeyou know locals can still crush
is that everyone onlinecommenting all these people
commenting on the Francoiseffort was like oh no now you'll

(51:34):
never be able to like you knowparaphrasing obviously but you
know now you'll never be able tobe like a an amateur and go do
Nolan's for time for the record.
And so I guess in some ways Isort of proved that wrong but at
the same time I don't think justlike it's gonna be pretty damn

(51:54):
hard for someone who's just likereally eager to be like I'm
gonna target Nolan's next yearand take a crack.
Like I don't know if you sawSeth Damore did it.
He did all these YouTube videosabout his attempt I mean he's
attempted multiple times I meanhe's literally from T B not that
he's a long distance guy but helike he didn't make it past
Princeton.
Yeah and he's super fast.

(52:15):
So all I am saying is that itdoesn't you can't just be like a
speed like a you know you can'tjust be like a up and coming guy
and like just want to break thisrecord like it's gonna so I
think I it probably will standfor longer than uh two years
this time.

SPEAKER_02 (52:31):
Yeah I think you're right dude I mean if it took
Francois who's are like like wesaid arguably the greatest 100
mile mountain runner of all timeif not top three if it took like
him to come over and do it tobreak it and not break it by a
ton and then for you to lower itlike yeah it might stick around
for a bit unless the only thingthat would be is if KJ came came
and tried to give a crack at it.

(52:52):
But even then I mean who's tosay he would do it you know it's
anybody could have a bad go youknow so I'm pretty sure he would
do it.

SPEAKER_00 (52:59):
Yeah I mean who knows or Anton if he strings
together some good spring.

SPEAKER_02 (53:04):
I would love to see Anton it would be cool.
Yeah that's like the theprophecy fulfilled kind of stuff
there kind of yeah like however12 years later 13 years later
something yeah yeah uh I want topivot really quick I want to
talk um I know you guys likeplanned it but I know it didn't
come through we can cut this ifif you don't want to talk about

(53:25):
it but like I'm just so curiousum Jackson's a friend of mine
and a team on Unsportiva I knowyou guys have planned the high
route in like the PacificNorthwest uh with Michael Wirth
like what what uh did you guyshow how much work did you put
into that did you guys try it atall like what what what came
through of that Jackson likelaughed it off to me when I
asked about him and didn't gointo detail so I was just so

(53:46):
curious.

SPEAKER_00 (53:48):
Yeah I there were a lot of different things first of
all I bailed I didn't even goout I like made it to Salt Lake
because I so I had lined up atValderon in like July 3rd or
something and they last minutechanged the course to like a
lame ass course and I was likereally anyways I I made it 80
miles and I was just like superover it.

(54:09):
You know it was just likerunning in the valley like doing
different loops around insteadof because the course is
supposed to be like awesome likeway up in the Pyrenees.
Yeah um and I like I had reallythat was kind of my focus
anyways long story short thatdidn't go well I had like a
ridiculous crate travelsituation because I was trying

(54:31):
to make it to northernWashington like a coup you know
within a week of that and so theflights and the driving and
anyway so I bailed it I bailedbefore even getting there and
then just some unfortunate shitwent down up there and I think
they let it not in the end Mikewas going to do it solo and then

(54:55):
he had some other likeridiculous bear like literally a
bear attack so I gotta getMichael worth on the yeah yeah
you should yeah um so I don'tknow I guess it wasn't meant to
be this year uh but personally II bet I didn't even get there.

SPEAKER_02 (55:11):
So do you think it could be the reason I ask is
because I would love to see I Ihad kind of floated the idea of
Jacks to Jackson before of likeif and when you guys do this
like I want to have three thethree of you on the podcast to
chat about this because it'ssuch an epic route.
Do you think there's apossibility for in in the
following years of you guysgiven given another go at it
possibly or giving ego at ittogether yeah I don't know I

(55:32):
think it's kind of unlikely atthis point uh but it's possible
I I mean it just like it's a lotI mean I live in New Mexico
there's no glaciers you knowit's true.

SPEAKER_00 (55:44):
Um but also I mean you know Jackson's super
ambitious on the racing scene II have some other plans and it's
just uh it just like I it's Ithink a lot I'm I'm sure a lot
of run like super ambitiousrunners have totally over over
been too ambitious basically andthen like realize that you can't
just do everything.

