Latest / Run Mountain Peaks / Best 2025 White Mountain National Forest FKTs
Transcript
- 0:00All right, welcome back to another episode of Run Mountain
- 0:03Peaks. I'm excited for this episode.
- 0:06Today. We got a good one.
- 0:07We're going to be going through the best FKTS from this year,
- 0:112025 from the White Mountains. And I'm sure people are
- 0:16thinking, well, how do you know? How are you ranking them?
- 0:18How do we know which is best? We're going to do them all.
- 0:22So factually, the best FKTS will be talked about in this episode.
- 0:26It it must be true. Based off of my research there
- 0:31is 112 routes on that that is running, hiking on foot that go
- 0:38through the White Mountain National Forest and 48 new FKTS
- 0:43from 2025. Now it's not 48 different
- 0:47routes. A lot of the routes had
- 0:49different variations and multiple people doing the same
- 0:53time are besting the times. But 48 new established FKTS and
- 0:57we're going to go through them all.
- 0:59We're going to start with some of the heavy hitters.
- 1:01I think some of these FKTS are kind of just jaw-dropping stats,
- 1:06mileage, vert times. And then some of them are just
- 1:10really, really competitive, like super fast.
- 1:13Who knows when they're going to get broken.
- 1:15And so obviously it's hard to say which ones are best, but
- 1:18we're going to start with some of the heavy hitters.
- 1:20I'll go through and give you my thoughts on all of them and
- 1:25yeah, and just kind of hype up the FKT scene because, you know,
- 1:28I think some people say that the FKT scene in the north, FKT
- 1:33scene in the Northeast or in the White Mountains is maybe a
- 1:36little bit dead. You know, the Prezi, the Pemmi,
- 1:39the Hut traverse, lots of people are going those and no one can
- 1:42best those times or not recently.
- 1:45And you know, some people are just they're, they're so fast
- 1:49and competitive now. It's just like hard for a lot of
- 1:51people to go after them. But like I said, there's 112 FKT
- 1:56routes in the whites. A lot of these routes when I was
- 1:58doing the research don't even have times on them right now.
- 2:02And so I think there's, there are so many good routes and
- 2:05mountains in the Whites with FKTS on them.
- 2:08We just need to push some other routes along and get some hype
- 2:12going on on some of the other routes.
- 2:15So I think we're going to do this rundown.
- 2:18We're going to shout out everyone who hit FKT this year
- 2:21and hopefully we get some more people excited about the FKT
- 2:24scene in the Northeast. I think the FKTS have gotten
- 2:29like there are so many FK TS. I did not know that there was
- 2:32112 of them when I started this list.
- 2:35I started compiling this and was like, oh, you know, there's
- 2:38probably a couple dozen. It might be cool to have you
- 2:41know all the times and all the names you know track.
- 2:43So I know up to date. I'm up to speed on things and I
- 2:47was not expecting 112 of them to pop up.
- 2:50So I think there's a lot of them.
- 2:53And like I said, some have no time, some just have one
- 2:55person's time from years ago. I think we got a bunch of FK TS,
- 2:59cool FK TS. Let's start racing them, put
- 3:02down competitive times on them. You know, run the whites has
- 3:06done a great job with the throw down efforts this year, kind of
- 3:09hyping up some Strava segments and kind of just showing that we
- 3:13we got people that can get excited about routes.
- 3:15We just need to do it on on some of these new routes in the
- 3:19whites. He he pumped up the swan song
- 3:22this year, put a little bouncy on it and got a bunch of goes on
- 3:24that. So I think we just need to put
- 3:26more emphasis and more hype behind these FKTS and really get
- 3:29the FKT scene revived. Although it's not it, it's
- 3:33definitely, this year's was huge in the FKT scene.
- 3:35So I shouldn't say revive, but let's yeah, let's prove wrong.
- 3:40The FKT scene is dead talk. So yeah, so we're going to go
- 3:46through all these. And the other thing that I was
- 3:47thinking too, if some of these went past your radar, because
- 3:51some of them definitely went past my radar.
- 3:54If you didn't hear about these, if you're hearing about it for
- 3:56the first time, if some of them are cool, some of them are super
- 3:59impressive. They're like, wow, that is that
- 4:00is insane. I know that wrote that's crazy.
- 4:03Go Google the FKT, click on on the FKT that whoever ran it,
- 4:08click on the time, go to Strava and give them some end of year
- 4:11kudos. I don't get on Strava too, too
- 4:14much. But when I go back and I try to
- 4:16at least go and see what people have been up to and hit some of
- 4:19the big races. If I see a big spike in volume
- 4:21on someone's graph, go check that out, give them some kudos.
- 4:23Let's go and hype some of these people up.
- 4:26End of the year Pat on the back. You know, a lot of these FK TS
- 4:29mean a lot to people and sometimes, you know, obviously
- 4:32they mean more to those people, but I think it's just because
- 4:35there's, you know, there's so much going on.
- 4:37Some people miss them. So if any of these stick out, go
- 4:40give some people some hype end of year stuff, get some
- 4:42motivation going into next year. Maybe we get some more people on
- 4:45these routes and and yeah, get get people excited.
- 4:51So without further ado, we're going to start through this
- 4:53list. I have lots of thoughts.
- 4:55We're not going to go like crazy.
- 4:57It's not just going to be names times, just go down a crazy
- 4:59list. I'm going to give lots of
- 5:00thoughts and some of these have already been talked about on
- 5:03another podcast or other places. So I'll just kind of give you my
- 5:06thoughts on all of them. So to start it off, I think the
- 5:10White Mountains, what are they known for?
- 5:12Everybody knows about the 4000 footers and I think we had some
- 5:17crazy good efforts on the 4000 footers, FKTAKA, the
- 5:22Deeratissima. So Andrew Drummond and Lexi
- 5:25Jackson take those down this year.
- 5:28And like I said, these, these mountains are so iconic.
- 5:31Everybody knows about them. The deer Artisima linking them
- 5:34all up by foot, unsupported with all the gear in your back.
- 5:39It's a, it's a very cool route. The stats are crazy and it's
- 5:43gotten competitive over the years.
- 5:45And each of them, I think Andrew, I don't know if it was
- 5:48on his podcast or or Will's podcast, he talked about his
- 5:51Deerartisima. Lexi went on the Run the Whites
- 5:54podcast and talked about her Deratissima.
