Post by Peter Bakwin on Nov 2, 2009 11:16:59 GMT -5
François D'Haene set the supported FKT in 2d19h26m (2d16h31m from the summit), Oct. 14-17, 2017.
Andrew Bentz holds the unsupported record at 3d10h59m40s from Whitney Portal, set Aug. 26-29, 2014.
Darcy Piceu set the women's FKT, supported NoBo in 3d7h57m (3d4h12m from the summit), Sept 15-17, 2017.
Sue Johnston has the previous women's FKT, supported, in 3d20h (3d15h32m from the summit), Aug. 24-29, 2007.
Amber Monforte holds the women's FKT, unsupported, in 4d5h6m (4d1h13m from the summit), July 22-26, 2016.
Ralph Burgess has the southbound FKT (unsupported) at 4d8h43m from Happy Isles to the summit of Whitney, July 7-11, 2014.
Kurt Achtenhagen hiked southbound, unsupported, using a different but similar route to Tuolumne, in 3d23h11m to Whitney Summit (4d8h12m to the Portal), Sept. 8-12, 2014.
I lay down on a rock in the sun to warm up for a bit and I dozed off. A nice middle aged woman sat down next to me and looked at all my gear. She said, ‘Looks like you have some decisions to make.’ I said yes, I am trying to finish this trail but I have a plane to catch that I really can’t miss and tons of work to get back to and I’m trying to decide if I can/should try to make it. She replied, “Why are you here?” I went into a long explanation of how I was running the 225 mile John Muir Trail and I was doing it unsupported and I was trying to set a record. She smiled and looked at me with warm penetrating eyes, “But why are you here”. And then she just got up and walked away... -- John Stamstad, 2005 (from his report on a failed attempt at the unsupported JMT record in September 2005)
The John Muir Trail (JMT) runs 223 miles from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley, crossing some of the most rugged and remote country in California. The JMT traverses Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks, and the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness Areas (Inyo National Forest). The southern terminus of the JMT is "officially" on the summit of Mt. Whitney (14,495'), and hikers/runners must traverse an additional 11 miles between the summit and the trailhead at Whitney Portal (8,500 feet). Click here for a profile of the route. For FKT purposes we consider the JMT to be a TH-to-TH (pavement-to-pavement) route, but we also report Whitney summit times.
NOTE: There have been issues with people not following the "official" route. Going forward (from September 2017) we will NOT recognize any FKT that does not use the official JMT all the way. There are many places you can get off route, if you do you need to return to where you got off and continue from there. There are 3 main places where people have had confusion:
1) Red's Meadow. The JMT does NOT go to or through the campground or to the store, but stays mainly west of the Middle Fork San Joaquin River through Devil's Postpile National Monument. Follow the blue line on this map, NOT the red line.
2) Tuolumne Meadows. The JMT stays south of the campground and road, as per the blue line on this map. If you leave the JMT to go to the campground (etc.) you must return to the JMT at the same point!
3) Yosemite Valley. The JMT is on the south side of Nevada Falls. On a northbound trip you must cross the Merced above Nevada Falls at an obvious sign. DO NOT take the Mist Trail! Follow the blue line on this map, NOT the red line.
François D'Haene smashed the previous supported FKT by over 12 hours, running the route northbound in 2d19h26m (2d16h31m from Whitney summit), Oct. 14-17, 2017. D'Haene is the first person to complete the route under 3 days. The 31-year-old Frenchman is 2-time winner (including 2017) of the Ultra Tour du Mont Blanc, the most prestigous and competitive 100 mile trail race in the World. His approach was unusual in that by chosing to run in mid-October he gave up daylight in exchange for cooler temperatures and easier access to hiking permits for the area. He also had pacers for the entire distances, probably a first. D'Haene carried a satellite tracker and his trip was followed carefully to ensure that he stuck to the official route. An early article on his accomplishment, with a few photos from his InstaGram was published by outsideonline.com. A detailed spreadsheet of D'Haene's splits, and comparison with the previous FKT by Leor Pantilat, are provided in this thread on backpackinglight.com (thanks to Adam White).
Prior to D'Haene, Leor Pantilat had the supported FKT on the JMT of 3d7h36m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (3d4h30m from Whitney Summit), August 15-18, 2014. It was Pantilat's first multiday effort & also his first run of 100+ miles. He carried a SPOT satellite tracking device which verifies his trip. A detailed trip report is on irunfar.com.
Darcy Piceu set the women's supported FKT for the JMT in 3d7h57m (3d4h12m from Whitney Summit), NoBo, September 15-17, 2017. Piceu's trip has a significant asterisk since she didn't follow the official JMT route from the top of Nevada Falls to Clark Point, but rather went down the Mist Trail, then crossed the Merced River and climbed back up to Clark Point. She was off the official JMT for about 1.3 miles, but her route was probably slighly longer than the official route, and almost certainly slower due to the technical nature of the Mist Trail and the several hundred foot climb back up to Clark Point. While the runner is responsible to know the route, and this is clearly a mess up, it doesn't seem severe enough to "disqualify" her from the FKT, especially given that she beat Sue Johnston's time by 12 hours! Piceu had only 3 sleep breaks of about 1 hour each, plus several "10 minute dirt naps". Her trip was followed an discussed below (pages 11 and 12 of this thread, and on the backpackinglight.com forum, is summarized in a nice article on running.competitor.com, and chronicled in a blog post by one of her crew people, Jeff Kozak (including splits).
