Speed records in Washington

[keenwesh]

This last August I found myself in Washington without any reliable partners and ended up doing several car to car climbs by myself. I kept time, because it was fun to see my splits for sections of routes and also the total time it took me to cover all the ground. I'm sure my times were not even close to the records (I can't really run, something about being 6 foot 6 and having healthy knees) but I was wondering what the fastest times are.

 

 

Here's the list that I'm specifically interested in, but if you've climbed something else pretty dang fast post up, cause there's a hell of a lot more routes out there than this (very) small handful.

 

Serpentine arete on Dragontail

 

Backbone Ridge on Dragontail (haven't done it yet, but it's on the short list)

 

North Ridge of Mt. Stuart, from the Tenaway trailhead (or is it technically called something along the lines of Esmerelda peaks?)

 

Mt. Olympus

[Pete_H]

Guy Millar or John Edwards reportedly did full N Ridge Stuart in some ridiculous fast time, like under 5 hours.

 

When you did it, did you do the full ridge with Gendarme? If so, nice job. That's an impressive solo.

 

John Plotz has done Backbone -> W Ridge Prussik -> Outer Space. Don't know what his time was, but at any rate its a pretty awesome accomplishment.

[max]

you show me yours, then I show you mine.

 

JK. I haven't timed myself climbing any of those.

 

[ivan]

every time i try to do a fast solo i end up seeing somethign shiny and lose interest - maybe it's b/c i'm 6'6" and have BAD knees?

 

soloing serpentine would be cool - i'd miss the toke'n conversations on the way in n' out though, plus that's a hella long drive on my lonesome

[keenwesh]

I guess I should post my times, although I want to emphasize I'm not trying to chest beat here, there are so many people out there that are way more rad.

 

In order that I did them

 

Serpentine: 7 hours C2C, I got lost on the ridge itself and spent a lot of time making sure I wasn't climbing into untraveled ground. Soloing in the Enchantments is a lot different than Royal Arches or Manure pile rambles.

 

North ridge of Stuart: 11 hours C2C. I hiked in and out with some friendly folks though, so the approach and deproach were not very fast. I started from the notch and did the gendarme (not the complete north ridge, but whatever). From the notch to the summit took me in the vicinity of 1:10 though, so I was stoked with that.

 

Mt. Olympus: I got some dumb buddies to go with me because it's largely nontechnical. 17:30 C2C. The last 10 miles sucked ass.

This one I'm sure could be done in sub 10 hours, maybe even 7 or 8 hours if done by someone like Kilian Jornet.

[Pete_H]

Nice job soloing Gendarme. I'd definitely be stoked to have done that!

[Off_White]

I was relieved to find that this didn't involve the person that comes to mind when talking about speed records. You've had a helluva summer Keenan.

[dfrost]

Leor Pantilat did Olympus in 2009, and said his was the FKT at 11h6m...

 

link

Edited October 31, 2013 by dfrost

[Good2Go]

11 hours for the N Ridge of Stu is smoking! Was it an onsite for you and did you bring any pro for the "crux"? The fastest guys I know routinely do the complete N Ridge in less than 18 hours, so I'd say your time for the shortened version is on par with their pace, maybe even a little faster.

[telemarker]

Just out of curiosity, I climbed snow Creek wall in mid Sept. after work, outer space. I wanted to see how long it would take car to car. Approach was one hour 3 minutes to the base of snow Creek wall, the climb took 54 minutes, the descent back to the base took 18 minutes, and from the base back to the car took 51 minutes. With a 15 min. break, it worked out to just over three and a half hours car to car.

 

I guess I am a little surprised that hiking down from the base back to the car only saved 12 minutes. I thought it would have gone quicker. And I also thought I would get to the base of the route in around 45 to 50 minutes, not one hour 3 minutes. I was hiking pretty hard.

 

The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit.