- 5:56So if you're interested in hearing those stories, go there.
- 6:00But just talking about the route itself and how competitive it's
- 6:03gotten over the years, I think the Deratissima is it is a bear
- 6:09to kind of take on because there's so much logistic
- 6:12planning. It's such a long route.
- 6:15I mean, you're committing days just on the route alone, not
- 6:18even talking about training. And it hasn't gotten a ton of
- 6:23action in the last couple years just because it's such a bear.
- 6:26But there's been some super strong times over the years and
- 6:29it is very competitive, so iconic and and competitive.
- 6:34So for the men's Bill Ted in 2019 does it a little over six
- 6:39days. If you don't know Bill Ted, yes
- 6:43you do. So super strong.
- 6:45Obviously Will Peterson, he bested it in 2020, the year
- 6:49after Bill did it 5 1/2 days. And for the last five years that
- 6:54has been the time I think a couple people have gone after it
- 6:58have coming up come come up short.
- 7:00But obviously Will in the multi day scene has done has done the
- 7:04biggest of feats, especially in the FKT world.
- 7:07So a super strong time. And then this year Andrew
- 7:10Drummond goes and lowers it by what is that 12 hours, half of a
- 7:14day? He goes in four days and 20 to
- 7:18almost 23 hours. So he slips under the five day
- 7:20mark. And how competitive is this
- 7:24time? This is This is why I think
- 7:25about Andrew's time from this year and these routes, the more
- 7:29and more people do them, the more competitive and the more
- 7:32perfect you have to run these times.
- 7:34So as far as like fitness, for those of you who didn't know,
- 7:38Andrew Drummond ran the Cannon Circus series this year and he
- 7:44put down a crazy fast time. He ran it in 1/08, which was I
- 7:48think it was fifth in the expert field and top 20 in the pro
- 7:52field. And so super, super fast.
- 7:57And so his his fitness is high highest it could be or you know,
- 8:02it is the highest level. Like I said, there's only he was
- 8:06top 20 in circus. So there's only 19 people that
- 8:08showed up to that race that, that were fitter.
- 8:12And so his fitness is there top end fitness, his route
- 8:17knowledge, experience on the route.
- 8:19I think anything you do twice, the second time you're going to
- 8:22do it faster, even if there you can't really say why you did it
- 8:26that much faster. I was about the same fitness.
- 8:28I knew the route really good at both times.
- 8:30There's something about doing something a second time where
- 8:32you just do it faster and I'm sure he learned a lot.
- 8:35This is a route that's hard to get right the first time, so I'm
- 8:38sure he learned a lot. So he had experience on his
- 8:40side. He's obviously he put in a big
- 8:43training block before this, so he's well trained, big mileage,
- 8:47very prepared for this route. And he lives in the Whites where
- 8:51he was just doing big days on these exact trails.
- 8:55The weather he had was really good this year was a dry weather
- 8:58and it wasn't super, super hot. And so I think all he he really
- 9:02hit it on the head and all these different aspects.
- 9:06The one thing I think that that maybe could be improved upon
- 9:10obviously is someone could show up a little bit fitter with a
- 9:13little bit more volume, which is going to be tough to do to find
- 9:16somebody who wants to sacrifice all this time for this route
- 9:20could be pushing the sleep probably a little bit more.
- 9:23I think I don't know exactly how much he slept every night, but
- 9:27just with the the recent Scutney race for 4 1/2 straight days, no
- 9:31sleep, people pushing the sleep deprivation and just foaming at
- 9:36the mouth on some of these FK TS.
- 9:38That is probably the only place where you could improve a little
- 9:42bit, but then you have to get everything else right.
- 9:45So I think this this route is is super cool.
- 9:48It's a bear and his time is is crazy good.
- 9:52And who do I think could go and take this time?
- 9:55I mean, obviously will Peterson, his multi day scene, he's just
- 10:00he's just swept on a lot of crazy FKTS.
- 10:02He has that route knowledge. And so I think he's a he's a
- 10:05great contender. He's got that probably chip on
- 10:07his shoulder. He did in 2020.
- 10:09So I'm sure he's more fit now and more experienced now and I
- 10:12could see him going after it. Joffrey Peters is another person
- 10:16who I think he went after it this year and was on pace for
- 10:20like 4 days but then ended up bailing and Andrew talked about
- 10:24hitting his split. So I think he's another guy.
- 10:26He is really fast, obviously cares a lot about the route,
- 10:30puts up big mileage and has experience now.
- 10:32So he could be another one that goes for it.
- 10:34But the list of people who could, who could go for that
- 10:37ride, I mean, Connor Brown's another one.
- 10:38You just saw what he did on no sleep for four days.
- 10:40So he he's a young buck that could just go crazy on that
- 10:44route. But I really do think that the
- 10:46strategy would be go at the same pace as Andrew and just sleep an
- 10:50hour or two less than him each night and, and hope it doesn't
- 10:54hurt you in the long run. But that that route is really,
- 10:57really, really strong. And I think if nobody goes after
- 10:59it in the next year or so, it's going to be that's going to be
- 11:02the time for a long time. So that's a crazy, crazy good
- 11:06time there by Andrew. And then Lexi's time, equally as
- 11:10impressive, equally as competitive.
- 11:13So before her time, Lila hair Herod had it seven days, 7 1/2
- 11:19days. And then Arlette LON had it
- 11:21almost 9 days before that. So she improves it by almost 2
- 11:25full days. And Lexi, I mean another athlete
- 11:30as fit as they come, trained in the mountains, had huge block
- 11:34before this, knows those mountains super well, good with
- 11:40multi day stuff and and deep deep.
- 11:45Well, she's a friend. I paste her on the White
- 11:47Mountains of 100 when she did that and she has as deep of well
- 11:50as as you can go. I think the one area on her
- 11:53route and she talked about it on on the run, the Whites, but
- 11:57didn't have good weather. I think had a bad ankle roll the
- 11:59first day and then didn't have good weather for a couple days
- 12:03there. Like snowing.
