This Oregon teacher climbed Washington’s 100 highest peaks in 51 days

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When Oregon K-6 physical education teacher Jason Hardrath returned to class last month, he had the ultimate story of what I did on my summer vacation with which to impress his young students.

Hardrath spent the summer of 2021 breaking his 100th fastest known time record (FKT). But reaching the milestone of the century, in itself an impressive feat, didn’t involve just a few hours of pushing your body up and down a mountain faster than everyone else before it. Instead, Hardrath capped his goal of 100 FKT with a quest for endurance of a summer of epic proportions: he ticked off the entire Bulger list in minutes in under 51 days.

For the uninitiated, the Bulger List includes the 100 highest peaks in Washington state. Hikers and complete climbers congregate around these types of lists, like the so-called 14ers in Colorado (the 58 peaks above 14,000 feet) or 46ers in New York (the 46 highest peaks in the Adirondacks). But the Bulger List is arguably the most difficult collection of its kind in the Lower 48. Only a few of these peaks have trails to the summit, with technical climbing or glacier travel being frequently required. Many of them require a difficult backcountry route finder and bush trek through the jungle-like thickets of the Pacific Northwest understory just to catch a glimpse of the top.

For Hardrath, a former Ironman triathlete now sponsored by Athletic Brewing who shifted his sporting activities to mountaineering after sustaining serious injuries in a car crash, the brutal conditions on the Bulger List provided a testing ground. “There was something poetic about doing 100 peaks for my 100th FKT, but also the conditions within those 100 peaks were all I wanted to test myself on,” Hardrath said over the phone from Klamath Falls, Oregon. “It was a cumulative final exam. (Athletic Brewing and WZRD Films have been following Hardrath’s 100 FKT saga, including the Bulger Quest, for an upcoming documentary.)

Hardrath first fell on the Bulger List in 2018 in an online mountaineering forum where climbers discussed the 410-day record set by University of Seattle mechanical engineering professor Eric Gilbertson. He thought this record could be broken – not necessarily by him – and moved on to other topics. But the Bulgers returned to his radar in 2020 as he neared his 100th record and realized he would have to reach that mark with an ambitious attempt. Bulger List’s tight-knit community, meanwhile, was eager to share information and support someone making such a bold effort. Gilbertson even visited Hardrath the night before he started wishing him luck.

With our relatively short alpine climbing season limiting the months we can tackle these peaks to around May-October, ticking off the Bulgers is a multi-season endeavor. To compress all of the shebang into a single climbing season, therefore, involved racing against the clock all summer – a perfect fit for Hardrath.

“I seem to get more experience from racing against the clock and pushing hard,” said Hardrath.

He has climbed an average of two peaks per day for 51 consecutive days, along the Cascades spine while operating from a motorhome turned base camp, starting at 6:21 a.m. on June 13 to climb Windy Peak (8,333 feet) in the Pasayten Wilderness and returning to the trailhead at 6:04 am on August 3 after reaching the summit of Mount St. Helens (8,363 feet) for a total of 870 miles and 412,000 feet of vertical drop positive.

It’s like walking from Seattle to San Francisco and climbing Mount Rainier 40 times along the way.

In between, Hardrath and his climbing partner Nathan Longhurst, who followed 65 summits last summer and who is now the youngest person to complete many Bulgers, have had countless bouts of testing their courage in mountain, each of which could make for an awesome one-season climbing thread.

It was a late June day under the intense glow of the dome of heat as we hiked from Holden Village along the shores of Lake Chelan to reach Copper Peak (8,964 feet). “Directly exposed sunlight looked like Death Valley,” said Hardrath. “It was crazy to walk 12 miles on an exposed road in intense heat and then climb to the top the same day.”