 

Edited November 1, 2013 by telemarker

[W]

Back in the 1990's, I remember Pat Timson did some very big solo linkup- my recollection was something like NR Stuart, then traversing Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuck and Dragontail, then south face of Prusik, then Snow Creek Wall on the way out. Don't remember the time but it was in a day.

I know Pat and my friend Gordy Smith also climbed the north ridge of Stuart in about 11 hours car to car around 1992. Even after a hip replacement a few years ago, Pat is still a machine-he's the man.

 

 

[keenwesh]

North ridge of stuart could go waaayyyyy faster. I didn't run at all on the approach, and I maybe jogged the last mile and a half on the way out. I'm guessing a 5 hour time, while superhuman, is definitely possible.

 

I onsighted it, Wayne gave me the beta that the gendarme crux was only a little bit harder than the crux on Serpentine, which I would agree with. The exposure and commitment level is much higher though. Still, that route is so incredibly fantastic. I'd like to go back to do the CNR (with a rope).

 

I think I got lost as well after the gendarme. Some folks told me that there's a rap off the top, which I was going to have to avoid because I had no rope. I went right early, and climbed loose and lichen covered rock. I'm not sure if there's a well established rappel bypass though, so maybe I did go the right way.

 

 

11 hours C2C on Olympus is nuts! Again, much more feasible to put down a time like that if you can run.

 

Does backbone involve similar routefinding/potential to end up in chossland as serpentine? I'm guessing I could drop my time an hour if I managed to stay on route the whole time...

[num1mc]

Back in the 1990's, I remember Pat Timson did some very big solo linkup- my recollection was something like NR Stuart, then traversing Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuck and Dragontail, then south face of Prusik, then Snow Creek Wall on the way out. Don't remember the time but it was in a day.

 

 

1985 by Peter Croft, not Pat Timson

[W]

Back in the 1990's, I remember Pat Timson did some very big solo linkup- my recollection was something like NR Stuart, then traversing Sherpa, Argonaut, Colchuck and Dragontail, then south face of Prusik, then Snow Creek Wall on the way out. Don't remember the time but it was in a day.

 

 

1985 by Peter Croft, not Pat Timson

 

You're right...but I am certain that Pat did do a lighter version of this which for sure included Prusik and Snow Creek Wall but also with several things up in the main Stuart Range peaks, because I talked to both Pat and Gordy about it a long time ago. Croft's was definitely the masterpiece noted above--

[G-spotter]

Guy Millar or John Edwards

John Millar or Guy Edwards

I think it was Guy.

[dberdinka]

"The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit."

 

It's all impressive but that strikes me as really freaking fast for 2000+' of mildly-chossy 5th class rock. Dang.

[Pete_H]

Guy Millar or John Edwards

John Millar or Guy Edwards

I think it was Guy.

 

Oops. Thanks for the correction.

[keenwesh]

"The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit."

 

It's all impressive but that strikes me as really freaking fast for 2000+' of mildly-chossy 5th class rock. Dang.

 

It's nuts how quick you can move without a rope!

 

I heard that Croft's Stuart Traverse wasn't actually that great when it come to the climbing itself. Link ups are a better way to do huge days in the enchantments...

[telemarker]

"The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit."

 

It's all impressive but that strikes me as really freaking fast for 2000+' of mildly-chossy 5th class rock. Dang.

 

Oops. Sorry. Yeah. Looking back, my fastest time was 1 hr, 53 mns. on Backbone. I climbed it 7/4 this year at 2:28. I'm getting (got) old.

 

 

[keenwesh]

perhaps spending so much time in yosemite is screwing with me, I read 53 minutes and didn't bat an eyelash...

 

The speed record for Royal Arches is 57 minutes, and that's with the entire North Dome Gully descent. The actual 1500 feet of climbing takes around 15 minutes.

 

Nutcracker has been done sub 5 minutes or something, again, that's like 500 feet of vertical.

 

Hour for the RNWF of half dome...

 

I've personally simul climbed the east buttress of middle cathedral in 2 hours, and we felt really slow the entire time.