- 12:05She ran it in September, snowing in September, ice, which
- 12:09definitely slows you down. And as far as kind of the sleep
- 12:13thing, she goes for four days and then the last night she does
- 12:17not sleep at all and just epics through the night to finish this
- 12:22out in 5 1/2 days. So as far as like sleep
- 12:24deprivation, I think she probably pushed it as as close
- 12:28as you can get. And, and yeah, like I said, she
- 12:32just has an insanely deep well. So I think better weather if if
- 12:37a woman, if a woman's going to go after that time is probably
- 12:41the place that you're going to make up some some time there.
- 12:43So as far as women who can go and take this time or try to
- 12:47take this time. Amber constant, she went on from
- 12:51the Backcountry and said I think she was looking at this route
- 12:53for next year. And I think it's hard to bet
- 12:56against Amber after the year she had.
- 12:58She goes 40,000 vert on Flume Liberty and then she goes, I
- 13:03mean, we'll talk about some of the stuff, but she has the
- 13:05double 100 the AT the stutney. I mean, just pushing the limits
- 13:09as far as sleep, pushing the body and obviously very fast.
- 13:13So yeah, she's one that definitely is going to.
- 13:17It sounds like she's going to take a crack at it and I'm sure
- 13:19it's going to be good. That would be interesting put if
- 13:21we could get that dot tracker up and put them side by side.
- 13:26I don't even know if you could do that, but seeing her going
- 13:28after it would be fun to watch. And I think better conditions
- 13:34where you can make up some time there for sure.
- 13:36But everything else, you got to be perfect.
- 13:39I mean, other names like Alyssa Godesky, Stephanie Bishop, those
- 13:43are the supported 4000 footer FKTS previously and Alyssa still
- 13:48holds holds it. I don't know if they do
- 13:51unsupported stuff. I don't know if they have
- 13:53experienced backpacking because that is a huge element to these
- 13:56efforts. So who knows if they even want
- 14:00to go after it like a Tara Dauer, right?
- 14:02She does the AT, she's very much good at the multi days.
- 14:05I mean, top of the sport. I don't even know if there's
- 14:07something she would want to do. But she's another person kind of
- 14:09personality just goes super deep and and pushes it.
- 14:13But yeah, those two times, I think in the next year, if
- 14:16neither of the Deeratissima times get broken, they're going
- 14:20to stand for a long, long time because those are those are very
- 14:23competitive. So that's the Deeratissima,
- 14:27definitely two of the best FKTFKTS of the year.
- 14:31Next up we have the Whites 100. So this route got a lot of
- 14:35action on it this year run the Whites put on the the Whites
- 14:39100. I think a dozen or so people
- 14:41went out and finished it, and there's not been a ton of
- 14:45finishes on that time, but there's been a bunch from this
- 14:47year. So we'll just go and
- 14:48chronologic, chronological order here.
- 14:51Zan Albrecht goes out first in June, and he sets the
- 14:55unsupported FKT at one day, 22 hours.
- 14:59Then a month later, Christopher Walkins, Walkins Poquette, he
- 15:05goes out and improves it to a day, one day, 13 hours and 30
- 15:10minutes. So improves it by 7 or 8 hours.
- 15:13And I remember seeing that time thinking, wow, unsupported, that
- 15:17that is a a crazy time. I mean, under 38 hours on that
- 15:22route unsupported. I think he had done a through
- 15:24hike or an AT or something. And so he, I mean, yeah, he's
- 15:30definitely, he was definitely very fit and could do kind of
- 15:34the unsupported style. And he put on a really good
- 15:36time. And I remember being super
- 15:38impressed with that time thinking, yeah, that is really
- 15:41good. But then a month later, Austin
- 15:44Black goes and he runs it in 34 hours.
- 15:48He slips under the 35 hour mark. That is definitely one of the
- 15:52best FK CS from the year. Doing that unsupported in 30
- 15:57under 35 hours is super, super impressive, Super impressive.
- 16:02And I think did he go to Western states this year?
- 16:04He's a fast guy. He lives up there once in a
- 16:08while. I, I, I feel like I arrive at
- 16:10his straw and he's running a Merrimack.
- 16:12I don't know if he's a Merrimack Ian, but he's a very strong
- 16:15runner. So he puts out a crazy good
- 16:16time. And then Next up September, Cara
- 16:20Baskin goes for the supported woman's time.
- 16:23She runs a 3412 which is blazing fast, so a little bit faster
- 16:33than Austin did. It supported but improved on
- 16:37Christina Fulsick's time by 5 hours and then Lexie Jackson and
- 16:41Mike Conley did this mixed gender FKT and improved upon
- 16:46that by almost five hours. That is super impressive.
- 16:50I think that this one is definitely one of the best FTC
- 16:52this year that one is going to get might stand for a long time.
- 16:58Care Baskin, super strong runner.
- 17:01She won Vermont 50 I think a couple of years ago.
- 17:04So she's super fast, top end speed.
- 17:07I think she's a gritter, lives up north like is in the
- 17:10mountains a lot. Super strong athlete and she she
- 17:13threw down a crazy good time. So very impressive there.
- 17:16And then the last FKT on the whites 100 is Whitney Pearson's
- 17:21unsupported. She goes out and at the end of
- 17:24September she runs it in two days, five hours.
- 17:27And yeah, Whitney Pearson is, is tough.
- 17:30She goes, she grinds so hard. If there is a route that people
- 17:34are scared of doing or don't want to do it, she'll go and do
- 17:38it. She'll work a full day and then
- 17:39go do it at night. I remember, I think she's done a
- 17:41couple FKTS where she worked like full days and then just
- 17:44goes out at night for an A day or two straight days.
- 17:49Yeah, she gets after it. So she goes, puts an unsupported
- 17:51time up there and then I guess not done.
- 17:54The last last one in the White Mountains, 100, the out and back
- 17:57supported by Amber, Constant four days and two hours.
- 18:02She ran it in September. And the yo yos, Oh, man, the yo
- 18:08yos. It is just so insane.
- 18:11You hit the Whites 100 and then you get to the end.
- 18:13You're like, again, I want it again.
- 18:17Yeah, the Yo yos are something that is, it really takes a super
- 18:22strong minded person to want to go out and do that just yeah,
- 18:29you just got to love pain, pain and psychological pain and
- 18:33suffering for doing Yo yos. But yeah, 4 hours, that's super
- 18:37impressive. Yeah, Whitney's time was a
- 18:40little over 2 days. And so Amber goes two days out,
- 18:42two days back. It was supported though,
- 18:43obviously, but that is so insane and and I feel like you see, I
- 18:48see like crazy yo Yos all the time.
