My father and I decided to set the FKT on this once I got it published, and it had, at the time, looked like it wouldn't rain too much on the day we were planning. Nature had other plans, as about an hour in a thin percolating sprinkle started, and then after another hour turned into full rain which continued the whole day. We started at 214 trailhead, since that's what we're used to, even though it required an extra 1/4 mile to and back from the route. We jogged for some sections of the Trail of Ten Falls, but mostly we were speed-hiking through this attempt. The Trail of Ten Falls was absolutely magnificent as Silver Creek, normally a placid large creek between falls, was the highest I've ever seen it it. Dozens of smaller falls also existed along the walls of the canyon in spots I have never seen water before (this was my 6th time on the trail of ten falls). The waterfalls were audible from miles away, and South Falls was raging so much that there was a fog cloud centered on it.
After North Falls, it started to get hard. When we scouted this route in October, we found the Perimeter Trail to have pristine tread, and we were excited to hit easy walking. Unfortunately, with the rain it was covered in shallow puddles, and we struggled to stay above 3 mph climbing to the junction with Roemer's. Once we made it past the junction, I hit my stride and set a blazing pace which let us cover the next mile in around 15 minutes. The rain and puddles worsened after about 9.5 miles (from 214 TH), and we began to realize just how dangerous the situation was. We were 10 miles from the end, it was 43 degrees, it was raining hard, and there was a steady 15 mph wind. We decided we didn't really want to risk Hypothermia, so we continued without really stopping at all for 7.3 miles from North Falls to the top of Upper Catamount. I also began having inflammation and stiffness in my left knee, and ended up doing a fast limp during the long descent down to South Fork Silver Creek. After the creek, we did some of our fastest climbing at that particular grade ever to get to the top of Catamount Backside (Beautiful trail until you get to the clear cut). Not much to say about the descent down Catamount other than that the wind picked back up (it had ceased for awhile which was part of why we made it up the climb so fast), and the wind chill dropped back down to uncomfortable. The last mile was speed hiked with gritted teeth and trying not to do anything to my left shoulder which was not happy with repetitively moving my trekking pole forwards. An insane experience that I never want to ever do again, at least until the trail's dried out a bit. Catamount was slop, Perimeter was flooded. Actually the worst weather I have ever experienced at Silver Falls, despite having been there somewhere upwards of 60 times. The Falls were good though. I'd have taken pictures of more of the Hemlock Old growth, but my phone was too waterlogged.