FKT: Cameron Hummels - Cottonwood Marble Loop (Death Valley, CA) - 2017-03-19

Athletes
Route variation
Standard route
Gender category
Male
Style
Unsupported
Finish date
Total time
7h 14m 16s
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Photos on Strava.

This historically has been a 3-day backpacking loop through the backcountry of Death Valley. I decided to run it in one go, presumably as the first person to do so, as I could not find any records of others running it. The route is not fixed in places, and there is some route-finding to find the correct pass into Dead Horse Canyon when going CW, so it is wise to bring a map and study up on the features. When I first ran this, I decided not to write it up as an FKT because I didn't want people to just show up and get lost in a remote part of Death Valley if their electronics failed or something went wrong, but Josh Grant later found my route and wrote it up as an FKT. This route has become more popular in the last three years and the trail is more established now, but still it makes sense to study up on your route and not depend entirely on a GPX file.

Overall, it was a fun day out, but quite hot, finishing at 100F. I stopped a lot to investigate things and take pictures.