This was an INSANE route! So incredibly challenging, beautiful, and remote in places.
We started in Paradise around 2am on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. It was a low snow year across the country, so having skied the Ingraham Direct on May 9th, we knew we had to start earlier than previous finishers. We made excellent time to the summit around 5 hours 20 minutes.
As we descended the Emmons the first trip, we also had good conditions, windy, but good snow to hold an edge. There was also a clear track to follow. We made it steadily down to Sherman and then took advantage of glissading after that.
We wore hybrid trail runners for our first lap, so we shed our warm clothes and jogged down to the trailhead. We had nice light Rab fast packs that were perfect for this mission. This leg took us just under 10 hours.
We spent an hour at camp. Unfortunately Michael had an unsettled stomach. We then headed out to the Wonderland Trail clock wise for the first 35 mile running leg to Paradise. We moved steady the first section, but the heat was taking a toll on our GI systems. We encountered a decent amount of snow near Summerland and Panhandle Gap. That slowed us down.
The long descent from the middle section was rocky and washed out, making running much slower than anticipated. We finally hit some smoother trail following that where we were able to open it up a bit. We were detoured at one point due to a washed out trail, which sent us down to the river bed and added about 45 minutes. We made it into Paradise and back to our van late (I think 10:30pm), with just a few hours to sleep before our 2am departure for the second summit on Wednesday morning, July 8th.
We felt tired already headed up to Muir snowfield. But we steadily trudged on making it to the summit in about 7hours 45 minutes. The second descent down the Emmons was much tricker, with higher winds, less of a path, and more complex footing due to wind-buffed snow. It then changed quickly to mashed potatoes as we neared camp Sherman, with made for very slow travel as we protected our knees and ankles.
The second run down Glacier Basin was very slow, a hike really. Underfueled and tired, we took a 6-7 hour ish break to sleep and eat at the White River Campground, site B1.
With a 1:15 am wake up, we were up and out on the trail by 2:30am to start the last run leg. We saw a few animal eyes in the dark, but no one bothered us! We climbed and climbed it felt like, then finally hit day bread for some nice descending. We both started to experience foot issues, which was a bummer knowing we had so far to go.
We finally made our way to the Carbon River suspension bridge where the Spray Park detoured was encouraged. The ranger told us there was a food bridge out, so we decided to try the route to see if we could get across the river at a different point in hopes to complete the authentic route and secure the FKT. While we were able to cross the river, once we did, the trail was in terrible shape. Washed out, trees everywhere, it was incredibly slow. We had figured it must have been years since anyone had been back there. We kept going and made our way back onto a navigable trail deep in the vegetation. We finally climbed up and out via Ipsut pass through overgrown, rocky trails. We finally rejoined the populated trail right after Mowich Lake after a short lake dip.
We then cruised for a while - up, down, up, down. Hitting about 110 cumulative miles before dark. Once nightfall hit the wheels came off. We managed to move and stay warm enough, utilizing puffies, rain pants and bivy bags to stay warm for trail naps. The technical terrain at night with tired legs and feet became challenging. We had imagined less rugged trails - our fault! We finally came down into Longmier and started our climb up to Paradise via Nara Falls. Wow that last climb was tough! 2k and just under 6 miles.
We made it back to the paradise stairs in 78 hours 32 minutes. We worked well as a team, usually one person was up while the other was down. We are a married couple from Colorado that lives at elevation. We are ultra runners and ski mountaineers.
We'd love to talk to anyone attempting this loop! It was enormously difficult, stunning, and rewarding all at the same time! But 1/10 would not do it again :) It took an incredibly amount of planning and resources! So proud to set the mixed-gender FKT and also fastest women's time to date.
Thank you to Rab Equipment North America for sponsoring us!