College student Andrew Bentz set the unsupported FKT for the JMT at 3d10h59m40s (from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles) on August 26-29, 2014, as reported below. Bentz had completed the JMT multiple times, including a 5d2h effort the previous year, and had recently come off a PCT thru-hike of 93 days. He beat Brett Maune's unsupported FKT by 3h13m. His report is here.
I'd like to eat food now. That was crazy. -- Andrew Bentz, moments after finishing his unsupported JMT FKT hike
A year before Pantilat, champion ultrarunners Hal Koerner and Mike Wolfe set the previous supported speed record on the JMT at 3d12h41m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (3d9h5m from Whitney summit) on August 1-4, 2013. A brief write-up on their trip is on the Runner's World site, and another article is here. Wolfe's personal account is on irunfar.com.
Prior to Koerner and Wolfe, Brett Maune, a 30-year-old laser physicist from LA, crushed previous JMT records on September 6, 2009, when he arrive at Happy Isles TH in Yosemite at 2:58pm, 3d14h13m after leaving Whitney Portal, and 3d9h58m after leaving the summit of Mt. Whitney. Maune's trip was unsupported, yet he smashed the overall (supported) JMT record by nearly 6 hours, and obliterated the unsupported record by over 19 hours! Prior to this trip Maune was unknown in the ultra and fastpacking scenes. He made an attempt on the record a month prior to his successful trip, but made several "rookie" mistakes and crashed and burned on the first day. Apparently undaunted, he resolved to make a second attempt on the next full moon, and was ultimately successful. The story is detailed on www.backpackinglight.com, where there is also an in-depth discussion of all things JMT (Portal vs. Summit, NoBo vs. SoBo, sleep deprivation, nutrition, etc.) Maune's report is on the 10th page of the BPL link. Because Maune was unknown, and because his trip was unsupported and therefore essentially un-witnessed, I made an attempt to verify his claim on the record, which is discussed on this page. Following this effort, I personally believe he did what he said he did (subsequently, Maune became the first person to finish the Barkley 100 twice, and holds the record for that insane event.)
At the start of his trip, Maune met Ian Alloway on the summit of Whitney, where Alloway was acclimating for his own unsupported record attempt (Alloway's view is that the southern terminus of the JMT is Whitney's summit, while Maune wanted to challenge the records from the Portal and the summit as well.) Alloway left the summit 1 hour after Maune, and arrived at Happy Isles 4d5h5m later, breaking Michael Popov's previous unsupported record by 20 minutes. It is of note that Alloway took the Mist Trail into Happy Isles, which is about 1.5 miles shorter than the official route of JMT, which has been used by other record seekers. Unfortunately for Alloway, Maune had crushed that record the previous day. Alloway's report also appears on the www.backpackinglight.com forum, and is archived here as well. Earlier speed records and attempts are discussed below.
What is this disgusting yellow crap I'm coughing up? Should I be concerned? -- Brett Maune, hours after completing his JMT record.
Speed attempts on the JMT have largely been done south-to-north (Whitney to Yosemite). This makes sense because the Whitney Portal TH is 4300' higher than the Happy Isles (Yosemite) TH. Also, NoBo trips get the higher, harder terrain over with earlier, while the hiker/runner is still relatively fresh. On the other hand, the majority of all JMT thru-hikes are done in the other direction (SoBo), probably because that direction allows for hikers to acclimate to the higher, southern altitudes more gradually. Ralph Burgess appears to hold the overall FKT for a SoBo trip, 4d8h43m from Happy Isles to the summit of Mt. Whitney, set July 7-11, 2014. Burgess gives a detailed report below, but did not report a time to the Whitney Portal TH. Two month after Burgess, Kurt Achtenhagen reported (below) doing the JMT southbound, unsupported in 3d23h11m from Yosemite to Mt Whitney (4d8h12m to the Portal), September 8-12, 2014. However, with the official JMT route closed in the area of Little Yosemite Valley due to a fire, Achtenhagen chose to take a alternate route from the Valley to Tuolumne Meadows. He "traveled from Happy Isles up the Snow Creek Falls Trail, past Olmsted Point and Tenaya Lake before reconnecting with the JMT in Tuolumne." Actenhagen's route is of roughly equal mileage to the JMT route, but does add a significant variance from the official route, and equates to roughly 10% of the entire distance, so we do not consider his trip an FKT for the "official" route.
There have been many amazing, fast trips done on the JMT over decades. I have a lovely email from Mrs. Christine Speed, who's husband, Robert Speed(!), apparently set the speed record in 1948 when he was just 16 years old. Unfortunately, Mrs. Speed didn't know the time. Here's an exerpt:
I think that to hold a record in 1948 you had to at least jog the trail as late into the night as you could see, eat very little and drink out of streams. My husband was exceedingly self-reliant, fearless and needed very little in nature. He could just throw himself down anywhere on the ground and go to sleep. But someone must have timed him and obviously, his time was formally entered because he knew he had set the record. All he did say, in self deprecation, was that the record was superceded virtually immediately in the next year or two. - Christine Speed, June 15, 2005.
