https://crowfootmedia.com/2015/09/03/three-peaks-challenge/
Wathan held the record for the Three Peaks Challenge with a time of 15h32m, until Ian MacNairn of Calgary decided to take on the challenge later that year.
MacNairn’s start with ultrarunning was born from an undergraduate degree honour’s thesis project. After being hit by an SUV in 2006, MacNairn sought to study the process of his own body going from immobilization, through rehabilitation, and to the opposite end of the spectrum of mobility: running the Canadian Death Race marathon in 2009.
“In 2013 I decided I wanted to see how I could fare (competitively) in the sport,” said MacNairn. “I’d been participating in it in kind of a cursory way for the past three years as a researcher and observer, and I wanted to see how I could do as an athlete.”
MacNairn and Wathan met at the Canadian Death Race in 2013, where Wathan was competing and MacNairn was invited out as a journalist. MacNairn had spent the majority of his training time in the Bow Valley, yet had never been on any of the three mountains. After learning of Wathan’s challenge, he decided to make an attempt.
Having completed 18 races in 2013, MacNairn’s first window of opportunity to attempt the challenge came in the shoulder season, with fresh snow on each of the major summits. He set out on the quiet early morning of October 18, making his way up the Norquay basin and towards Cascade Mountain.
“Once I got out of the amphitheater and up to the false summit, I was quite surprised and a little deflated by the amount of snow,” said MacNairn. “I realized it was going to really slow me down.”
MacNairn’s troubles didn’t end there. After making it to Cascade’s summit in time for sunrise, and descending back to the highway, he fell and fractured his hand in two places. After setting his own left index finger and left pinkie back into place, he carried on. A pitstop at The North Face to refuel was all he needed before ascending Rundle, reaching snow once again at the Dragon’s Back.
“It got to the point where I was having to break away the snow in front of me with my hands, because it was too deep to even just step into,” said MacNairn. “Post holing is one thing, but this was quite a bit deeper than that; it was above my waist. That final 150 to 200 metres of vertical climb on Rundle was very slow, but eventually I got to the top.”
Exhausted but elated, MacNairn looked across to see that Sulphur was a substantially lower peak, and felt motivated to continue on, eventually completing the route in 12hr55min.