Whew! Got stoked on this route after surprising Rachel Entreken and Peter Deneen on their mixed gender attempt in March. My friend Josh sent it to me randomly and so I said let's go!
We started at 6pm and did it counterclockwise, starting with 9trails first. It got dark as we were coming up cold springs. The rest of 9trails did what 9trails does, ups and downs x 9, and then we climbed up Romero and things got weird! So many spiderwebs in the face. I'd say we hiked 90% of the uphill and jogged 90% of the downhill, time can definitely be cut down with more running. But we took it chill. I know the backcountry trails pretty well which was advantageous in the dark, up until we got to devils canyon. Never been on that trail and it showed! I got a bit frustrated trying to find it but eventually we worked it out. After that it was pretty smooth sailing up the backside of AB - what a dreamy incline! Sunrise in the backcountry is such a treat.
Josh wasn't feeling a fast descent for the FKT so he sent me ahead when we got to the front side of AB. He didn't give me any water or food, we filled our own bottles from all the beautiful creeks. Also I didn't filter at all in the backcountry, hoping I don't pay for this - yikes.
umm that's all I have for now! Thanks John Parsons for creating this monster of a route.