Nolan’s 14

I live at the base of the southernmost peak – Shavano.

The weather here is terrible.
The rumble of thunder has been continuous all day.
The same yesterday.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better, or it will be a long day.

Best of Luck to all.

Just came across that announcement, but hadn't seen the links to follow along. Thanks.
I like her elevation scheme..

this looks like more of an exploratory fun run.
I'm sure neither Anna nor Missy (Gosney) are fully recovered from their Hardrock finishes a month ago.

they definitely won't come close to 14 this time out.
maybe 4 or 5.
but fun is fun …

Jared Campbell and Matt Hart on Nolan’s 14 in 2012.

Jared Campbell and Matt Hart

Curious: why is this "just" ultrarunning?

^^^

"Only", as in not fastpacking, UL packing, or backpacking.

I doubt the OP was denigrating the effort.

No denigration of any attempt to do Nolan's. Simply acknowledging that this is different from a fastpack.

Ladies are over Massive on the way to Elbert.

Noon here.
Clouds are building over the ridge, and are dark on the bottom. No thunder yet. Fingers are crossed.

9 peaks down and the ladies are grinding up the north side of Yale. That starts with an annoying bushwhack and then turns pretty nice. Next up is Princeton, which is a huge beast & they'll be tackling in the dark. There's some discussion of the ins & outs of this attempt over at 14ers.com:
http://14ers.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=47623

I didn't think the 2 girls were going to put in a serious effort so close after Hardrock. They are proving me wrong.
11 peaks down, 3 to go.

the comicalness in all this is that now Colorado has its very own JMT esk disagreement. does Nolan's 14 end at the 14th summit or at the last trailhead after that summit ?? no one can agree apparently.

Two peaks to go.
4.5 hours remain on the 60 hour cutoff.

They did the last peak (Antero) in about two hours.
It's a talus "ridge walk" from Tabegueche (tab-ah-wash) to Shavano.

I'd say they have a good chance of success.
An amazing feat.

Thought it was understood to be last summit. Where has the disagreement arisen from?

Peter – I'm not a Nolan's 14 expert.
go to the link in Peter Bakwin's entry above.
some discussion about the disagreement for terminus.

Thanks Peter for posting this on BPL.
Otherwise I would have missed history in the making.

Anna Frost and Missy Gosney have become the first women to complete the Nolan’s 14 line. They just topped out on the 14th summit, Mount Shavano, in 57 hours, 55 minutes!
Nolan’s 14 consists of summiting 14 mountains in Colorado’s Sawatch Range in excess of 14,000 feet altitude and doing so in under 60 hours.
Photos: iRunFar/Mauri Pagliacci and Jason Koop

VIA IRunfar's Facebook page.

SO cool. Congratulations to them both.

apparently the rules say you must reach the final trailhead in under 60 hours to actually "complete" Nolan's 14.

still have not heard if they accomplished that.

From what I read on the 14ers forum, it's very unlikely that they finished TH-TH in time; They needed to cover the summit-TH in an hour and those who'd traversed it said it would be "flying" down the mountain, which seems extremely dangerous on such exhausted legs.

It seems to be well agreed upon that they wouldn't had no issues doing it but they celebrated for 2 hours at the last summit instead of continuing down to the cabin (probably a much more inspiring place to party with their crew than at the cabin)…I'm guessing they felt they accomplished what they set out to do and had no intentions of appeasing others.

Interestingly enough, the list of those who are saying they didn't finish in time to be "Nolan 14 finishers" includes most of the people who's went TH-TH in under 60 hours as well as the unsupported FKT holder, who finished TH-TH in 60:19 and called it an "epic failure" since he feels he did not complete it in time.

I'm now where near capable of even doing half of the Nolans 14 in 60 hours so my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt…but after reading the history of how this challenge has evolved over the years (times, prep, and how popularity is growing fast now) it makes me wonder how tangible an unsupported TH-TH finish is for people.

To me, unsupported times should be measuring stick for finishing. The fact that nobody has accomplished it in 15 years seems to say a lot in terms of how exclusive the group of finishers will be in the next 5-10 years

Supported attempts are still incredible but I find it ridiculous that over the past 15 years to even qualify as a finisher an attempt MUST include support crew.

Originally Nolan's was a race which included support crews. That ethic has continued, and so far nearly everyone has used them. Purely physically, it should not make that much difference since the added weight to carry 3 days of food isn't that much. Psychologically it's a big deal for many people. Andrew Hamilton would have finished under 60 hours unsupported but made a navigation error on the final descent. This would have been avoided if he'd had a paver (supported). I predict we'll see an unsupported finish this year or next.

One interesting observation is that Missy & Anna's support crew literally cost them the 60 hour TH finish, as they describe events in the irunfar interview. Anna says they were going to head down with the intention of finishing under 60 (which would have been easy). But saw numerous support people marching up with champagne & decided to celebrate right there on the mtn. (In fact that TH is uninspiring & usually buggy.) Support completely changes the dynamic & sometimes in ways that aren't foreseen & may not be helpful.

"Support completely changes the dynamic & sometimes in ways that aren't foreseen & may not be helpful."

Record keeping/chasing completely changes the dynamic in ways that might not be helpful for the spirit of adventure.

Tip of the hat to them for enjoying the view with the folks who helped make it possible.

apparently Anna spent months studying the course.
and Missy is from Colorado and has attempted Nolan's before.
its impossible for me to believe they did not know the finish was the trailhead.
something smells fishy in all their post run explanations.
yielding to sponsor wishes ?
one of them actually too wasted to make it to the trailhead under 60 hours ?
it has happened before.
2001 – John Robinson final summit 57:55 (same as girls) trailhead 60:01.

yes these girls did an amazing feat, but I've lost a bit of respect for them in they way they have handled the after party.
it just sounds like a sad attempt at political spin.

doesn't the actual Nolan's 14 page say "Cutoff is 60 hours to the last summit" ?? (cut and paste from said website)

And this from National Geographic: "Update: We checked with Matt Mahoney, the Nolan’s 14 record keeper, on how the Nolan’s 14 finish is defined. He said: “Like any challenge, the participants make the rules. Traditionally, the clock stops on the last summit.” "

"I know there is some debate about whether the finish is the last summit or the trailhead. I record both times on my website if they are provided. But the participants make the rules. In the original race, the object was to climb as many 14ers as possible in 60 hours. 14 is the most you can do, regardless of your time to the trailhead. Andrew Hamilton’s unsupported record is 57:18 to Massive in 2014 (not 60:19 to Fish Hatchery). The course record is 52:42 by John Robinson in 2002. A total of 13 people have now reached the last summit in 60 hours (John Robinson twice).

I climbed Shavano with some friends to see Missy and Anna finish. We celebrated at the summit, and they turned off their SPOT and took their time coming down. I don’t know their time to the trailhead (I got there later) but it’s not relevant."

Matt Mahoney
Leadville CO
August 20, 1:57 pm

the parameters of FKT records are essentially established by those who do them.
every other person besides Anna and Missy who has claimed to have done Nolan's 14 has made this claim based on their time at the trailhead.
Matt is not a Nolan's 14 finisher to the best of my knowledge, he simply claims to keep the web site (which sadly needs update and clarification).
so Matt can not really say what the parameters are.
if the girls want to claim a Nolan's 14 finish they must do what the others have done.
sure they came close and can claim an FKT to the 14th summit going south, but they can not claim a Nolan's 14 finish.