- 18:50Larson wants to do a Hut to Hut. yo-yo Philip Karsha goes the
- 18:53kank yo-yo, right, He's yo yoed a bunch of things.
- 18:57The people who just love getting out there and grinding harder
- 19:00than everybody else. They do yo yos on routes that a
- 19:03lot of people don't even want to do single, single shots.
- 19:06So yeah, that is definitely a really, really strong FETI don't
- 19:11know who would want to go and beat that.
- 19:14But then Next up, I think even a more impressive FKT, obviously
- 19:18both super impressive. But Amber before this in June
- 19:22goes out and runs the New Hampshire AT single section go
- 19:28and sets the overall FKT there. She goes 2 days and 22 hours.
- 19:33The previous record was held by Larson.
- 19:35He saws the men's record. He ran in three days and 0
- 19:38hours. So she gets the overall FKT and
- 19:43you know, thinking about that route, I know Will's talked
- 19:46about on his podcast, 3 days is definitely the fastest anyone's
- 19:50done the AT effort. So all of these long distance AT
- 19:53efforts, they go longer than three days.
- 19:56And so when Larson did that, that's got to be the fastest one
- 19:59shot. And I think he had a rough day
- 20:00out there. Remember he's puking the whole
- 20:02first day and just an absolute warrior still gets it done,
- 20:07doesn't drop. But Amber is is the fastest
- 20:10person to ever do that, men or women's on that route under 3
- 20:15days. Yeah, when I saw that that that
- 20:18effort is is super insane and probably one of her strong.
- 20:21I mean those the four that I mentioned though are also
- 20:23insane. She just had a a banger of a
- 20:26year. So yeah, that's definitely one
- 20:29of the best FK TS of the year for sure on the whites.
- 20:32And then Next up we have one that slipped by my radar, the
- 20:35flume and liberty loop unsupported by Lars Hogney.
- 20:40Hope I'm not messing that up. He runs it in an hour and 33
- 20:44minutes. If you don't know Lars, dude is
- 20:47young. He won the Kimzikliffs
- 20:49Kimzikliff race this year. He won Jackson bridge 10K.
- 20:53He's AI think he goes URID 1 runner low fifteens 5K type of
- 20:59speed and he goes out and bests Ben Thompson's one hour and 42
- 21:05minutes by almost 9 minutes. If you don't know Ben Thompson,
- 21:09Ben Thompson is one of the best. He has some crazy time in the
- 21:14whites, a 540 something penny guy.
- 21:18Go go look at his ultra sign up. Go look at his FKT page.
- 21:23Like just an absolute stud of a runner.
- 21:28Yeah, so, so strong. And Lars beats that by 9
- 21:31minutes. That is insane.
- 21:34Yeah, hopefully Lars pursues road.
- 21:37Yeah, look for shoes, road running because, yeah, if you're
- 21:41lining up next to Lars in the next 10 years on trails, buckle
- 21:45up. You're about to go for a ride in
- 21:47the pain cave. So yeah, that kind of a smaller
- 21:51route there, but as competitive as a time as you can get on that
- 21:55route. I'm sure that's going to stand
- 21:56for a long, long time. Next up, the Mahoussic Traverse.
- 22:01Unsupported Jeff Colt wrote goes out and runs a 640.
- 22:06He best Dan Feiser's Feisner's time by over an hour.
- 22:11Jeff Colt, pro runner, used to have the Hutch reverse FKT 1030
- 22:16Hut traverse, No sub 11 Hut traverse.
- 22:19He ran the course record at High Lonesome 100.
- 22:22This year he gets paid to run and Cooley came out and did the
- 22:25Mahoussic traverse. He went on Will and Andrew's
- 22:28podcast, so you can hear the story there.
- 22:31So that's a really cool time that he came back and kind of
- 22:33did it a smaller route and and you have a crazy good a pro
- 22:37runners time there. This is the thing about these
- 22:39FKTS when you get people like that to run a route, Anybody
- 22:44who's who's saying, oh, must be or thinks that they can run fast
- 22:49or wants to prove something. There you go.
- 22:51If you're around the Mahoussa traverse, you really like it
- 22:53there. You want to prove something, you
- 22:55got a pro runners time, go out there and see what you can do.
- 22:58So it's cool that you have kind of a standard on that right now.
- 23:01And then Hillary Girardi, she didn't run this this year, but
- 23:04she has a seven hour, 16 minute pace on that route.
- 23:08So a little over 1/2 hour behind Jeff.
- 23:11That is such a strong time for women that could last forever.
- 23:18I think Jeff's time was super impressive.
- 23:21Hillary's time also super impressive just where the level
- 23:25that Jeff is at right now. I mean, like I said, Highlands
- 23:27of 100 heat. Go look at his ultrasound up
- 23:29list. Dude is crushing it fast as you
- 23:31can get and and Hillary's not too far behind there.
- 23:34So and she's a great runner in himself.
- 23:36So that was the Mahoussic traverse.
- 23:38Next up we have the lodge to dodge.
- 23:41Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it.
- 23:46I think this is one of the better ones of the year.
- 23:49So this is the route that I did. Obviously I care about this road
- 23:52a lot. A lot have a lot of bias towards
- 23:55it. I did an hour and a half
- 23:56podcasts if you want to hear about it.
- 23:58I talked about that Lodge to Dodge route, but the quick, what
- 24:02I will say about that one, I think it is a clean, it's on the
- 24:07AT mostly it's a clean route and a bridge between the Hut
- 24:10Traverse and the White Mountains 100 on the same route as the
- 24:13White Mountains 100. And I ran that.
- 24:16So I ran it at 22 1/2 hours. I bested Larson's time, which
- 24:20was 30, almost 32 hours. So I bested it by almost 10
- 24:24hours and that effort was a minute per mile slower than Jack
- 24:29Kenzel's White Mountains 100, which he had pace is the whole
- 24:33way and I only had pace her for 20 miles.
- 24:35So that's the that's the pitch for the Lodge to dodge being a
- 24:38competitive time. I do think that's a great time
- 24:41and I would love for more people to go out there and test that
- 24:43time lower it get a woman's time of the Lodge to dodge.
- 24:47I think it's a great route. Next up we have the Pemidential.
- 24:52Now the Pemidential, this is similar to the Lodge to Dodge.
