If you live in Las Vegas and commute around town at all you’ve likely stared up at Gass Peak many times. It sits off in the distance on the north end of Las Vegas in the aptly named Las Vegas Range. I’ve hiked up to the peak a couple of times in the past and recently saw there had been an FKT submitted.
I’ve been training for an ultra marathon for the past couple of months and I’ve been feeling really fit. I decided to give Gass a go. I almost waited too late in the season as it’s getting warm already. It was about 70 degrees at the trailhead and full sun; a beautiful Spring morning. I did a short warm up jog up and down the gravel road to get the body going.
I went light, short shorts, crew socks, shoes, hat, and sunglasses. I had a naked belt on which held my keys, phone, and a 500ml soft flask filled with water. I also had my Coros Vertix on my wrist to document the effort.
Up I went, full gass, lol. I gave it a good effort but still had to hike-jog quite a bit of the steep sections. To my surprise I made it up in about 44:30, about 3.5 minutes under the Strava segment leader. Woo-hoo! Okay, a quick photo and selfie video and back down I went. The trail has gotten fairly well worn in with traffic over the years and went pretty smoothly on the way down. I started to feel the heat as I got back down near the trailhead but it was over before it played a role of any kind. 1:13:41 roundtrip.