In the age of the internet it has become much easier to keep track of the records. Nevertheless, prior to the FKT trip of Peter Bakwin & Buzz Burrell in 2000 the actual record was murky. They concluded that Jim Knight held the record from Whitney to Yosemite (around 4.5 days), while Blake Wood held the car-to-car (from Whitney Portal) record at 4d22h, Aug. 9-13, 1998 (Jim had slept on top of Whitney.) Burrell & Bakwin beat both times on their trip (4d14h39m from Whitney Portal), but didn't reach their goal of 96 hours, car-to-car. Their trip reports are archived here. Some interesting discussion of the Portal vs. Summit issue, and other JMT items, is on at this thread.
We later learned via John Rosendahl that Don Douglass did the JMT supported in early August 1982 in 4d21h30m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles. This time would appear to beat Blake Wood's 1998 time. The run was reported in the LA Times (8/11/1982). Douglass started with 6 companions. Nicki Lewis and David Hermitage finished the trip in 5d16h, while Greg Laval, Bob Holtel and Fred Copeland did not finish because of injuries. Lewis' time may have been the fastest by a woman up until Sue Johnston's 2007 trip, though Catra Corbett apparently did the route in 5d15h50m in 2004 as the first leg of a yo-yo (which she completed in 12d4h58m, which I think is the overall yo-yo FKT).
Peter Bakwin went back in 2003 and did 3d22h4m solo, supported, Whitney Portal to Happy Isles. His trip report is here. About a month later, Flyin' Brian Robinson failed to beat Bakwin's time due to getting lost in a sleep-deprived fog on the final night. The next year, Kevin Sawchuk ran it in 3d21h5m. The record was lowered to 3d20h0m by Sue Johnston in 2007. Johnston's time was the fastest by a woman for 10 years until Darcy Piceu's remarkable run in 2017. Michael Popov took serious stabs at Johnston's supported record in 2008 and 2009, but failed both times.
In the honorable mention category, John Tidd did the JMT north-to-south starting at Happy Isles at 4:14 a.m. on September 1, 2017. Tidd made it to within about 400 yards and 350 vertical feet of the Whitney summit, but then turned around at 4:07 a.m. on September 4 (just under 3 days) due to being unable to find the summit in the dark & fog, exacerbated by wind and fatigue. Had he been able to continue to the summit normally (or waited until daylight???) he would clearly have bested Panilat's Summit-TH time of 3d4h30m, and almost certainly the overall TH-to-TH FKT as well. Below, Tidd sums it up as follows: "Alone near the summit with no moon, no cell phone battery and in very windy and foggy conditions with poor sense of balance from limited visibility and fatigue and I could not find the summit and after going to what seemed to be the end of the trail (a large block of rock blocked or marked the end of the trail) I could not find any indication of where the summit was and turned around. Comparing GPS files I seemed to have been 125 meters of elevation from the summit. I was warm with my puffy jacket but sitting put and waiting for others or daylight never entered my mind." Tidd posted a detailed trip report on his Facebook and here (which is on page 13 of this thread). We note that Tidd took a route variation through Reds Meadow, and was off of the official JMT route in that area for about 2 miles, which would certainly have generated controversy had he completed the JMT and claimed the FKT.
There have also been many fast unsupported trips on the JMT (Mr. Speed's trip was almost certainly unsupported.) Some unsupported people have liked to keep their times from the summit of Whitney, rather than the Whitney Portal (car-to-car) terminus preferred by supported runners, which can make for some confusion. Reinhold Metzger claimed the record for a long time, beating his own records from time to time, with a best time of 5d7h45m (Mt. Whitney to Happy Isles, 2004). However, it turns out that John Rosendahl did a faster trip way back in 1988 (Aug. 25-30), hiking solo, unsupported and uncached from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in 5d7h50m. Rosendahl's trip was reported in the Los Angeles Times (10/3/1988), the Irvine World News (9/29/1988), and the Sierra Club Newsletter (Dec. 1988). Mark Davis hiked solo and unsupported from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in 5d10h8m (5d5h18m from the summit), starting on August 18, 2008 -- a fast time but not faster than Rosendahl. Davis' report is very instructive for anyone wishing to try this, so I am quoting it extensively here:
I departed Whitney Portals at 5:10 a.m. on August 14, 2008. I hiked to the Summit of Mt Whitney in 4 1/2 hours and departed at 10:00 a.m. Kept hiking till midnight and camped at Rae Lakes. The next day I felt tired going over Pinchot and Mather passes, and camped on the Kings River. The third day went better. I made it over Muir and Seldon passes. This was my favorite part of the whole trail and I hope to go back there someday to explore. The fourth day also went great and I made it to Devils Postpile for the night. Leaving Devils Postpile the next day, I came upon a small wildfire, attempted to put it out as best I could and called 911 with my cell phone - which worked! I felt very good about doing something to protect this gorgeous wilderness. That afternoon my left leg developed a horrendous cramp and I limped into Tuolumne Meadows for the night. The next morning I felt a little better and hiked the 24 miles to Happy Isles, where I was surprised to find the bridge missing. My wife and kids met me here and took me down to Cathedral Beach so I could soak the dirt off of my feet and drink a beer. My total time on the JMT was 5 days, 5 hours and 18 minutes (not that I was keeping track). This was a very exciting and challenging 5 days...and I'm thinking about doing it agian. Also, I like the way it removed my "love handles". Through the whole trip I had doubts about being able to finish this trail and I was pleased every time I passed an exit trail and kept going. This helped build my confidence and made me feel real good. - Mark Davis
Davis' starting pack weight was 18 lbs, including 10 lbs of food, which consisted entirely of the Hammer Nutrition sports drinks Perpetuem and Recoverite. In his report he discusses the bear canister issue -- Davis did not carry one.
