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Route: Badwater to Whitney Duathlon (CA)

Location
California, US
Distance
139.3 mi
Description

The Badwater Duathlon is a bike / hike traverse from Badwater to the top of Mt Whitney. It consists of about 132 miles of road cycling from Badwater (at 266' below sea level) to Whitney Portal (8374') followed by 7 miles (if the Mountaineer's Route is taken) of hiking to the summit of Mt Whitney (14,500'.) Of course you still need to hike back down to the road after doing this!

 

So far this route has been done solo and without drafting, which makes sense.  A team of 2 or more could draft off each other, but allowing fresh cyclists to "pull" a solo rider seems like poor style.  Accompaniment on the hike seems fine for supported trips.

 

GPS Track
Badwater_to_Whitney_Summit_Record_New_FKT_13_56_16.gpx2.89 MB

FKTs

Related Routes
Mt Whitney (CA)
This route on the old FKT site
http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/thread/1531/badwater-whitney-duathlon-ca

Comments

Ryan Tetz
Mon, 11/25/2019 - 01:10pm

I beat the record a little over a month ago. The new time is 13:16:07. We will have to update this page. Also the stats for Badwater Basin and Whitney summit are off a few feet (-282 below sea level and 14,505’). I feel really good about this go with a strong effort on the bike and the mountain all around.

I’m working on a film project documenting the record with a couple sponsors. It’s the 7th time the record has been seriously upped in the past 5 years.

LindsayPeria
Thu, 02/13/2025 - 03:36pm

Hi all! I'm considering going for this in the future. Just to clarify, is it ok to take the regular Mt. Whitney route instead of the mountaineer's route? I realize it is much longer, but I'd like to know all of my options if weather conditions (or my condition) make the mountaineer's route unsafe. 

Thank you!

Hey Lindsay, I've been up the Mountaineers route and down the Regular route in a day trip before. I think for this effort going up the regular route would be fine for the FKT. However i just think the regular route will add significant time. Also time of year/ weather is critical when planning this. What time of year are you thinking about doing this? 🐳 

Hi Nathan, I am thinking of attempting in mid-October. I have done the regular route before, so while I'm sure it would be longer than the mountaineers route, there would be less opportunity for route finding error that might slow me down. 

Lindsay, 

I will corroborate Nathan that it would be acceptable to take the trail route.

But if you truly wanted to master the route - I would say the optimal path would be to do a casual climb of the Mountaineers route ahead of time as a rehearsal to memorize it, then use it for your record effort - in my opinion one of the most beautiful parts of FKTs is that they invite us to become more intimately knowledgeable of these beautiful spaces in order to produce our best times on them ❤️ just a thought from a random dude who loves this route.