Kyle Richardson was only 22 years old on Aug 1, when he set the new FKT on the high and technical LA Freeway. His time of 16hrs 28mins 53secs bettered the time of 16hrs 59mins set by Matthias Messner just last year, (read Matthias' rich account).
“The LA Freeway links Longs Peak, the tallest in Rocky Mountain National Park, with Arapaho Peak, the tallest in the Indian Peaks. It’s above 12,000 feet the entire time. It’s an iconic line - this is what you see on the skyline looking west.”
“For 14 hours I didn’t see a soul, even though I was right above Boulder, almost in sight of Denver”.
There was no water the entire distance, so Kyle describes how he stashed 3 liters of water in two locations, and why this Self-Supported style made the most sense. The route is rated 5.6 in difficulty, but Kyle was ready for it:
“Find what inspires you. Then put in the time to learn the route; respect the route. Practice."
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Comments
Interesting route, and nice work! I've added this to my to-do list, alongside "a walk in the park," the next time I'm in the Front Range at the right time of year. I doubt I could touch this time, but it would still be fun to do car-to-car.
I'm struck by how easy it is to scout and rehearse the route section-by-section -- Colorado is good for that. I have been able to do this for some things, but others were simply too remote and/or treacherous to do more than once.