More savage still, perhaps, Hardrath and Longhurst turned the next day to topple Martin Peak (8,511 feet), Bonanza Peak (9,511 feet) and Dark Peak (8,504 feet) in a single 22 hour push. As they approached the infamous Bonanza-Dark Traverse, a knife-shaped ridge between the two peaks with thousands of feet of exposure on either side, the duo lacked daylight. While most trip reports listed six hours to complete the crossing, they crossed the technical terrain in just three hours and 15 minutes. By the time they reached the top, night was falling on Dark. They descended to Dark Glacier, then tumbled 5,000 feet to the Pacific Crest Trail. From there it was a 7 mile walk to reach a resupply of Ashley Winchester, the significant other from Hardrath.

“Do you know that feeling when your head starts to drop and you shouldn’t be driving?” Said Hardrath. “It happened while we were walking. We ended up diving on the trail and taking a nap. Winchester wandered the trail the next morning with coffee and breakfast. She found them asleep on the ground just 1.5 miles from her camp.

But this week-long stay on Lake Chelan pales logistically with the Seven Chilliwack Peaks, which are normally accessible from the Colombian side of the Cascades, even though the peaks reside in Washington. With the US-Canada border still closed to non-essential travel at the time of its attempt, Hardrath and Longhurst rented a boat from Ross Lake Resort – they would ultimately do three boat rides on this stage, which they scheduled during the Brief Windows. cellular service. while standing on top of the peaks – and started that day with the nastiest the Northwest Forest can throw at a climber.

“The worst mosquitoes you can imagine bounced off every part of our body, we breathed them through our mouths and noses,” Hardrath said. “For 11.5 consecutive hours we didn’t sit down because the bugs were so bad.”

The silver lining? They overpacked food for that leg after underpacking on an anterior segment. Over the last 22 kilometers, they each ate three dehydrated meals and two days of snacks – an assortment of Top Ramen, Mashed Potatoes, Chili Macaroni and Cheese, Chex Mix, Fritos, Oreos, Gummy Bears, Salami and Jerky. . “I have never eaten so well in the backcountry,” said Hardrath. “We ate like kings.

While Hardrath’s physical stamina withstood his ultimate challenge, there were logistical factors beyond his control. In addition to the Canadian border, it has had to deal with forest fire closures that affected public lands and the North Cascades Highway. Hardrath put Golden Horn, Tower Mountain and Azurite Peak at the top of the list once fire threatened these areas, and was forced to travel a less traveled route to reach Dome Peak and Sinister Peak due to a closure of fire. In the spirit of climbing in ‘the right style’, Hardrath insisted on respecting all border and public land closures.

“There was constant doubt that the project would have a chance to go because of the fires,” he said. As a regular visitor to the Alpine realm for personal pursuits who also professionally guide Mount Shasta, Hardrath believes conditions in the Northwestern mountains are getting warmer and drier.

“These changes are having huge impacts on the way people interact with the outdoors,” he said. “This may be one of the last years where making the Bulger record is even possible.”

Whether for weather and climatic reasons or simply because there is no one else as motivated, or arguably as crazy as Hardrath, the early conquerors of the Bulger List tilt their climbing helmets.

“Jason’s logistics for his Bulger Top 100 FKT were as mind-boggling as his incredible physical achievement,” wrote John Roper, who became the fifth climber to complete the Bulger List in 1987, via email. “[I’m] pretty sure this one will last a long time.

A Washington climber posting online as RandyR considered himself an early skeptic of Hardrath’s effort who was wowed by his Herculean feat. “A lot of people doubted he would succeed, even laughed. [at the] the pride of such an attempt – I admit, I was one of them – his persistence and dedication convinced me, ”he wrote in the comments on the FKT entry by Hardrath. “In my opinion, this is one of the most inspiring and important things to happen in the mountains, especially in the PNW, this year. “

Hardrath may also have permanently altered Washington mountaineers’ notion of what is possible in our mountains. “This concept has redefined how a community views a set of peaks,” he said.

The message he brought back to his students is a little simpler. “My belief in dreaming big and believing in yourself permeates the way I teach them,” he said. “I’m just a kid from a small town and if I can do great things then so can you.”

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