All previous unsupported times were crushed by Michael Popov, in 4d5h25m (starting July 30, 2007, from Mt. Whitney summit, where he spent 2 days acclimating). Here is a link to Popov's trip. Maune's time of 3d9h58m from the summit of Whitney (Sept. 3-6, 2009, see above) annihilated Popov's unsupported record, and beat Sue Johnston's supported record as well.
Women's unsupported FKT: Jacqueline Florine set the women's unsupported FKT on the JMT, 6d6h53m from Happy Isles to Mt. Whitney Summit (6d12h27m TH to TH), set Aug. 27 - Sept. 2, 2005. Her trip report is here. Note that Florine used the Mist Trail out of Happy Isles, rather than the "official" JMT route, and from the summit of Whitney she descended via the Mountaineer's Route. Her record was broken by Michelle "MJ" Jung, 6d11h35m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (6h6h5m from the summit) on Sept. 16-22, 2013. Jung's full trip report is here. Megan Armstrong reported a new women's unsupported mark of 6d2h44m from Mt Whitney summit to Happy Isles, Aug. 16-22, 2014. Because of permit issues, Armstrong did not start at Whitney Portal, but ascended Mt Whitney from Guitar Lake on the morning of Aug. 16. Since Armstrong was accompanied by her boyfried until Thousand Island Lakes her trip can't be considered strictly unsupported for purposes of the FKT. Armstrong did say "I carried my own supplies (tarp tent, stakes, bear can, food, etc.) and was self sufficient". Amber Monforte did a speedy and pure unsupported / unaccompanied FKT on the JMT August 27 - September 1, 2015, finishing in 5d0h37m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (4d19h50m from the summit), as reported below. Monforte used a Delorme satellite tracker and her trip was followed on a thread on backpackinglight.com. The following year, July 22-26, 2016, Monforte smashed her own women's unsupported FKT by about 19 hours, completing the trail in 4d5h6m (4d1h13m from the summit), as reported below. Monforte again used a Delorme satellite tracker for verification (and safety).
"I wasn't aiming to go this fast when I started out but felt good most of the time until my feet fell apart during the last 24 hours." - Amber Monforte
A lot of great info on the JMT and some other fast times are given on the www.backpack45.com website.
JMT Speed Trips (chronological order, not all are/were records):
Times in parentheses () are using Mt Whitney summit as the southern terminus, others terminate at Whitney Portal.
Italics indicate women.
Sleep deprivation is a pretty fascinating thing. Everything I could see was moving, even the rocks, they just kept shifting around... The mind also has an interesting way of coping with stress. I was starting to get a couple of blisters but in my mind they weren’t mine — they were someone else’s The one on my right heel belonged to a girl at the office which is even more strange because I don’t work in an office. I kept getting mad at her “would someone please tell her to stop smashing that blister, it hurts like hell!”, or “my god do I have to stop and bandage that for her again? Can’t she do anything herself?" -- John Stamstad, 2005
Peter Bakwin on the JMT in 2003
Andrew Bentz holds the unsupported record at 3d10h59m40s from Whitney Portal, set Aug. 26-29, 2014.
Darcy Piceu set the women's FKT, supported NoBo in 3d7h57m (3d4h12m from the summit), Sept 15-17, 2017.
Sue Johnston has the previous women's FKT, supported, in 3d20h (3d15h32m from the summit), Aug. 24-29, 2007.
Amber Monforte holds the women's FKT, unsupported, in 4d5h6m (4d1h13m from the summit), July 22-26, 2016.
Ralph Burgess has the southbound FKT (unsupported) at 4d8h43m from Happy Isles to the summit of Whitney, July 7-11, 2014.
Kurt Achtenhagen hiked southbound, unsupported, using a different but similar route to Tuolumne, in 3d23h11m to Whitney Summit (4d8h12m to the Portal), Sept. 8-12, 2014.
