Growing up in the shadow of Fishers Peak (living in the town of Trinidad from 1962-1987). The peak was a daily sight. Fishers Peak was privately held land since Colorado became a state and was strictly off limits to the public. Through the efforts of various organizations the land (19,000 acres) was purchased by a conservancy and turned into a state owned park. The land is now Fishers Peak State park, and the land manager is Colorado Parks & Wildlife. The park opened in 2022 with some initial trails to get the park operational. The trail to the summit was completed in late 2023. There is strict wildlife closure of the summit trail from March 31 to July 30. This makes access to the summit limited
I did several reconnaissance runs on the trails up to the closure point prior to my summit attempt. During those runs, I had in my mind, this route would be a good route for an FKT. I chose to make the FKT route as an ascent only.
I started at 6:22 AM on 08/05/2024 with all the fluids, fuel, hiking poles, and safety equipment needed to complete the ascent. No one was with me, in fact, there was not another soul on the trail all day! The only unknown part of the route for me was the last 1.8 miles that I had not been able to preview due to the wildlife closure. I used my Garmin Fenix 6 for the GPS and a GoPro to document the effort. There is a link to a short 2:10 video posted to YouTube. The opening photo of the video showing the peak is from the property we still own in Trinidad.
When I reached the summit area I followed the established trail to a point where I found the geo marker next to a pile of rocks and decided to make that the end point of the FKT route. I have included a photo of the marker and my Garmin watch face. I hiked back to the start, but the FKT is only for the ascent.
I am hoping that as the park sees more visitors that others will take on the FKT challenge!