- 24:55It's a little, I think it's a little bit shorter.
- 24:58It might be a little bit longer in mileage, about the same vert,
- 25:01maybe a little bit less vert, and then you get like 20 miles
- 25:03of Rd. But there's been some people to
- 25:06go that route. So the supported FKT was held by
- 25:10Mike Conley. If you run on the Whites, you
- 25:12know Mike, he's just does crazy stuff all the time.
- 25:15He had it at a day and five hours.
- 25:18And from 2022 Corin Kousnick goes out and runs self supported
- 25:25in a day and two hours. So he best Mike's time by three
- 25:29hours, Mike's supported time by three hours, self supported.
- 25:33And I think Mike had went out with somebody.
- 25:36Yeah, he went out with Clark. I'm pretty sure on that effort,
- 25:39which whenever you're on with somebody else, you're never
- 25:41going to get the best out of either person.
- 25:43But yes, super impressive. This is definitely one of the
- 25:47better FKTS of the year and I think it slipped under the
- 25:49radar. Corin.
- 25:50He's won mid state 100 twice. He won the White Lake Ultra this
- 25:55year and yeah, so when he when he throws down, you know he's
- 26:01going to give it his all and that's very impressive.
- 26:03I don't know where he lives this.
- 26:04I thought he lives in the city ish maybe so for him to go up
- 26:08into the mountains and do that time.
- 26:10I was super impressed by that time self supported.
- 26:12So that was very, very strong. Definitely one of the better
- 26:16ones of the year. The Mount Hancock loop.
- 26:19This is another shorter one, similar to the Liberty and
- 26:22Flume, but unsupported. Jonathan Mcarney lowers that
- 26:26FKT, which was held by Ben Nephew.
- 26:28So Ben Nephew had it at 139. Jonathan runs 129 on that route.
- 26:35And if you don't know Ben nephew, I mean, that dude just
- 26:38dominated the trail scene for 10 or 20 years prior.
- 26:43He's a little bit older now, still throws down, I think, but
- 26:46he is like the staple. He's done it all, especially in
- 26:49the White Mountains. And definitely someone that I
- 26:52kind of look up to as as just a just a trailblazer as far as
- 26:56some of the speed stuff. And to beat a time like that by
- 26:5910 minutes, that's super strong. Jonathan is very strong uphiller
- 27:05overall, just a strong run or two and he came in 3rd at the
- 27:08Kim's at Cliff race this year. I think he's maybe 10 minutes
- 27:11behind Lars, but another just fast, super strong time.
- 27:15And I don't know who would, you know, that's that could be a
- 27:18time that lasts for a long, long time because I think the Hancock
- 27:21strangely has gotten a few goes. I don't know if a David Hedges
- 27:24went that that but kill Poland in 2016 or 2017, whenever that
- 27:29dude was ripping around trails, he had a good time on there.
- 27:32So Jonathan Best at that time, very impressive.
- 27:37Next up we have the swan song. So this was the one that run the
- 27:41whites kind of put a bounty on. I don't know what what I don't
- 27:45know if Drum put like run the Whites gift cards or shoes or
- 27:47something, but there was a little bit of a bounty on this
- 27:50and it hadn't been touched for a while.
- 27:52But this is one of the gnarlier routes in the Whites and one
- 27:55that I want to do eventually. I've definitely looked at it
- 27:57before and the previous FKT. So there were the few people
- 28:01have gone the FKT. We'll start with the
- 28:03unsupported. So Jonathan Rizzo had it at 13
- 28:06hours, 20 minutes. Ray Martin comes along in 2025
- 28:10after Drummond puts a little thing out.
- 28:12He runs it in 11 hours and 20 minutes.
- 28:14And then Andrew Drummond goes out and runs it in nine hours
- 28:18and 14 minutes. This was after two months after
- 28:21his Deuratisima and that two hour improvement on this route
- 28:26is insane. Another comparison.
- 28:28So Ben nephew did this self supported a few years ago in
- 28:321135 S Ben nephew, like I said, a crazy good standard in his
- 28:37trip report. Ben nephew said that this is
- 28:39probably the most dangerous route that he's ever run.
- 28:42It is just head wall up and down in the Prezi.
- 28:46That's you're going more up down than you are horizontal.
- 28:48It's it's totally insane. The trails are very confusing.
- 28:52I don't really know the trails too well but Andrew when I saw
- 28:55914 on that is so insane. I think the mileage is like 30
- 29:01ish but with 20 maybe 1000 feet of gain.
- 29:04But just the the sheer steepness and technicality of those routes
- 29:09and he bested the the next best time by two hours.
- 29:11So that's one that's definitely going to stand there.
- 29:13That is definitely one of the strongest like competitive
- 29:15times. It's probably going to last for
- 29:17a while. He puts a bounty and he goes and
- 29:19gets the bounty. I don't know how that works, but
- 29:22OK. And then the mixed gender FKT
- 29:25goes down in, yeah, in September.
- 29:28Erika Notini and Lance Parker did that. 1241.
- 29:32They bested Lexi Jackson and Mike Conley, who have a handful
- 29:35of the mixed gender FKTS. They ran it about 15 minutes
- 29:38faster than them. Erika Notini, I think they're
- 29:42really well at Bubba's, I'm pretty sure if I'm remembering
- 29:45right, very strong runner. So went and put up a mixed
- 29:48gender time there and then the unsupported women's time.
- 29:51Katie Melski goes out there and bests the FKT by 5 hours.
- 29:56She runs a 14 hour and 10 minute time there in September.
- 30:02Phoebe Seltzer had that time before, 19 hours and 35 minutes
- 30:05in 2020. So that was five years at that
- 30:07time. Held up, we had a new time, 14
- 30:09hours, so some good action on the swan song, swan swan song.
- 30:18And then Next up we have the Grafton Grafton loop FKT.
- 30:23So the unsupported men's time goes down.
- 30:26Finn Kind runs a 744 on this route 2025.
- 30:31The previous time before that was Peter Howe 755 in 2020 and
- 30:36then Ben Nephia had ran an 841. For those of you who don't know
- 30:40Peter Howe is, I don't know if he races too much anymore, but
- 30:44back in the day, a crusher. Still a crusher just doesn't
- 30:47race as much I don't think. He has some crazy good times.