I lay down on a rock in the sun to warm up for a bit and I dozed off. A nice middle aged woman sat down next to me and looked at all my gear. She said, ‘Looks like you have some decisions to make.’ I said yes, I am trying to finish this trail but I have a plane to catch that I really can’t miss and tons of work to get back to and I’m trying to decide if I can/should try to make it. She replied, “Why are you here?” I went into a long explanation of how I was running the 225 mile John Muir Trail and I was doing it unsupported and I was trying to set a record. She smiled and looked at me with warm penetrating eyes, “But why are you here”. And then she just got up and walked away... -- John Stamstad, 2005 (from his report on a failed attempt at the unsupported JMT record in September 2005)
The John Muir Trail (JMT) runs 223 miles from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley, crossing some of the most rugged and remote country in California. The JMT traverses Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks, and the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness Areas (Inyo National Forest). The southern terminus of the JMT is "officially" on the summit of Mt. Whitney (14,495'), and hikers/runners must traverse an additional 11 miles between the summit and the trailhead at Whitney Portal (8,500 feet). Click here for a profile of the route. For FKT purposes we consider the JMT to be a TH-to-TH (pavement-to-pavement) route, but we also report Whitney summit times.
NOTE: There have been issues with people not following the "official" route. Going forward (from September 2017) we will NOT recognize any FKT that does not use the official JMT all the way. There are many places you can get off route, if you do you need to return to where you got off and continue from there. There are 3 main places where people have had confusion:
1) Red's Meadow. The JMT does NOT go to or through the campground or to the store, but stays mainly west of the Middle Fork San Joaquin River through Devil's Postpile National Monument. Follow the blue line on this map, NOT the red line.
2) Tuolumne Meadows. The JMT stays south of the campground and road, as per the blue line on this map. If you leave the JMT to go to the campground (etc.) you must return to the JMT at the same point!
3) Yosemite Valley. The JMT is on the south side of Nevada Falls. On a northbound trip you must cross the Merced above Nevada Falls at an obvious sign. DO NOT take the Mist Trail! Follow the blue line on this map, NOT the red line.
François D'Haene smashed the previous supported FKT by over 12 hours, running the route northbound in 2d19h26m (2d16h31m from Whitney summit), Oct. 14-17, 2017. D'Haene is the first person to complete the route under 3 days. The 31-year-old Frenchman is 2-time winner (including 2017) of the Ultra Tour du Mont Blanc, the most prestigous and competitive 100 mile trail race in the World. His approach was unusual in that by chosing to run in mid-October he gave up daylight in exchange for cooler temperatures and easier access to hiking permits for the area. He also had pacers for the entire distances, probably a first. D'Haene carried a satellite tracker and his trip was followed carefully to ensure that he stuck to the official route. An early article on his accomplishment, with a few photos from his InstaGram was published by outsideonline.com. A detailed spreadsheet of D'Haene's splits, and comparison with the previous FKT by Leor Pantilat, are provided in this thread on backpackinglight.com (thanks to Adam White).
Prior to D'Haene, Leor Pantilat had the supported FKT on the JMT of 3d7h36m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (3d4h30m from Whitney Summit), August 15-18, 2014. It was Pantilat's first multiday effort & also his first run of 100+ miles. He carried a SPOT satellite tracking device which verifies his trip. A detailed trip report is on irunfar.com.
Darcy Piceu set the women's supported FKT for the JMT in 3d7h57m (3d4h12m from Whitney Summit), NoBo, September 15-17, 2017. Piceu's trip has a significant asterisk since she didn't follow the official JMT route from the top of Nevada Falls to Clark Point, but rather went down the Mist Trail, then crossed the Merced River and climbed back up to Clark Point. She was off the official JMT for about 1.3 miles, but her route was probably slighly longer than the official route, and almost certainly slower due to the technical nature of the Mist Trail and the several hundred foot climb back up to Clark Point. While the runner is responsible to know the route, and this is clearly a mess up, it doesn't seem severe enough to "disqualify" her from the FKT, especially given that she beat Sue Johnston's time by 12 hours! Piceu had only 3 sleep breaks of about 1 hour each, plus several "10 minute dirt naps". Her trip was followed an discussed below (pages 11 and 12 of this thread, and on the backpackinglight.com forum, is summarized in a nice article on running.competitor.com, and chronicled in a blog post by one of her crew people, Jeff Kozak (including splits).
College student Andrew Bentz set the unsupported FKT for the JMT at 3d10h59m40s (from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles) on August 26-29, 2014, as reported below. Bentz had completed the JMT multiple times, including a 5d2h effort the previous year, and had recently come off a PCT thru-hike of 93 days. He beat Brett Maune's unsupported FKT by 3h13m. His report is here.
I'd like to eat food now. That was crazy. -- Andrew Bentz, moments after finishing his unsupported JMT FKT hike
A year before Pantilat, champion ultrarunners Hal Koerner and Mike Wolfe set the previous supported speed record on the JMT at 3d12h41m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (3d9h5m from Whitney summit) on August 1-4, 2013. A brief write-up on their trip is on the Runner's World site, and another article is here. Wolfe's personal account is on irunfar.com.
