Route: Nolan's 14 (CO)

Location
Colorado, US
Distance
100 mi
Vertical Gain
44,000 ft
Description

Nolan's 14 consists of climbing/hiking/running fourteen 14,000 foot mountains in Colorado's Sawatch Range in one foot-powered push of less than 60 hours.  The exact route is open, but distance is about 90+ miles and elevation gain is around 44,000'. It's a big weekend, a prized goal, and only those who are fit and experienced in the mountains have succeeded. Full description at mattmahoney.net/nolans14/

"Holy Nolan's" is Nolan's plus Holy Cross, thus completing all 15 Sawatch 14ers.  The addition of Holy Cross adds about 25 miles to the trip.  Note there is no commonly accepted cut-off for Holy Nolan's.

Here's a (not complete) list of those who have finished the Nolan's route (thanks to Gavin McKenzie). For a more exhaustive list see the Matt Mahoney website.  Times are given for the final summit and for the TH. Note that some are over the 60 hour cutoff time.
trailrunnermag.com has a nice article on the background of Nolan's.

2001:
Mike Tilden (Shavano- 56:22, Blank TH- 58:51)
Blake Wood (Shavano- 57:55, Blank TH- 59:38)
John Robinson (Shavano- 57:55, Blank TH: 60:01)
Jim Nelson (Shavano- 59:06, Blank TH- 62:09)

2002:
John Robinson (Massive- 52:42, Fish TH- 54:57)

2012:
Jared Campbell & Matt Hart (Shavano- 57:30, Blank TH- 58:58)
Eric Lee (Shavano- 56:05, Blank TH- 57:27)

2014:
Brandon Stapanowich & Gavin McKenzie (Shavano- 54:47, Blank TH- 56:19)
Brandon Worthington (Shavano- 57:24, Blank TH- 59:24)
Andrew Hamilton (Massive- 57:18, Fish TH- 60:19)
David Ruttum (Massive- 60:37, TH approx. 63hours)

2015:
Missy Gosney & Anna Frost (Shavano- 57:55, Blank TH-?? (more than 60 hours)) ***Women's southbound FKT
David Ruttum (Shavano- 53:52, Blank TH- 55:38)
Andrew Hamilton (Massive- 51:24, Fish TH- 53:39) ***Men's unsupported FKT!

2016:
Ted Mahon (Massive- 52:52, Fish TH- 55:37)
Nick Pedatella (Massive- 54:38, Fish TH- 57:31)
Megan Hicks (Massive- 57:18, Fish TH- 59:36) *** Women's northbound & overall FKT!

2017:
Andrew Hamilton TH-TH in 53:42 ***Men's southbound FKT#
Jared Campbell & Gary Robbins, TH-TH in 56:39
Iker Karrera (Massive= 43:15, Fish TH- 47:40) ***Men's northbound & overall FKT!

#Note that Andrew started at the trailhead for Holy Cross at 7:45AM on 6/29 and reached the Fish Hatchery about 12 hours later. He slept a few hours and then started Nolan's at around 1:30AM on 6/30, and reached the Blank Gulch TH at 7:17AM on 7/2, thereby completing a traverse of the 15 Sawatch 14ers in about 71h32m (in addition to setting the FKT for southbound Nolan's)!

There have been many more completions since 2017.

GPS Track

Comments

This is a beast... after a few weeks of scouting now, I’m planning on giving it a go sometime between Aug 29 and Sep 8, together with my partners Tara and Ilana. 

Good Luck! Keep us posted. I'm prepping for next year at this time.

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Looks gnarly! I will be giving this a southbound unsupported attempt starting Thursday June 25th. Here is the link to the live tracking:

https://share.garmin.com/projectmove

Lets have some fun!

Alrighty y’all...

Going for an unsupported go at Northbound Nolan’s starting Wednesday (07/08/2020). Intention is to do Holy Nolan’s (Snalonyloh?) but I’ll make a decision on that for sure if/when I make it past Massive.

Should be good times ?

SPOT link is here: https://maps.findmespot.com/s/302R

Love, Kevin

Going to push this back to a later date this Summer. I got going and just felt very powered down... 10,000lb legs and not able to breathe well. I’m going to go home and sleep for a couple days and try to kick this crud. ?

Hey guys, 

I started a supported effort at Blanks Cabin on July 30th at 5:11 PM and finished at the Fish Hatchery in an elapsed time of 45:57:47, which looks like the second fastest time at this point. 

That route is an absolute beast, I’m honestly just grateful to have completed it in one piece.  

Sean Van Horn

https://www.strava.com/activities/3851052665

 

who is the oldest person to achieve this in under 60 hours?

I'll give this a go, embarking around 2:30am on Monday 25 July 2022, unsupported Northbound.

 

Yikes!

 

David Ayala

 

Covid caught me in my last attempt.

I’ll give it another solo unsupported Northbound go before the season is out,

embarking around 3am on Monday 12 September.  

 

Yikes! Yikes!

I'll be departing northbound at 4am on Fri the 14th, shooting for sub-40hrs supported. I'll be recording at high accuracy with my Suunto Vertical, uploading to Strava after the fact. Live tracking with a Garmin InReach Mini at regular intervals, corroborated by my crew. https://share.garmin.com/MrHedges

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Where do you find the GPX file for the HOLY Nolan?

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