Fun solo jaunt up my local 13er! This was my 5th ascent of Downs Mountain, but first time climbing it round-trip in a day.
I altered the route slightly by using the Old Glacier Trail, which is ~1.3 miles shorter but requires an unbridged ford of Torrey Creek right at the start. I still started and finished at the main Trail Lake Trailhead information kiosk (where the trailhead register is), so I believe my route is compliant with the overall route goals established here (similar to the way the Wind River Peak FKT got optimized from a loop to an out-and-back). Thanks to Gabe Joyes for submitting this route and establishing a solid time that I could test myself against!
I started from the trailhead kiosk at 7:07 a.m., touched the highest rock (by the benchmark) at 10:55 a.m., and made it back to the trailhead kiosk at 2:14 p.m. for a roundtrip time of 7 hours, 7 minutes, and 31 seconds (see GPX track recorded with Peakbagger app; private InReach page available upon request.). I felt strong most of the way up the trail and across Goat Flat, but started really feeling the altitude on the last 1,300 vertical ft. from No Man's Pass to the summit. I only spent a couple minutes on top and retraced my route down. I was mentally and physically pretty beat by the time I got back across Goat Flat, but I managed to hit some 10 to 12 minute trail miles to barely finish in time. According to the Peakbagger app, my route ended up being 25.5 miles with 7,255 vertical ft. of elevation gain / loss.
The weather was a bit strange, as remnants of the monsoon kept trying to push into Wyoming. It was cloudy most of the day, which was helpful for not getting too hot, but it cleared up as I was crossing Goat Flat on the ascent and was actually sunny for an hour or so. Peaks in the Gannett region were socked in by clouds most of the day, but there were still great views along the Divide and out across Torrey Creek. It was windy and cold on top, and the summit of Downs got swallowed by a cloud shortly after I started descending. No lightning or rain though, thankfully! Goat Flat is a bad place to be in a storm (I got surprised by crazy lightning up there in 2020).
I carried all my gear and was completely unsupported. The only person I met was a horse packer whom I passed twice--once on the way up, and once on the way down; I think he was a bit surprised to get lapped haha! I only took 1 liter of water and didn't fill up anywhere (no time to filter and didn't want to risk unfiltered water with the copious bighorn sheep poop everywhere). This was barely enough, but helped me save on weight. I ate a handful of gels and about a half tablespoon of salt when my legs started cramping on the summit. Among other essentials, I carried bear spray (grizzlies frequent this area of the Winds) and a rain jacket because of the uncertain forecast but didn't use either. One of the more eccentric pieces of gear I used was a pair of Crocs--they were helpful for running from the trailhead sign to the creek, so I could splash across without having to waste time changing shoes twice. I switched to trail runners on the other side, stashed the Crocs in a bush, and picked them up on the way back (I just splashed across the creek in my trail runners on the way back because it was so close).
Overall, it was a fun day on one of my favorite Wyoming 13ers, which also happens to be the northernmost 13,000 ft. peak on the Continental Divide in the contiguous U.S. It was especially cool that the weather window worked out such that I could summit Downs Mountain exactly one year after I climbed it at the start of my Wyoming 13ers FKT in 2022. This was definitely the hardest I've had to exert physically for an FKT, and while I'm not sure I really have the lungs to be a proper trail runner, it was definitely an interesting experience. Additional pictures will be shared on my Instagram, @eli.boardman, and website, SunlitSummit.com.
And if I only could
I'd make a deal with God
And I'd get Him to swap our places
I'd be runnin' up that road
Be runnin' up that hill
With no problems ~ Kate Bush