Route: Elks Traverse (CO)

The Elks Traverse connects all seven 14ers in the Colorado's Elk Range. The peaks are: Castle, Conundrum, Capitol, Maroon, North Maroon, Pyramid and Snowmass. More information on the Colorado 14ers is here. The challenge is trailhead to trailhead. Neal Beidleman and Jeff Hollenbaugh were the first to do the traverse in one push, finishing in around 34h in 1996 (when Beidleman was freshly back from the famous Mt Everest disaster immortalized in Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air). The Traverse has been repeated only a few times. Jason Antin and Brandon Worthington completed it in 42h+in 2013, and Kendrick Callaway did it in 44h10m August 9-10, 2015. Biedleman & Hollenbaugh's original FKT was finally bested by star mountain runner Rickey Gates in 27h25m August 30-31, 2015.