- 30:51Another kind of like Ben Nephew, like kind of an icon.
- 30:53Like you ever see Peter Howe on the trails?
- 30:55Holy smokes as Peter Howe super fast.
- 30:58He has the course record at Kilkenny.
- 31:00Go look at his, his what? He's racist, he's done he he has
- 31:03some super impressive time. So to beat a Peter Howe and a
- 31:05Ben nephew that is very, very competitive.
- 31:08I think Finn is a main guy and clearly he's super fast and that
- 31:12is definitely one of the better FKTS from this year.
- 31:15So Grafton Loop, FKT goes down. Next up we have the battle for
- 31:21the double Pemi. So this is one that went under
- 31:25my radar a little bit. And when I was looking up, I was
- 31:28like, oh, there's a little bit of a battle this year.
- 31:30So the Pemi, the Pemi loop has lots of different variations
- 31:34under the FKT, but one of them is the double Pemi.
- 31:38And this year in May, Baston, Oliver Hammond goes and runs it
- 31:43in 2130. So like 10 1/2 hour Pemmi loops
- 31:49back-to-back. Then Grant Allard 2 months later
- 31:53goes, I think I'm going to take that 20 hours and 29 minutes,
- 31:56bested by an hour and he thinks, OK, nice, Isaac Trudeau comes in
- 32:02and best that by an hour. Two months later in September,
- 32:05Isaac gets the FKT at 15 hours and 37 minutes.
- 32:09So some double Pemi action there.
- 32:12A few people get fired up, I'm sure one of maybe Grant or Best
- 32:15and Oliver goes the next year and maybe tries to get that
- 32:18back. But a double penny throw down
- 32:21this year. And I was thinking about the
- 32:23double penny. This is kind of like a yo-yo.
- 32:25Well, actually I was wondering how did these people ran the
- 32:28route? Did they run the same loop twice
- 32:32or did they do once and then they go back the opposite
- 32:35direction? Because like I said, the yo yos,
- 32:37yo yos, you just got to have my like, not all your brain gears
- 32:41lined up correctly to like doing the yo yos.
- 32:44And but I was thinking, if you do a Pemi loop out and back, so
- 32:50you don't do the same way, you go the reverse direction.
- 32:52I think that's just good clean comedy.
- 32:55You know, like because when you do an out and back, you get to
- 32:58the end and you're like, Oh, I got to go all the way back to my
- 33:00car and saying that at your car for a double penny.
- 33:04You know, I think it's just good clean comedy.
- 33:07And I hope that one of them did that because I think that's just
- 33:09a good joke that could could stand the test of time.
- 33:13But anyway, that was the throw down in the double for the
- 33:17double Pammy this year. Next up we have isolation.
- 33:21So this is isolation from Glenn Boulder.
- 33:23I believe James Underwood gets the FKT 2 hours and 30 minutes.
- 33:28He ran it in July, which bested Mike Conley's two hours and 48
- 33:32minutes from two years ago. Very fast time.
- 33:36Glenn Boulder is a steep rocky route up there and then you kind
- 33:39of go down before going back up to isolation and James
- 33:43Underwood, I've seen his name on some few things.
- 33:45He is very, very fast, so he bested by 20 minutes, 2:30 on
- 33:49that. I think it's maybe 8 or 9 or 10
- 33:50miles. That is a very strong time.
- 33:54Next up we have Bald Peak, an artist bluff FKT.
- 33:58This is one of those FK TS that I didn't know it was an FKTII
- 34:02love Bald Peak. You go to Bald Peak at a sunset
- 34:04when no one's there, like on a, on a beautiful.
- 34:09But this is another one I was going through and I saw the
- 34:11there was an FKT for this and there was one go David Alexander
- 34:15had a go on this earlier this year when I was looking someone
- 34:19that I didn't know about. And Lars Hogney goes out and
- 34:24runs this unsupported. Obviously it's a it's a two mile
- 34:27route. Super supported.
- 34:30No Lars goes out and runs it in 15 minutes.
- 34:32So David had it in 22 Lars runs it in 15 minutes this year and I
- 34:37don't know you know, I don't have the vert mileage here.
- 34:39I'm assuming, like I said, Lars extremely, extremely fast.
- 34:42I'm sure that's a very fast time, but it's cool that he kind
- 34:46of just picked a random route and said I'm going to put a
- 34:48crazy time on this and then also went down this year before Lars
- 34:53even went out there. Ali Laville goes out and takes
- 34:56the woman's FKT 23 minutes on that time in July, and I think
- 35:01it's cool. So this was kind of a route that
- 35:04one person has done. I didn't know about it.
- 35:07Other people I'm sure didn't know that it was an actual FKT.
- 35:10Now you have two extremely competitive times in this route,
- 35:14Lars, like I said, extremely fast winning races right now.
- 35:17Ali Laville, she won mid state 50.
- 35:20I think she won Pisca 50K this year, Super strong woman runner.
- 35:24And now we have an FKT that if you want to compare yourself to
- 35:28people who are winning some of the local races, go there you
- 35:32go, you got times. Go see what you know on this
- 35:34route. So this route goes from zero to
- 35:36hero this year and we got two really, really strong times on
- 35:39that route. That's what I think we need more
- 35:42of on lots of these routes. So that was a bald peek at
- 35:45Artist Bluff. Next up we have the Evan Notch
- 35:49Evans Notch loop. Erin O'Toole runs it in 6-6
- 35:53hours and 56 minutes. That bested Ashley Ulin's time
- 35:58of seven hours and 40 minutes. Ashley's a super strong runner.
- 36:01She gets out and puts down peaks in the whites and Erin bested by
- 36:05an hour, almost an hour. So a really strong time there.
- 36:09And actually I looked at her, Erin's ultrasonic.
- 36:11She's going to black canyons next year, so watch out.
- 36:13I think she's a Mainer. Let's go shout out Maine.
- 36:18OK, moving on. Next up we have the Carter
- 36:20Mariah Traverse picnic FKT. So MM Conley goes out and does
- 36:26that six hours and 14 minutes. So Mike showing his versatility,
- 36:31runs the traverse and then bikes back.
- 36:33He bests the Christopher Pagoda 6 hour and 58 minutes from 2022.
- 36:39So it's been a few years since anyone touched that.
- 36:41And I think there's a handful of picnic times on that route.