[Rafael_H]

good work KW!

 

trivia:

Miles Smart soloed Outer Space in either 23 or 18 minutes.

When Guy Edwards & co. were soloing CNR Stuart my friend got lost and took 24 hours. He was particularly upset at "...these guys in running shoes passing us...".

 

I... have been thinking of doing it for 12 years now

 

 

[wetslide]

Just out of curiosity, I climbed snow Creek wall in mid Sept. after work, outer space. I wanted to see how long it would take car to car. Approach was one hour 3 minutes to the base of snow Creek wall, the climb took 54 minutes, the descent back to the base took 18 minutes, and from the base back to the car took 51 minutes. With a 15 min. break, it worked out to just over three and a half hours car to car.

 

I guess I am a little surprised that hiking down from the base back to the car only saved 12 minutes. I thought it would have gone quicker. And I also thought I would get to the base of the route in around 45 to 50 minutes, not one hour 3 minutes. I was hiking pretty hard.

 

The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit.

I couldn't help but get nauseous reading your post. This kind of chest beating is what makes climbing not fun. Ya, I've done some myself, some justifiably and some not.

Recently I climbed snow creek wall, in fact in september, and took like 10 hours because I am out of shape a bit and had to do all the leading. But I've climbed it like 6 times so who cares how fast I do it? It's about the experience. When I read your guys' obituary I am not going to be surprised. With that, I am going to pack up my gear for a solo in the enchantments.

[telemarker]

Just out of curiosity, I climbed snow Creek wall in mid Sept. after work, outer space. I wanted to see how long it would take car to car. Approach was one hour 3 minutes to the base of snow Creek wall, the climb took 54 minutes, the descent back to the base took 18 minutes, and from the base back to the car took 51 minutes. With a 15 min. break, it worked out to just over three and a half hours car to car.

 

I guess I am a little surprised that hiking down from the base back to the car only saved 12 minutes. I thought it would have gone quicker. And I also thought I would get to the base of the route in around 45 to 50 minutes, not one hour 3 minutes. I was hiking pretty hard.

 

The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit.

I couldn't help but get nauseous reading your post. This kind of chest beating is what makes climbing not fun.

 

I know! Guilty. I agree I'm a chestbeating douchebag. Sucking the life out of climbing for everyone else. But hey, at least I'm still having fun.

[Alex]

those are all pretty sick times (all of you), but I've sailed to Tahiti probably faster than any of you ever will!

 

Probably the fastest I've gone in the mountains are Direct East Buttress in around 3 hours, and NE Buttress of Slesse with Jens Klubberud, which was very fast climbing between the both of us. I think I'm not a very speedy climber in general though, so some of the times you are listing seem unattainable to me in my normal state of fitness or employment

 

[olyclimber]

Just out of curiosity, I climbed snow Creek wall in mid Sept. after work, outer space. I wanted to see how long it would take car to car. Approach was one hour 3 minutes to the base of snow Creek wall, the climb took 54 minutes, the descent back to the base took 18 minutes, and from the base back to the car took 51 minutes. With a 15 min. break, it worked out to just over three and a half hours car to car.

 

I guess I am a little surprised that hiking down from the base back to the car only saved 12 minutes. I thought it would have gone quicker. And I also thought I would get to the base of the route in around 45 to 50 minutes, not one hour 3 minutes. I was hiking pretty hard.

 

The fastest I've done Backbone Ridge was 54 minutes base to summit.

I couldn't help but get nauseous reading your post. This kind of chest beating is what makes climbing not fun. Ya, I've done some myself, some justifiably and some not.

Recently I climbed snow creek wall, in fact in september, and took like 10 hours because I am out of shape a bit and had to do all the leading. But I've climbed it like 6 times so who cares how fast I do it? It's about the experience. When I read your guys' obituary I am not going to be surprised. With that, I am going to pack up my gear for a solo in the enchantments.

 

I couldn't help but get nauseous reading this post. I'm allergic to irony.