Geez, what a day. Even tho LAF was my main summer goal I bailed on the idea of doing it twice. First, because my Achilles was being its usual self and I didn’t think it would let me finish it. The second time was in early August because it seemed almost all water on the route had dried up and I was only interested in doing it unsupported, i.e. no caches. Well, it finally started monsooning some in August and while this made the likelihood of a clear weather day seem very low I was delighted to see earlier this week on a scouting run that the Toll pools had been replenished. Hallelujah! And then a spate of perfect weather was forecasted. I was out of excuses to not do it. I was bummed that I hadn’t felt ready earlier in the summer when there were more daylight hours, but wah wah.
My A-goal was sub-15hr. When I first became aware of LAF 12yr ago and started running portions of the route, sub-15 was always my goal. As is wont to happen, however, others—Matthias Messner and Kyle Richardson, specifically—got their shit together years before me and had pioneered 16:59 and 16:28 single-push times. I was particularly impressed with Skyler Williams’ 17:43 unsupported effort, however, and after Hailey and Kate went unsupported two years ago I knew this was the only style that interested me.
For the past dozen years LAF is the mountain running objective—along with Nolan’s, I suppose—that has interested me most. It’s just such a good line! And it’s an aesthetic running climber’s objective with significant technical terrain to be negotiated. Nolan’s is an altitude/vert-fest that attracts ultra runners. It seems that most of the people who are interested in Nolan’s don’t possess the technical mountain scrambling skills to make LAF happen safely and efficiently. And the whole dang thing barely ever drops below 12,000’! Living in Boulder, when you look west to the Continental Divide skyline, LAF is the traverse that just begs to be completed.
I’ve been trying to eat more than my typical one-gel-per-hour on long runs this summer, and as such packed my vest and belt with 5000cal (35 gels, two bars, a couple packets of gummie chews), 3x 650ml flasks, an ultra-light prototype La Sportiva rain jacket, one headlamp and one tiny emergency back-up headlamp, InReach, and phone.
Leaving the East Longs Peak TH I tried to just take it easy. Even so, I knew Kyle’s FKT split of ~2hr for the Cables ascent of Longs was slower than I was willing to go. I’m old and there’s not always next year. I was confident in my fitness and didn’t want to leave any time on the table if I could help it. I’ve also spent nearly two decades racing ultras of about this duration and knew that you’re capable of maintaining a surprisingly high effort intensity over the course of 12-15 hours. I figured this warranted about a 1h45 climb of Longs.
I did not account for the dark. Despite repeatedly lapping Longs all summer, my ascent of MLW relies on idiosyncratic little visual cues—mostly distinctive rocks in the distant to keep my bearings. Without these, I wandered around up there. A little embarrassing. The Cables themselves were shockingly iced up. Not just verglas, either, but beefy, plastic ice that would’ve taken an axe pick perfectly. Somewhat odd as conditions were very comfortable and virtually windless. Season’s changing. Otherwise, topping out Longs coincided perfectly with the very beginning of the sunrise and twilight for the tricky transfer over to Pagoda.
I did not nail this despite several days scouting it this summer. I dropped a little too low to get into the easy chute that allows you to bypass the cliffband and had to climb back up, still couldn’t find it, and eventually did some slow downclimbing out of frustration. Dang it. I made up for this snafu, however, by absolutely nailing the Pagodaway cut and was very happy with my Pagoda to Chiefshead split of :35 when my best earlier in the summer had been over :45.
The morning alpenglow on the Divide was bananas through here. I was further heartened to see that the Chiefshead spring was actually flowing again, albeit frozen, but I knew that boded well for the crucial Ouzel pools.
Alice, Tanima, the Cleaver and Isolation were all familiar from scouting runs earlier this summer and I nailed my route-finding, feeling efficient and moving great. The pitch of technical scrambling out of the Cleaver Notch is one of the most serious spots on the whole route and I felt great on it. Surprisingly, there was another person on the summit of Isolation. He asked where I came from and when I said Longs, he asked if I’d summited. Indeed.
Everything ahead of me to Buchanan Pass was brand new terrain. I was having so much fun I almost forgot to fill at the Ouzel pools, which were plentiful. I chugged two flasks and filled all three, for a three minute stop. I was pretty surprised by the stretch from Ooh La La to Pt 12227’. First, the tundra was super open and it wasn’t immediately obvious what to be shooting for. Second, the ridge narrowed down significantly just before 12227 and required some nontrivial route-finding.
Nevertheless, I reached Red Deer exactly an hour ahead of Kyle’s record splits and was definitely at the high-point of my run energy-wise, full of optimism. It has seemed like Buchanan Pass is almost exactly the halfway point timewise on previous runs, so when I hit this in 6:50 I felt like suddenly sub-14hr might actually be in play—or I’d gone out way too hard and was about to have a miserable blow-up in the significantly more technical back half of the route.
