Jared Campbell's Blog

For those who don’t know, FKT stands for Fastest Known Time.  It’s a term that was coined by Buzz Burrell or perhaps Peter Bakwin, both uber-athletes.  Peter’s FKT website highlites some of the biggest trail records in the States.  Bill Wright also keeps a now somewhat disjointed website of climbing and mountain running records, found here.  Given that I was born and raised in the Wasatch Mountains the goal of this page is to do a Wasatch FKT website.  It can include skiing, biking, climbing, and running records.  On Peter Bakwin’s FKT Website he proposes some ground rules, which seem reasonable and have been accepted by the athletic community for the most part.  So, I’ll repeat them below as they form the foundation for this page:

How do you establish a speed record?
Buzz Burrell has proposed 3 common sense guidelines:
· Announce your intentions in advance. Like a true gentleman, pay your respects to those who came before you, and tell them what you intend to attempt and when.
· Be an open book. Invite anyone to come and watch or, better yet, participate. This makes your effort more fun and any result more believable.
· Record your event. Write down everything immediately upon completion. Memory doesn’t count.
These three rules do not “prove” you have done anything. They just make it easier for a good person to believe you.

Supported, self-supported, unsupported? What does it mean?
· Supported means you have a dedicated support team that meets you along the way to supply whatever you need. This generally allows for the fastest, lightest trips, and for an element of camaradarie and safety, since someone knows about where you are at all times.
· Self-supported means that you don’t carry everything you need from the start, but you don’t have dedicated, pre-arranged people helping you. This is commonly done a couple different ways: You might put out stashes of supplies for yourself prior to the trip, or you might just use what’s out there, such as stores, begging from other trail users, etc.
· Unsupported means you have no external support of any kind. Typically, this means that you must carry all your supplies right from the start, except any water that can be obtained along the way from natural sources. This approach has also been termed “alpine style”. The longest trip I’m aware of using this style is Coup’s 20-day thru-hike of the Colorado Trail. For most people, carrying enough food for more than a few days to one week will be prohibitive.

I started this page on August 4, 2008 and it will only grow if folks participate.  So, please send me your record times!

Big Cottonwood :

Climbing:

• Stoert’s Ridge – Car-to-Car – Ryan McDermott  – 9 min 28 sec. – 2005? comical movie here

Running

Little Cottonwood :

Running

• Pfeifferhorn (via Red Pine Lake) – 1hr 10 min – Summer 2009
• Pfeifferhorn (Thunderbird Variation) – 1hr 10 min – Summer 2009

Scrambling

• The Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Linkup (WURL) – Fergusen Canyon to Bells Canyon via ridge defining Little Cottonwood
  • Nick Berry – 17 hrs 48 min – September 7, 2009 – Story Here
  • Jared Campbell – 21.5 hrs – August 7, 2004 – Story Here
    • Once on BF Twin Peak, stuck very true to the ridge for its entirety through Lone Peak

Millcreek Canyon :

Running

• Grandeur Peak (from the top of the Church Fork paved road to summit)
  • Male Ascent 36 minutes 47 seconds (August 5th, 2008) – Jared Campbell
  • Female Ascent 53 minutes (????) – Jenn Kuhlmann
• Grandeur Peak (from the main Millcreek road to saddle)
  • Female Ascent 42 minutes (????) - Jenn Kuhlmann

City Creek Area:

Running

• Big Mtn to City Creek via Grandview  and Rudy’s Flat.
  • 22 miles, 5,100′ ascent, 7,700′ descent
  • map; pictures; description
  • Christian Johnson – 6 hrs 15 min – October 3, 2009 – about 1′ of snow above 8kft

American Fork :