1999 Results

                 Summits
Gordon Hardman   7 (Harvard)
Blake Wood       7
Fred Vance       7
Steve Simmons    4 (Princeton)

The 1999 Run

[Condensed from Ultrarunning, Nov. 1999, p. 24]

The Aug. 27, 1999 run went from south to north. Blake Wood and Gordon Hardman stayed together in the lead with Fred Vance behind, crossing Shavano, Tabeguache, and Antero to the first aid station at Baldwin Gulch. Wood and Hardman climbed Princeton up the steep Grouse Canyon trail into a thunderstorm, and descended cross country to the northeast via. the Maxwell Creek basin. Vance, climbing at night, descended the longer but safer east ridge trail to the Colorado Trail.

Wood and Hardman climbed Yale in hail, snow, and freezing rain at night, only to find the backcountry aid station that was supposed to be at the N. Cottonwood trail and Horn Fork Trail intersection was missing. (It was at Horn Fork Creek, 1.5 miles away). Continuing up Columbia and Harvard, they missed the next aid station at Little John's cabin on the Pine Creek Trail, which had left on schedule. Rather than continue up Oxford during the second night, they hiked 9 miles out to reach Rt. 24 by nightfall and hitched a ride. Vance followed the same route in darkness.

Steve Simmons arrived a week later and completed the first 4 summits on his own. Report.

Report and photos by Blake Wood