2001 Results

Aug 16-18, 2001, Fish Hatchery to Mt. Shavano summit (north to south) and Blank Cabin.

Out of 12 runners, Mike Tilden and Blake Wood finished at Blank Cabin within the 60 hour cutoff. In addition, John Robinson and Jim Nelson finished 14 summits (to Shavano) within the 60 hours. They did this without stopping to sleep, climbing Missouri, Belford, and Oxford during the first night, and Princeton during the second night. John Robinson took the lead on the second day, but at night the runners stuck together. Mike Tilden took the lead on day 3 to win in 58:51, followed by Blake Wood in 59:38.

Weather was very good, with a strong west wind bringing in cool, dry air and no thunderstorms on the first day. There was a brief 20 minute snowstorm on the second day around 5 PM. and localized thunderstorms on the third evening around 7 PM after the run ended.

Generally, the route taken by most runners was as follows. Routes by Roach are described in his book, Colorado's Fourteeners, 2nd ed.

1. Massive (14421 ft) from the Fish Hatchery (9600 ft) via Highline Trail to treeline, then up east ridge (Roach 9.7) on tundra, descend west slope on scree and tundra to treeline (Roach 9.4) to South Halfmoon Creek trailhead (10240 ft) aid station.
2. Elbert (14433 ft) via NE ridge (Roach 10.5) on steep tundra and rocks, descend via rocks to Bull Hill (Roach 10.4, 13761 ft), tundra to the Golden Fleece mine, pick up trail to Echo Canyon (10000 ft), then 2 mi. W on paved road (CO 82) to Lake Creek trailhead (10100 ft) aid.
3. La Plata (14336 ft) via NW ridge trail (Roach 11.1), descend on rocks via SW ridge (Roach 11.3, except that there is a trail descending the saddle at 12750 ft 0.6 mi. SW of the route shown by Roach and 0.4 mi. NW of the stream source). Descend to Winfield aid (10380 ft) on muddy trail and jeep road.
4. Huron (14003 ft) via NW slope on trail (Roach 12.1), then descend 0.2 mi N to saddle and into E basin above Lois Lake over steep talus and tundra, pick up trail 0.1 mi. N of lake at treeline and descend to Clohesy Lake, cross stream, aid at cabin (10800 ft). This trail is not shown by Roach.
5. Missouri (14067 ft) via West ridge (Roach 13.8) on steep trail and tundra, and descend steep scree on N face couloir (Roach 13.6) just north of summit or NW ridge (Roach 13.5) to Missouri Gulch aid (12600 ft).
6. Belford (14153 ft) via Elkhead Pass trail (Roach 13.1V2) or directly up W slope on tundra (Roach 13.1V1).
7. Oxford (14153 ft) via W slope saddle at 13500 ft on steep trail (Roach 13.2). Descend Belford-Oxford saddle S on steep tundra to treeline, pick up trail going W for 0.5 mi. and descend avalanche chute to Bedrock Falls aid station (11000 ft).
8. Harvard (14420 ft) via NW ridge (Roach 14.2), bushwacking to treeline, then on tundra.
9. Columbia (14073 ft) via Frenchman Creek basin on tundra at 12600 ft (Roach 14.7), then descend S ridge (not marked, tundra and steep bushwacking) to the N. Cottonwood aid station at the intersection of the Kroneke Lake and Horn Fork trails 2 mi. W of the trailhead.
10. Yale (14196 ft) via W avalanche chute on N side (not marked, steep bushwacking), and across tundra basin. Descend via Denny Ck. trail (Roach 14.1) at 9900 ft, and 3 mi. E on CO 306 (paved road) to Avalanche Gulch aid (9300 ft).
11. Princeton (14197 ft) via 8 mi. S on Colorado Trail, then Maxwell Gulch to NE ridge on rocky tundra (not shown by Roach). Descend Grouse Canyon on steep rocks (Roach 16.2), but descend good trail W at 10600 ft to Broken Ass ranch at W end of Alpine (not shown) and Baldwin Gulch aid (9420 ft).
12. Antero (14269 ft) on 8 mi. jeep road (Roach 17.1), descend to Brown's Lake (Roach 17.4) at 11200 ft.
13. Tabeguache (14155 ft) up NE slope (Roach 18.6).
14. Shavano (14229 ft) via 13700 ft saddle over rocks (Roach 18.7), descend trail to finish at Blank Cabin monument at 9800 ft.

Steve Bremner and Laila Hughes were married on Princton, Steve's last summit, at 4 PM Saturday, 58 hours into the run. They had planned to marry on Shavano but the course was tougher than he expected. Ginny LaForme and Eric Robinson had reached Princeton 1-2 hours before and stayed to attend the wedding.

Dennis "animal" Herr ran a hard pace, but took long sleep breaks and only made it as far as Yale. After climbing the first 4 summits with Steve Bremner, they radioed from the summit of Huron at 10:35 PM to inquire about sleeping accomodations at Cloises Lake. They had none, so they backtracked to Winfield and slept from 1AM to 8AM. From there they took the road to Missouri Gulch and climbed Missouri, Belford, Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia in daylight. On the second night, Dennis stopped at N. Cottonwood from midnight until dawn while Steve continued without sleep, climbing Yale in the dark and Princeton the following day for the wedding. Dennis climbed Yale with Matt Mahoney in the morning, reaching the summit shortly after 10 AM, then calling it quits.

Matt Mahoney reached La Plata as darkness fell, and slept from 11:30 PM to 3:30 AM at Winfield in order to do the difficult descent of Huron in daylight. He climbed Missouri, Belford, and Oxford before darkness fell again while climbing Harvard. He did not sleep on the second night, getting lost and taking a difficult route over rocks between Harvard and Columbia in the moonless night. After climbing Yale the next day, he continued on to Princeton but only climbed as far as 12500 ft before the 6 PM cutoff. He still had to traverse the summit to reach the east ridge trail to be picked up, but lost the trail during the descent after dark on the third night and had to traverse dangerously loose boulders on a steep ridge for about 2 hours until he found the trail and was picked up at 10:30 PM.

Hans Dieter Weisshaar was about an hour behind Matt until Missouri, which they climbed together. Hans was suffering from pulmonary edema and was climbing very slowly, so he dropped out at Missouri Gulch and returned the next morning to finish Belford, Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia.

Steve Simmons took a long break after climbing Massive with Ginny, Eric, and Matt, then took a wrong turn down Elbert and had to bushwack down a draw between the Black Cloud and Echo Canyon trails. He then left the course and returned at noon the next day to continue without crew or aid station support. He climbed La Plata in daylight, then Huron and Missouri at night. Near the summit of Missouri his only flashlight went out and he had to sleep on the summit with just a space blanket. The next morning, out of water, he climbed Belford and Oxford and descended to Pine Creek, out of FRS radio range of the volunteers and other runners. From there he hiked 20 miles south on the Colorado Trail until the first road crossing (CO 306) and hitchhiked to the race headquarters in Buena Vista a few miles away.

Simon Shadowlight was far behind the other runners, climbing La Plata at midnight and reaching Winfield at sunrise and Huron at noon. From there he descended to Cloises Lake (now unmanned) and left the course to sleep. He continued unofficially the next day to climb Missouri, Belford, and Oxford from Missouri Gulch without aid.

The following results are as of Aug. 29, 2001 by Jon McManus. These are unofficial and not yet complete. See notes below.