On September 13 I set a new FKT for Mount Louis, taking a quite a bit of time off my previous fastest time. I wanted to do a proper, well-prepared FKT effort on Mount Louis to finish up my 'alpine rock speed trilogy'. The idea for this project was to set really good speed records on 3 iconic Canadian mountains via technical rock routes, on the three main types of rock we have in this area. The mountains were Mount Sir Donald (quartzite), Bugaboo Spire (granite), and Mount Louis (limestone).
This is the gear I brought/wore for the FKT:
La Sportiva TX2 EVO shoes. I have worn approach shoes for the past year for most of my rock climbing. This training paid off as I was able to do the full FKT in these shoes, rather than carry rock shoes for the climbing.
Running shorts and t-shirt
Blue Ice Choucas Light harness. I wore the harness for the full FKT to save time.
Chalk bag
Salomon 5L running vest. Barely enough room but this vest is 200g lighter than my 15L running vest so worth the effort to squeeze everything in.
Petzl Pur'Line 65m rope. I lay awake for over an hour the night before the FKT stressing about rope choice. A 30m Petzl RAD Line and Beal Escaper combo weighs 500g less than the 65m Pur'Line. But there was one rap where I thought the Escaper might get stuck and 2 raps where you could potentially take a swing into a gully and I was worried about a single strand of 6mm rope cutting. I trusted my intuition and went with the heavier rope.
BD Alpine Guide belay device and 2x Petzl Attache biners. This setup provides lots of friction on the slippery Pur'Line and is my first choice for raps. I like the Alpine Guide device over the munter or super munter because it gives me the option of ascending the rope should a problem arise.
60cm sling and Camp Nano biner: To tether myself into each rap anchor on the descent. Normally of course I'd use a locking biner but I figured I'd save a few grams here.
Phone: For comms in the event of an emergency.
Ultralight rain jacket
Ultralight bivy sack and a roll of medical tape
2 x 500mL flasks with Maurten 320
4 x Maurten 100 gels
Notably absent from my gear list is helmet and bear spray. I always bring these two items for normal days in the mountains. There is not much risk of natural rockfall on the route and I didn't plan on climbing below other parties so I made the decision to leave the helmet behind. You could definitely get hit by a rock on the raps when pulling the rope. This was a risk I took and managed as best I could. I rolled the dice with the bear spray. In 25 years of wilderness travel I've never had to deploy bear spray so leaving it behind on one outing seemed like an acceptable risk for me. Obviously a personal choice. There was evidence of recent bear activity on the trail to Edith Pass. Leaving these two items behind saved me 500 grams, the same amount of weight the heavier rope cost me.
Some details on the fkt, tactics, and intensity levels:
The approach gains 800m and I went out at a hard effort, hovering around my lactic threshold pace. I knew I would only need to sustain this effort for an hour because once I started rock climbing the intensity would drop. Because I was not switching into climbing shoes, and I already had my chalk bag on, there was no time lost transitioning from running to climbing. Having done a recon of the route two days prior, I was able to climb fairly quickly, topping out in under an hour. This was 30 minutes faster than my previous FKT time for the climbing section. My ascent rate for the climb was about 600m/hr and around zone 2 intensity. This is about as much I can safely manage on fifth-class terrain, especially on limestone where you have to move a bit more carefully. The descent begins with 10 x 30m raps. I downclimbed the first 4 raps which go at fourth class (and quite loose). This saved a lot of time over my previous effort where I only downclimbed the first rap. After finishing the remaining 6 rappels I stowed the rope in my pack but left the harness on to save time (also no room left in the pack). My nutrition was much better this time around and I was able to descend back to the trailhead a bit quicker. The goal was to get back up to around lactic threshold effort for the run back down but I was a little fatigued and had to settle for an upper end zone 3 pace. I find it hard to maintain top speed while descending in TX2s because of the lack of cushioning but probably overall faster than using better running shoes for the approach/descent and climbing shoes for the route.
Approx splits:
Start of route: 57 minutes
Summit: 1hr 56 minutes
Bottom of rappels, rope coiled and stowed: 2hr 30 minutes
Trailhead: 3hr 13 minutes