- 36:44So very competitive. I think I remember looking at
- 36:47that Strava and I think Mike bikes back at like 22 miles an
- 36:49hour. If you don't know that is fast
- 36:51on a, on a road bike and doing that after a, you know, a Carter
- 36:55Ryan traverse, very impressive. And I think the Prezi traverse
- 36:59picnic is, is a very competitive route.
- 37:02I don't think it had anyone for on it this year, but that's
- 37:05gotten really competitive that Carter Marias traverse.
- 37:07It's similar to a Prezi, just kind of like less run, but well
- 37:10known, But it has a bunch of times and it's similar
- 37:12difficulty. It's cool that picnic's getting
- 37:15some action and I've been I've been rocking the road bike a
- 37:18little bit. So I I respect Rd. biking for
- 37:20sure. Now Next up we have the Canon
- 37:25and Kinsman Loop FKT. So unsupported Katie Clayton
- 37:29goes and takes the women's FKT at 4 hours and 3 minutes and
- 37:34another, another name on this, on this route, Canon and
- 37:37Kinsman's Loop. David Hedges has the FKT from
- 37:402021, so 4 years ago. He runs two hours and 46 minutes
- 37:45on this route. And it's this road has actually
- 37:47had some action on it. There's been a handful of times.
- 37:50So Katie's time is very impressive, very competitive.
- 37:53So is David, obviously he's a pro runner, right?
- 37:56Gets paid to run. And so that's another route
- 37:58that's like, cool, it's got some, it's got some hype behind
- 38:02it getting some times going. So very, very impressive there.
- 38:06the Super Pemmy unsupported goes down Jason Walther Wall.
- 38:11Yeah, Walther runs at 14 hours and 2 minutes.
- 38:15He bet bested Nate Cressman's 14 hours and 53 minutes from 2021.
- 38:20So like I said, lots of Pemmy variations there, but the
- 38:22unsupported time goes down. Next we have the Twins Bonds
- 38:28traverse unsupported men's FKT. So Tim Lachance goes and runs
- 38:33that in three hours, 52 minutes. He did that in September.
- 38:38I think he's a main guy. He's got his name on a few of
- 38:40these FKTS and he seems hungry. Yeah, he had a good climb up
- 38:45North Twin, and then I think he was throwing down 6 somethings
- 38:48at the end of that route. So that is a fast time there.
- 38:52The Carter Mariah traverse out and back.
- 38:55So a little bit of a battle here in the out and back traverse for
- 38:58the yo-yo Carter Mariah unsupported.
- 39:00Kyle Andrews had the time from last year, 2024.
- 39:04He ran it in 17 hours, 20 minutes.
- 39:06This year Tim Lachance, who we just talked about, comes and
- 39:09runs at 15 hours and 1 minute. He sets a new FKT there and then
- 39:13Kyle Andrews comes back with a vengeance.
- 39:16He bests that by three hours. So he ends up lowering that to
- 39:2012 hours and 7 minutes. So six hours each way on the
- 39:24Cardo Mariah traverse. It's very, very impressive.
- 39:28Love the enthusiasm for this route.
- 39:29Love the the battle out there. And Kyle Andrews comes back and
- 39:34takes back his FKT. So we'll see if Tim goes back
- 39:36the next year. That could be a good back and
- 39:38forth FKT for them to keep battling at.
- 39:42Next up, we have the eastern peaks of Conway FKT.
- 39:46Eli Nixon goes out and gets that three hours, 59 minutes.
- 39:51He did it in June. He bested Dan Wilson's four hour
- 39:54and 24 minutes from 2024. And this road has actually got a
- 39:57bunch of action. I've run in that area near
- 40:01Conway before, but obviously there's lots of people in Conway
- 40:03get out for runs and there's actually a lot of names on that
- 40:06list. So this is seems like a pretty
- 40:08competitive, lots of people gone for it.
- 40:10So Eli improves it by almost 1/2 hour.
- 40:14Seems very very fast. Next up we have the Owl's Head
- 40:19FKT, so Ally Laville, a second FKT, goes out and grabs that for
- 40:24the women's time. 4 hours and 1 minute out to Owl's Head.
- 40:29Good old Owl's Head. I actually haven't been to Alice
- 40:32Head in a while. I was going to Alice Head for
- 40:34like I went there two or three months in a row like twice
- 40:38before. Sometimes I love Allison,
- 40:41sometimes I hate Allison, but anyway, I haven't met Allison in
- 40:44a while. Ally gets the second FKT in
- 40:462025. Was this her second?
- 40:48I think she has one more, but she did that in August.
- 40:52Next up we have the tilted Compass.
- 40:55This is the self supported time. So Jimmy rips Ray Opel, he runs
- 41:00a 12 hour and 37 minute in August he best Tim Lachance.
- 41:05So another we just talked about him.
- 41:07He's got a few of them who had a 14 hour and 47 go on this route
- 41:11in 2024. And this road kind of had me
- 41:14thinking because the tilted compass, what is that?
- 41:16That is basically running or doing each of the North, East,
- 41:22South and West most 4000 footers all in a time.
- 41:27So you you basically hike it and they drive to the next one.
- 41:30There's lots of driving around the White Mountains because
- 41:32nothing's close. And I was thinking like, how do
- 41:35I feel about driving being part of some of the these FKTSI think
- 41:40kind of like first glance, it's like, I don't know, it just
- 41:43feels like if these routes, you know, these routes are getting
- 41:45very competitive and people will do anything to take time off.
- 41:48And so it's just like you don't want to see someone bombing down
- 41:51the can't, you know, the canker wherever going 80 miles an hour
- 41:54to best the time. I don't know if there's some
- 41:58sort of speed limit. Like you have to just go the
- 42:01speed limit for all these routes and then obviously run as fast
- 42:03as you can track the speed on your Strava in the Strava
- 42:08approvers get to get to approve it.
- 42:10I'm sure there's some rules behind it.
- 42:12So but yeah, the hope is for like a dry FKT.
- 42:16Were you involved driving that no one is driving out of
- 42:18control. And the other thing actually,
- 42:21then I was thinking, well, the supported FKTS, the 48 four
- 42:24thousand footer supported built in Elissa Gaddesky FKTS, they're
- 42:28doing driving and I think that's like a longer route.
- 42:31So you're thinking like they probably probably don't want to
- 42:33drive fast like they want as much time in between the route.