Prior to Koerner and Wolfe, Brett Maune, a 30-year-old laser physicist from LA, crushed previous JMT records on September 6, 2009, when he arrive at Happy Isles TH in Yosemite at 2:58pm, 3d14h13m after leaving Whitney Portal, and 3d9h58m after leaving the summit of Mt. Whitney. Maune's trip was unsupported, yet he smashed the overall (supported) JMT record by nearly 6 hours, and obliterated the unsupported record by over 19 hours! Prior to this trip Maune was unknown in the ultra and fastpacking scenes. He made an attempt on the record a month prior to his successful trip, but made several "rookie" mistakes and crashed and burned on the first day. Apparently undaunted, he resolved to make a second attempt on the next full moon, and was ultimately successful. The story is detailed on www.backpackinglight.com, where there is also an in-depth discussion of all things JMT (Portal vs. Summit, NoBo vs. SoBo, sleep deprivation, nutrition, etc.) Maune's report is on the 10th page of the BPL link. Because Maune was unknown, and because his trip was unsupported and therefore essentially un-witnessed, I made an attempt to verify his claim on the record, which is discussed on this page. Following this effort, I personally believe he did what he said he did (subsequently, Maune became the first person to finish the Barkley 100 twice, and holds the record for that insane event.)
At the start of his trip, Maune met Ian Alloway on the summit of Whitney, where Alloway was acclimating for his own unsupported record attempt (Alloway's view is that the southern terminus of the JMT is Whitney's summit, while Maune wanted to challenge the records from the Portal and the summit as well.) Alloway left the summit 1 hour after Maune, and arrived at Happy Isles 4d5h5m later, breaking Michael Popov's previous unsupported record by 20 minutes. It is of note that Alloway took the Mist Trail into Happy Isles, which is about 1.5 miles shorter than the official route of JMT, which has been used by other record seekers. Unfortunately for Alloway, Maune had crushed that record the previous day. Alloway's report also appears on the www.backpackinglight.com forum, and is archived here as well. Earlier speed records and attempts are discussed below.
What is this disgusting yellow crap I'm coughing up? Should I be concerned? -- Brett Maune, hours after completing his JMT record.
Speed attempts on the JMT have largely been done south-to-north (Whitney to Yosemite). This makes sense because the Whitney Portal TH is 4300' higher than the Happy Isles (Yosemite) TH. Also, NoBo trips get the higher, harder terrain over with earlier, while the hiker/runner is still relatively fresh. On the other hand, the majority of all JMT thru-hikes are done in the other direction (SoBo), probably because that direction allows for hikers to acclimate to the higher, southern altitudes more gradually. Ralph Burgess appears to hold the overall FKT for a SoBo trip, 4d8h43m from Happy Isles to the summit of Mt. Whitney, set July 7-11, 2014. Burgess gives a detailed report below, but did not report a time to the Whitney Portal TH. Two month after Burgess, Kurt Achtenhagen reported (below) doing the JMT southbound, unsupported in 3d23h11m from Yosemite to Mt Whitney (4d8h12m to the Portal), September 8-12, 2014. However, with the official JMT route closed in the area of Little Yosemite Valley due to a fire, Achtenhagen chose to take a alternate route from the Valley to Tuolumne Meadows. He "traveled from Happy Isles up the Snow Creek Falls Trail, past Olmsted Point and Tenaya Lake before reconnecting with the JMT in Tuolumne." Actenhagen's route is of roughly equal mileage to the JMT route, but does add a significant variance from the official route, and equates to roughly 10% of the entire distance, so we do not consider his trip an FKT for the "official" route.
There have been many amazing, fast trips done on the JMT over decades. I have a lovely email from Mrs. Christine Speed, who's husband, Robert Speed(!), apparently set the speed record in 1948 when he was just 16 years old. Unfortunately, Mrs. Speed didn't know the time. Here's an exerpt:
I think that to hold a record in 1948 you had to at least jog the trail as late into the night as you could see, eat very little and drink out of streams. My husband was exceedingly self-reliant, fearless and needed very little in nature. He could just throw himself down anywhere on the ground and go to sleep. But someone must have timed him and obviously, his time was formally entered because he knew he had set the record. All he did say, in self deprecation, was that the record was superceded virtually immediately in the next year or two. - Christine Speed, June 15, 2005.
In the age of the internet it has become much easier to keep track of the records. Nevertheless, prior to the FKT trip of Peter Bakwin & Buzz Burrell in 2000 the actual record was murky. They concluded that Jim Knight held the record from Whitney to Yosemite (around 4.5 days), while Blake Wood held the car-to-car (from Whitney Portal) record at 4d22h, Aug. 9-13, 1998 (Jim had slept on top of Whitney.) Burrell & Bakwin beat both times on their trip (4d14h39m from Whitney Portal), but didn't reach their goal of 96 hours, car-to-car. Their trip reports are archived here. Some interesting discussion of the Portal vs. Summit issue, and other JMT items, is on at this thread.
We later learned via John Rosendahl that Don Douglass did the JMT supported in early August 1982 in 4d21h30m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles. This time would appear to beat Blake Wood's 1998 time. The run was reported in the LA Times (8/11/1982). Douglass started with 6 companions. Nicki Lewis and David Hermitage finished the trip in 5d16h, while Greg Laval, Bob Holtel and Fred Copeland did not finish because of injuries. Lewis' time may have been the fastest by a woman up until Sue Johnston's 2007 trip, though Catra Corbett apparently did the route in 5d15h50m in 2004 as the first leg of a yo-yo (which she completed in 12d4h58m, which I think is the overall yo-yo FKT).
