Nolan’s 14

[Jennifer Mitol]

I obviously have no idea what I'm talking about, and I've never even heard of the Nolan's 14 until I read about it here; I'm just one who is enamored with people who can do this…and wish to one day be one of them.

But I guess i just don't see anywhere where it says TH to TH…and where else is it codified?? it seems awfully informal and laid back anyway, so if the point is "14 summits in 60 hours" who cares about the trailhead??

[Aaron Sorensen]

Nolan's 14 started as a race and the rules were determined then.
The rules have not changed.

People's perspective of where the finish is may have, but this does not change the rules.

I have the same dilemma with the John Muir Trail.
Everyone knows the trail is from Whitney to Yosemite, but we must run to or from the top of Whitney as well.
Seems the last FKT attempt can be a shorter way up the Mountaineer's Route and shorten the way up to Whitney by 5ish miles.
So I say, why not just take the first 2 steps from the portal and then jump on a helicopter and take it to the top.

This is a dumb debate, they summited all 14 in less than the time of the official rules.

[Peter Bakwin]

I don't know if it's a dumb debate or not, but it's one that people are having. The problem is that Matt's website says one thing, while everyone else who has ever been involved in Nolan's, including the founder Fred Vance and every finisher who has weighed in on the topic, says something else. These latter people say the 60 hour cutoff has always been at the final trailhead. Andrew Hamilton called his 2014 60h19m TH finish an "epic fail". I find it unlikely that Missy & Frosty didn't know this, and in fact Anna's comments on the irunfar.com video interview imply that they did know. They simply chose not to run down and finish at the TH within 60 hours. This is certainly a puzzling choice, and I think they have to accept that people will criticize this and many people will not want to credit them with an "official" finish. Nolan's is a particular thing, not just a route, just as Hardrock is a particular thing – if you complete the Hardrock course over 48 hours you are not a Hardrock finisher.

They clearly have the women's FKT for Nolan's (the previous best was 12 summits). Whether or not they have a "finish" I can't say.

[Art …]

Peter – I think you are being a bit generous and diplomatic in your last sentence.

" Whether or not they have a "finish" I can't say. "

one possible solution would be for every other finisher to vote on this by anonymous ballot. its their club, they should be the deciders.

[Jennifer Mitol]

"Everyone knows the trail is from Whitney to Yosemite, but we must run to or from the top of Whitney as well."

Again, I'm learning from scratch here just as an interested bystander….

Does the clock for the JMT FKTs start/end at Whitney's summit or at the portal??? Of course you have to actually make the distance (and obviously these ladies made it to the TH at some point), but what are the CLOCK points?

[Peter Bakwin]

To quote Bill the Cat "Aaaack phhhthhttt!" Huge can of worms being opened here!!!

[Allen C]

"Does the clock for the JMT FKTs start/end at Whitney's summit or at the portal???" The answer to this is Yes/Both/Either. The clock starts and ends when the button is pushed by the person pushing the buttons. There has been and will continue to be much debate about this, and different people have done it in different ways. Standards are set by those who actually do the things, and in some cases they choose to do the things differently than those who did the things before.

[Peter Bakwin]

Well said Allen!

[Ito Jakuchu]

Didn't mean to drag the discussion, about finishing or not, on any longer but this is a pretty balanced article about the whole discussion. http://tinyurl.com/qzqutb5

[Author]

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