I hadn’t been on the Buchanan to Paiute portion of the Divide in five years, but I remembered it pretty well and made good time. That chossy sneak ledge to cut back east to the notch below the north ridge of Paiute is so damn cool! I remember stumbling upon it years ago and not believing it actually worked out. It’s exposed, too! Scrambling up Paiute I could start to feel the day catching up with me but I was super stoked to get to Toll and terrain that I had scouted just four days earlier.
I nailed my line down to the north ridge of Toll but as I was heading over there a helicopter was circling closer and closer and exactly as I got to the base of the ridge the helicopter dropped a SAR responder onto the saddle via a long line. What the heck?! I was actually a little concerned about the very strong gusts of prop wash as I started up the technical climbing. Just below me it seemed like the SAR responder was huddling with a climbing party of two (helmets) that I had somehow not previously seen. It didn’t seem like anyone was injured, but then about halfway up Toll the helicopter came back and whisked them all away. I couldn’t believe the timing.
Down the other side of Toll I had a long, six-minute stop at the pools there where I chugged more water, filled, and shuffled my remaining food to accessible pockets in my vest and belt. I felt pooped heading up Pawnee but was heartened by the fact that I was two-thirds of the way through. The end started feeling tangible.
But oh the Shoshoni-Apache traverse. I did not nail this. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong because I don’t remember the access to the east ledges being as sketchy as the way i took feels—exposed chossy rock—but I was slow here and had to focus harder than probably any other part of the route. Once established on the east side it’s all gravy but getting down there my way is slow and sketchy. And then Apache. Goddamn. That whole mountain is falling down—I kicked off a couple giant blocks, unfortunately, and the slog went on forever.
Navajo went smoothly with my usual direct face approach to the finger/handcrack through the white granite band. Navajo is one of my favorite scrambles on the route. Fuck that slope down to the Arikaree tarn. Loose, tedious, ugh. I spent about 30sec filling two flasks there and then it was the slog up Arikaree. Instead of the ridge I take a more direct line west of the ridge up rubble and easy slabs. I actually like it, and it went more quickly than expected.
I really enjoy the whole portion from Arikaree to Arapaho and not just because the end is nearing. The terrain is so cool through there. I’d like to know how people negotiate what I call “Handcrack Tower” after Deshawa, because that’s a real, exposed pitch of rock climbing and no one talks about it. It’s probably only 5.4-5.5 or so, but earlier this week I wasn’t able to find the 4th Class sneak that Hailey says she used. The final climb up N Arapaho wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be, but I was appropriately pooped and just tried to not stumble too much on the Arapaho Traverse.
As late as Deshawa I thought sub-13hr might actually still be in play, but holy hell that final downhill was a shambles. I’ve absolutely blitzed it before, going as fast as 29min from S Arap to 4th of July—but on much fresher legs and in Mutants, not Prodigio’s. The lugs on the Prodigio’s are just too low to work well on, like, 30-35deg grass and gravel and with rolling both of my ankles earlier in the day I just couldn’t risk it right at the end.
Hailey greeted me at the end with an absurd smorgasbord of a picnic. I felt bad that about all I could manage was a couple pieces of bacon, a few chips, and some chocolate milk. But Hailey knows the drill. Grateful for her.
Pretty proud of this run. One of my better efforts ever, tbh. It was the perfect culmination to an excellent summer in the alpine.
— — —
Longs 1:49, Saddle 2:12
Pagoda 2:20, Saddle 2:35:30
Chiefshead 2:55, Base Hour Glass 3:19
Alice 3:33, BG pass 3:47
Tanima 3:58
Cleaver 4:13
Isolation 4:45, Saddle 4:55
Ouzel 5:12:30, Ouzel pools 5:16-19
Ogalalla 5:37:30
Ooh La La 5:55
Pt 12227 6:31
Red Deer 6:45
Buchanan Pass 6:50:30
Sawtooth 7:00:30
Algonquin 7:26:30, Paiute Notch 8:02
Paiute 8:14, Base N ridge Toll 8:29
Toll 8:39, Toll-Pawnee pools 8:44-50
Pawnee 9:00:30
Pawnee Pass 9:06
Shoshoni 9:25, Rook 9:49
Apache 10:16, Dickers Peck 10:26:30
Navajo 10:35, Arikaree tarn 10:49
Arikaree 11:06, plane wreckage 11:23
Deshawa 11:45
Base HC Tower 11:56
Top HC Tower 11:59
N Arapaho 12:19
S Arapaho 12:37
Overlook 12:46
FINISH 13:20:48