Peter Bakwin went back in 2003 and did 3d22h4m solo, supported, Whitney Portal to Happy Isles. His trip report is here. About a month later, Flyin' Brian Robinson failed to beat Bakwin's time due to getting lost in a sleep-deprived fog on the final night. The next year, Kevin Sawchuk ran it in 3d21h5m. The record was lowered to 3d20h0m by Sue Johnston in 2007. Johnston's time was the fastest by a woman for 10 years until Darcy Piceu's remarkable run in 2017. Michael Popov took serious stabs at Johnston's supported record in 2008 and 2009, but failed both times.
In the honorable mention category, John Tidd did the JMT north-to-south starting at Happy Isles at 4:14 a.m. on September 1, 2017. Tidd made it to within about 400 yards and 350 vertical feet of the Whitney summit, but then turned around at 4:07 a.m. on September 4 (just under 3 days) due to being unable to find the summit in the dark & fog, exacerbated by wind and fatigue. Had he been able to continue to the summit normally (or waited until daylight???) he would clearly have bested Panilat's Summit-TH time of 3d4h30m, and almost certainly the overall TH-to-TH FKT as well. Below, Tidd sums it up as follows: "Alone near the summit with no moon, no cell phone battery and in very windy and foggy conditions with poor sense of balance from limited visibility and fatigue and I could not find the summit and after going to what seemed to be the end of the trail (a large block of rock blocked or marked the end of the trail) I could not find any indication of where the summit was and turned around. Comparing GPS files I seemed to have been 125 meters of elevation from the summit. I was warm with my puffy jacket but sitting put and waiting for others or daylight never entered my mind." Tidd posted a detailed trip report on his Facebook and here (which is on page 13 of this thread). We note that Tidd took a route variation through Reds Meadow, and was off of the official JMT route in that area for about 2 miles, which would certainly have generated controversy had he completed the JMT and claimed the FKT.
There have also been many fast unsupported trips on the JMT (Mr. Speed's trip was almost certainly unsupported.) Some unsupported people have liked to keep their times from the summit of Whitney, rather than the Whitney Portal (car-to-car) terminus preferred by supported runners, which can make for some confusion. Reinhold Metzger claimed the record for a long time, beating his own records from time to time, with a best time of 5d7h45m (Mt. Whitney to Happy Isles, 2004). However, it turns out that John Rosendahl did a faster trip way back in 1988 (Aug. 25-30), hiking solo, unsupported and uncached from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in 5d7h50m. Rosendahl's trip was reported in the Los Angeles Times (10/3/1988), the Irvine World News (9/29/1988), and the Sierra Club Newsletter (Dec. 1988). Mark Davis hiked solo and unsupported from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles in 5d10h8m (5d5h18m from the summit), starting on August 18, 2008 -- a fast time but not faster than Rosendahl. Davis' report is very instructive for anyone wishing to try this, so I am quoting it extensively here:
I departed Whitney Portals at 5:10 a.m. on August 14, 2008. I hiked to the Summit of Mt Whitney in 4 1/2 hours and departed at 10:00 a.m. Kept hiking till midnight and camped at Rae Lakes. The next day I felt tired going over Pinchot and Mather passes, and camped on the Kings River. The third day went better. I made it over Muir and Seldon passes. This was my favorite part of the whole trail and I hope to go back there someday to explore. The fourth day also went great and I made it to Devils Postpile for the night. Leaving Devils Postpile the next day, I came upon a small wildfire, attempted to put it out as best I could and called 911 with my cell phone - which worked! I felt very good about doing something to protect this gorgeous wilderness. That afternoon my left leg developed a horrendous cramp and I limped into Tuolumne Meadows for the night. The next morning I felt a little better and hiked the 24 miles to Happy Isles, where I was surprised to find the bridge missing. My wife and kids met me here and took me down to Cathedral Beach so I could soak the dirt off of my feet and drink a beer. My total time on the JMT was 5 days, 5 hours and 18 minutes (not that I was keeping track). This was a very exciting and challenging 5 days...and I'm thinking about doing it agian. Also, I like the way it removed my "love handles". Through the whole trip I had doubts about being able to finish this trail and I was pleased every time I passed an exit trail and kept going. This helped build my confidence and made me feel real good. - Mark Davis
Davis' starting pack weight was 18 lbs, including 10 lbs of food, which consisted entirely of the Hammer Nutrition sports drinks Perpetuem and Recoverite. In his report he discusses the bear canister issue -- Davis did not carry one.
All previous unsupported times were crushed by Michael Popov, in 4d5h25m (starting July 30, 2007, from Mt. Whitney summit, where he spent 2 days acclimating). Here is a link to Popov's trip. Maune's time of 3d9h58m from the summit of Whitney (Sept. 3-6, 2009, see above) annihilated Popov's unsupported record, and beat Sue Johnston's supported record as well.
