Mahoosuc Traverse (ME, NH)

Maine, US

New Hampshire, US

Distance

28.3 mi

Vertical Gain

11,000 ft

Ben Nephew posted the route with a little FKT history:

The Mahoosuc Traverse is a rugged 31 mile section of the Appalachian Trail from Grafton Notch in Maine to Gorham,NH. The trail is remote, includes almost 11k of climb, and is almost all technical singletrack. The Mahoosuc notch is known as the hardest single mile of the AT. The FKT route, as established in the early 1900's, stays on the Mahoosuc trail to Hogan road in Gorham and then continues for a mile on dirt roads to the parking area on route 16. The historical route was 29 miles due to a more direct trail up Old Speck mountain in Grafton Notch.

In 1927, Bob Monahan completed the route in 10:27.

That time stood until August 28, 1958, when Chris Goetze ran 8:06:30.

On September 7th, 2014, Ryan Welts and I ran 7:45:17.

www.strava.com/activities/191482353

A full report can be found:

mountainpeakfitness.com/blog/2014-welts-nephew-mahoosuc-traverse-fkt

Ben Nephew

GPS Track

Mahoosucs_Traverse_FKT_w_Ben_Nephew_7_45_17.gpx486.14 KB

FKTs

Standard route

Female

Unsupported
Hillary Gerardi			7h 16m 0s	2022-10-02
Whitney Pearson			12h 41m 45s	2022-07-15

Male

Self-supported
Neil Clauson			7h 40m 14s	2020-09-06

Unsupported
Dan Pfistner			7h 44m 32s	2023-10-09
Ben Nephew, Ryan Welts			7h 45m 17s	2014-09-07

Mixed-gender team

Unsupported
Jesse Wall, Carissa Winning			9h 59m 38s	2020-09-19

Non-binary

Unsupported
Aubri Drake			15h 4m 0s	2020-06-20

This route on the old FKT site

http://fastestknowntime.proboards.com/thread/577/mahoosuc-traverse-me-nh

Comments

I'll be giving this route a shot on Saturday (7/18/20) to establish a NoBo FKT, almost definitely several hours slower than the fine gentlemen listed above.

Curious what made Neil's trip self supported vs unsupported? Didn't see it in his notes.

I will be doing this route Wednesday sept 16 starting at 6am.

Important addendum to my FKT report, which I forgot to add before hitting submit:

The Mahoosuc Range, Grafton Notch, the Bear River valley, and other parts of the Androscoggin watershed lie in the unceded ancestral lands of the Abenaki people and the Wabanaki Confederacy.

I love and value the process of pushing myself hard in these mountains, but with the cataloguing of FKTs, it is important that we remember that any ethos of "conquering" these sacred places is illusory and in opposition to the sort of relationship that indigenous people have had with this land for all of human memory and beyond.

Route: Mahoosuc Traverse (ME, NH)

FKTs

Comments