(56:05):
Yeah you know I mean there's atime like at some point
hopefully like I would love tobut uh I don't I don't know
about next year.
Also the conditions are it justso it's a heinous route.

SPEAKER_01 (56:18):
Yeah yeah that's super cool.

SPEAKER_02 (56:20):
Yeah and I'll and I've heard like it might have
been Jackson who told me likethe uh documentary that they did
with Caitlin and company likedidn't even remotely do it
justice.
Like I heard it's like even wayworse than that like 10 times
harder which is kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_00 (56:35):
So uh yeah well because they did that well it
wasn't that long ago but I don'tthink they got cool footage.
I mean it's a cool documentarybut that yeah yeah yeah I don't
I don't think they were able toshoot like the you know the
teetering edges you know I don'tknow it's not it's not like that
it's not like uh you know likeyou're gonna die or I mean it's
not that crazy but at the sametime but yeah they didn't

(56:58):
there's no I don't they don'treally document like the um you
know uh head deep bushwhackingand the and the weird rock and
all that so nice all right manso what's uh I you I know you're
probably gonna transition toskis in the next few months I
know you've got uh obviouslythere's always uphill and stuff

(57:20):
like that not too far from youwhat do you got planned for next
year we're what's on the targetum yeah well actually for the
rest of this year I'm kind ofthinking I might meet up with
Mike for Tonto Trail that'd becool kind of want to do the
LaSalle traverse in OctoberNovember and uh then I'm gonna

(57:42):
wrap with Scar hopefully okay sothat would be if I can pull that
off that would be two premiereroutes within three months which
I don't know if that meansanything but it would be cool.
It's pretty epic.
Yeah because I I spent a lot oftime I mean I spent like nine
months in Asheville so and I I'mgonna head back for for other

(58:03):
reasons to the southeast forother reasons so uh I figured I
might just give it a go.
So that's been cool because youknow that that's kind of a lot
between like 10 and 15% grade onthe AT there and the smokies.
Yeah and it'll and it'll be icyfor sure so uh but it's it's a
nice like okay I'm gonna justlike shift my training focus so
it's quite refreshing.

(58:24):
And then I'm hopefully I'm gonnatry to do some like if I'm kind
of I don't know I I'm kind oflooking for funding to see if I
can go to like Akin Gagua.

SPEAKER_01 (58:33):
That'd be sick.

SPEAKER_00 (58:34):
Oh shit because I just want to you know that's
like the it's 23,000 feettallest peak outside the
Himalaya and the the um standardbase camp route is I think
pretty clearly the mostcompetitive big mountain FKT in
the world for running anyways onfoot.
And I just want to see if I canhang with those guys with

(58:57):
Killian Carl and Tyler Andrews.
Yeah and so if I can get a triplined up which is definitely
seems like a long shot at thispoint but if it's possible just
like the training you knowbecause basically it's a really
long gradual approach and thenit's just very vertical but not
very technical.

(59:17):
So it's really a fitness test.
So you gotta like you got to beable to run run between like 10
and 1600 feet.
Shit.

SPEAKER_02 (59:23):
So you got to spend a lot of time out there
preparing for something likethat more or less or I mean
sleep up here at the resort atSki Santa Fe do some uphill
intervals like treadmill I don'tknow just get like real nerdy
about it.
How high is that it's like uh isit like 11,000 feet 1000 feet
for you or uh the resort's at 103 so that's not bad.

SPEAKER_00 (59:43):
That's not bad at all.
Yeah no you could do Leadvillefor it Leadville's only four and
a half hours away or somethingso dude you could get very nerdy
about it like I love how Jacknerds out about this shit.

SPEAKER_02 (59:53):
Like he gets so into the weeds about it.
So like that yeah it's it'sreally fun to follow that stuff.

unknown (59:59):
Yeah

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, I mean that's obviouslyinspiring from you know his his
denali.
But there's fewer but it's evenmore of a pure fitness test
because you have to run downtoo.
So can you can you climb 13,000feet in 20 miles and then bomb
down the steep stuff and thenhold on for the last 10, 12

(01:00:22):
miles?
That's like that's like a crazy,you know.
Yeah.
I don't know.
It would be cool, a coolproject.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:32):
No, I definitely agree.
Anything from the racing scenethat eyes you up for next year,
probably not.
Probably more FKTs.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:38):
Yeah, I I want to go back to Trophy Okima.
Yeah, that's why I was floating.
Kind of the idea of that.
That's such a cool race.
I mean, just I want to chop like20, 30 minutes off, see where
that puts me.
I think that would be fun.
Yeah.
But that's you know, that's likevery explosive, so it's totally
different than any of the stuffI really have been doing
recently.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:57):
Um, it would have to be a completely different block,
I guess.
Like it depends on when youwould kind of do Aconcagua, like
how to space that out.
And I don't even what is theseason for that?
Like, is that South America?