Women's unsupported FKT: Jacqueline Florine set the women's unsupported FKT on the JMT, 6d6h53m from Happy Isles to Mt. Whitney Summit (6d12h27m TH to TH), set Aug. 27 - Sept. 2, 2005. Her trip report is here. Note that Florine used the Mist Trail out of Happy Isles, rather than the "official" JMT route, and from the summit of Whitney she descended via the Mountaineer's Route. Her record was broken by Michelle "MJ" Jung, 6d11h35m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (6h6h5m from the summit) on Sept. 16-22, 2013. Jung's full trip report is here. Megan Armstrong reported a new women's unsupported mark of 6d2h44m from Mt Whitney summit to Happy Isles, Aug. 16-22, 2014. Because of permit issues, Armstrong did not start at Whitney Portal, but ascended Mt Whitney from Guitar Lake on the morning of Aug. 16. Since Armstrong was accompanied by her boyfried until Thousand Island Lakes her trip can't be considered strictly unsupported for purposes of the FKT. Armstrong did say "I carried my own supplies (tarp tent, stakes, bear can, food, etc.) and was self sufficient". Amber Monforte did a speedy and pure unsupported / unaccompanied FKT on the JMT August 27 - September 1, 2015, finishing in 5d0h37m from Whitney Portal to Happy Isles (4d19h50m from the summit), as reported below. Monforte used a Delorme satellite tracker and her trip was followed on a thread on backpackinglight.com. The following year, July 22-26, 2016, Monforte smashed her own women's unsupported FKT by about 19 hours, completing the trail in 4d5h6m (4d1h13m from the summit), as reported below. Monforte again used a Delorme satellite tracker for verification (and safety).
"I wasn't aiming to go this fast when I started out but felt good most of the time until my feet fell apart during the last 24 hours." - Amber Monforte
A lot of great info on the JMT and some other fast times are given on the www.backpack45.com website.
JMT Speed Trips (chronological order, not all are/were records):
| Robert Speed | 1948 | unsupported(?) | time unknown |
| Don Douglass | Aug. 1982 | supported | 4d21h30m |
| Nicki Lewis & David Hermitage | Aug. 1982 | supported | 5d16h |
| John Rosendahl | Aug. 25-30, 1988 | unsupported | 5d7h50m |
| Jim Knight | July 1990 | self-supported(?) | (about 4.5d) |
| Blake Wood | Aug. 9-13, 1998 | supported | 4d22h |
| Buzz Burrell & Peter Bakwin | Jul. 31 - Aug. 5, 2000 | supported | 4d14h39m |
| Peter Bakwin | Aug. 11-15, 2003 | supported | 3d22h4m |
| Kevin Sawchuk | Jul. 31 - Aug 4, 2004 | supported | 3d21h5m |
| Reinhold Metzger | 2004 | unsupported | (5d7h45m) |
| Catra Corbett | 2004 | resupplied (self-supported) | (5d15h50m) |
| Jacqueline Florine | Aug. 27 - Sep. 2, 2005 | unsupported (southbound) | 6d12h27m (6d6h53m) |
| Michael Popov | Jul. 30 - Aug 4, 2007 | unsupported | (4d5h25m) |
| Sue Johnston | Aug. 24-29, 2007 | supported | 3d20h (3d15h32m) |
| Mark Davis | Aug. 18-25, 2008 | unsupported | 5d10h8m (5d5h18m) |
| Brett Maune | Sep. 3-6, 2009 | unsupported | 3d14h13m (3d9h58m) |
| Ian Alloway | Sep. 3-7, 2009 | unsupported | (4d5h5m) |
| Hal Koerner and Mike Wolfe | Aug. 1-4, 2013 | supported | 3d12h41m (3d9h5m) |
| Michelle Jung | Sept. 16-23, 2013 | unsupported | 6d11h35m (6d6h5m) |
| Ralph Burgess | July 7-11, 2014 | unsupported, southbound | (4d8h43m) |
| Jenn Shelton | July 22-26, 2014 | supported, northbound | 4d9h30+m |
| Megan Armstrong | Aug. 16-22, 2014 | unsupported (accompanied), northbound | (6d2h44m) |
| Leor Pantilat | Aug. 15-18, 2014 | supported, northbound | 3d7h36m (3d4h30m) |
| Andrew Bentz | Aug. 26-29, 2014 | unsupported, northbound | 3d11h00m (3d7h8m) |
| Kurt Achtenhagen | Sep. 8-12, 2014 | unsupported, southbound, different route to Tuolumne | 4d8h12m (3d23h11m) |
| Amber Monforte | Aug. 27 - Sep. 1, 2015 | unsupported, northbound | 5d0h37m (4d19h50m) |
| Amber Monforte | July 22-26, 2016 | unsupported, northbound | 4d5h6m (4d1h13m) |
| Darcy Piceu | Sept. 15-17, 2017 | supported, northbound | 3d7h57m (3d4h12m) |
| François D'Haene | Oct. 14-17, 2017 | supported, northbound | 2d19h26m (2d16h31m) |
Times in parentheses () are using Mt Whitney summit as the southern terminus, others terminate at Whitney Portal.
Italics indicate women.
Sleep deprivation is a pretty fascinating thing. Everything I could see was moving, even the rocks, they just kept shifting around... The mind also has an interesting way of coping with stress. I was starting to get a couple of blisters but in my mind they weren’t mine — they were someone else’s The one on my right heel belonged to a girl at the office which is even more strange because I don’t work in an office. I kept getting mad at her “would someone please tell her to stop smashing that blister, it hurts like hell!”, or “my god do I have to stop and bandage that for her again? Can’t she do anything herself?" -- John Stamstad, 2005
Peter Bakwin on the JMT in 2003