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:09):
You would do that, like Yeah, it's late November to
late February with March as apossibility.
Okay.
So honestly, not bad, but it'sit's coming up.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:19):
Yeah, it's it's well, if any brands are
listening to this or anybodythat wants to fund that project,
I'll put contact information inthe show notes.
Let's get this going.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:29):
Exactly.
Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:30):
Yeah, man, of course, of course.
Well, David, uh, dude, thank youso much.
I feel like do you think we goteverything?
Is there anything else youwanted to add for for Nolans?
I want to make sure we we toldyour story properly for this and
we got everything.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:42):
So uh no, yeah, that's uh that I think that's
that's everything.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:46):
Sweet.
Well, dude, I appreciate it.
Uh I can't wait till the nextchat, man.
You're always a fun conversationto have.
Oh, yeah, I was definitelylooking forward to the next one,
man.
Appreciate it.
Sick.

SPEAKER_03 (01:01:56):
Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:57):
What'd you guys think?
Oh man, what a fun episode.
Uh, I gotta thank David so muchfor coming on and being candid
and being open to debriefingthis like monumental undertaking
that he went through.
Just like a complete visionquest of a of an effort.
And uh yeah, it's somethingsomething most people don't get
a chance to do in their lives isgo that deep.
So definitely gotta give himhats off for uh going to the

(01:02:19):
depths of his soul and pullingsomething out that he didn't
know he had, which is prettycool.
So yeah, big fan of David'sguys.
The best way you can supporthim, two different ways.
First one, give him a follow onInstagram, D hedges, that's
H-E-D-G-E-S, starting with a Dunderscore.
So that's D hedges underscore.
Give him a follow on Instagramif you don't already.
Uh lots of beautiful mountainlandscapes, lots of cool stuff.

(01:02:42):
Second thing is if you're abrand out there listening or
someone with benefactor levelmoney and is interesting in
supported, interested insupporting David uh on a
potential Akankangua uh conquestor FKT that is, uh, you can
reach out to him via email oryou can find him on Instagram
and give him a DM, uh send him amessage and let him know if

(01:03:04):
you're interested in helping tosupport his vision for potential
FKT out there, which would bepretty sweet.
Um yeah, again, hats off toDavid and uh what a fun episode.
Guys, if you enjoyed thisepisode, amongst others, the
best way you can support us isto um yeah, give us a five-star
review.
Give us a rating and a review.
Let me know why you like thepodcast.
Or you can also let me know whyI don't like it too.

(01:03:27):
But uh give us a five-starrating, rating, and review on
Apple, Spotify, YouTube, orwherever you consume your
podcasts.
That would be ideal.
And very last but not least, umyou can support us by also
supporting our brand partner,Ultimate Direction.
If you hop on over to ultimatedirection.com, uh use code Steep
Stuff Pod, it's gonna get you25% off your cart.
They just dropped a whole slewof new stuff over the summer,

(01:03:48):
which is pretty dope.
Their new race vest six liter,ultra vest 12 liter, they've got
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They also have a quiver, so it'sgonna get you guys kitted out
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All good stuff there.
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Guys, thanks so much for tuningin.
I really appreciate it and loveall of your support.
You guys are amazing.

(01:04:09):
Uh, good stuff coming down thepipeline.
I've got a sweet episode withTyler McCanless, debriefing
worlds, uh, where Tyler was inthe top 26-ish, something like
that.
Anyway, he helped get the uh theAmericans, the gold, or oh god,
I wish the gold, uh, the bronzemedal uh at Worlds, which is
pretty dope.
And uh yeah, we talk all aboutthat.

(01:04:30):
And then we've got some otherstuff coming out too, along with
a um Golden Trail World Seriesfinal preview episode uh that's
gonna be dropping this week aswell.
So, guys, thanks so much fortuning in.