- 42:36But but I'm sure speed driving and you know, is involved there
- 42:40too. So yeah, I don't think there's
- 42:44anything bad about it, but it's just something to be aware of.
- 42:46Let's not make it to try a NASCAR competition.
- 42:49Let's just RIP out the route there.
- 42:51So that was the Tilted Compass FKT.
- 42:54And then we have the Eastern White Mountains Triple Infinity
- 42:58Loop, unsupported. Eli Barakian, I think he's, I
- 43:01don't know, submitted or put this the first time down.
- 43:04He does this in two days, 10 hours and 51 minutes.
- 43:07It links up the Mahoussic traverse, the Pemi Loop, and the
- 43:11Prezi all in one go. So it's kind of like a Pemi
- 43:14Pemidential, but you do a Mahoussic traverse.
- 43:17So it's like a Pemidential on steroids.
- 43:20And Eli Barakian is one of the race directors for a Scutney.
- 43:23So I think this just shows he has he, he is clearly a sick
- 43:27puppy when it comes to creating routes.
- 43:29He just creates crazy hard routes and good of him to go out
- 43:33and actually do that route. And he's done some some really
- 43:37cool long distance things as well.
- 43:40Next up we have the Mahoussic Traverse out and back.
- 43:42Craig Lehman goes out there and does one day, 4 hours on that
- 43:46route. More yo-yo madness.
- 43:49Next up, we have the Desolation loop.
- 43:52Vigo Fish goes out and does this.
- 43:54This is around the Kerrigan area.
- 43:55He runs 14 hours and 57 minutes. Awesome name.
- 43:59Like, awesome name. I want to name my kid Vigo Fish.
- 44:04That is a super cool name. Yeah.
- 44:08So he gets the Desolation loop. Next up, we have not a Pemi
- 44:12loop, but a loop in the Pemi. This is some sort of crazy route
- 44:16by I think Gwen Stratton submitted this FKTA while ago.
- 44:19She originally ran it and has the women's time unsupported 16
- 44:23hours and 20 minutes from 2021. Talk about coming up with crazy
- 44:28routes. She is somebody who every
- 44:30weekend comes up with with these crazy routes in the Whites and
- 44:33goes out and does it very, very cool.
- 44:35I remember she's one of the first people I saw just doing
- 44:38crazy vert when I was getting into running.
- 44:40And she's still out there every week.
- 44:41And I think she did something where she was off Strava for a
- 44:45year and still put up 1,000,000 feet a vert just to see if she
- 44:48had it in her. And she does.
- 44:50And I've seen her on shows a couple times.
- 44:52Super nice to talk to. And she's a grinder.
- 44:53So she's always out there. And I'm sure this is one of her
- 44:57crazy routes, A Pemi loop, but not a loop, not a Pemi loop, but
- 45:00a loop in the Pemi. Some sort of crazy route.
- 45:02But the FKT men's this from this year, Tim Lachance goes out and
- 45:07runs 13 hours and 44 minutes on that route.
- 45:10Tim gets another FKT. Next up we have the Mahoussic
- 45:14traverse. So Mahoussic traverse, similar
- 45:16to Cardamari, similar to Prezi traverse, we get some picnic
- 45:20action going there. So I think this is the first
- 45:22picnic action on that route. But self supported.
- 45:25Cassidy Carroll, 15 hours and 16 minutes on that route in July.
- 45:31I remember actually meeting her at the end of in the Prezi
- 45:34sometime. I think she did a Prezi
- 45:35traverse. Me and my buddy ran into her and
- 45:37yeah, seems like she was also kind of a biker or something.
- 45:39And I remember she told me like, yeah, my fastest speed on a bike
- 45:43is like 51 miles or 60 miles an hour or something.
- 45:46And I had just got a bike and I think I'd went 20 and was like,
- 45:49wow, this biking stuff is really 30, I think probably downhill.
- 45:52This biking stuff is really scary.
- 45:53I remember thinking, this girl is nuts, but clearly a baller
- 45:57goes out and puts up a good Mahoussic picnic time.
- 46:02Next up, we have the Canon round trip FKT.
- 46:05So Ally Laville, another one for her this year.
- 46:08She puts up an hour and 40 minutes and I think this is up
- 46:11and down the Kinsman Ridge Trail.
- 46:14So now she's got, that's another strong time for Canon.
- 46:16And then Chris Lebowski has the time for the men's and he is a
- 46:21very, very fast. I feel like he comes out of
- 46:23nowhere and just rips, rips some uphill things extremely fast.
- 46:27So another mountain nearby that has good men and women's time on
- 46:31that FKT. Next up we have the Hale mixed
- 46:36gendered team. Unsupported FKT by Debbie
- 46:40Livingston, Scott Livingston, Shepard Livingston.
- 46:43One hour and 15 minutes from this July when I first saw this,
- 46:50the the men's and women's times are a little bit faster.
- 46:52Actually, no, the Phoebe Seltzer has the women's times at one
- 46:54hour and 19 minutes. So they went faster than her.
- 46:57Carter Tracy has the men's time at 53 minutes on that route.
- 47:00When I first saw that I was like, oh, wow, this must be like
- 47:03a family that that did this together.
- 47:05And so it appears I'm not making, but it appears that
- 47:08Debbie and Scott and their son Shepard did this together.
- 47:12So it's a cool. It's a multi generational FKT
- 47:15and I don't know if they have any from this year, but they've
- 47:17actually had a handful of those mixed gender FKTS together,
- 47:21which is cool. A squad goes out there and is
- 47:24doing it. It kind of reminds me of this is
- 47:28going to be the Ojalas, Larson, Sarita and their kids are going
- 47:31to could just wipe all multi generational FKTS one day, But
- 47:37no. So this this put me down a
- 47:39little bit of a rabbit hole. So I I was like, all right, I
- 47:41want to see if this is like, you know, maybe they're one of their
- 47:44kids. So it seems like Debbie and
- 47:45Scott and their kids show. Yeah, so I looked up Shepard
- 47:49Livingston's ultra sign up and he's 19 and his first race is
- 47:53when he was six years old. So he's been doing this stuff.
- 47:56If you're an ultra sign up in 2015, you're an OG.
- 47:58He was an OG when he was 6. So I'm like, oh wow, this is
- 48:01very cool. Multi generations.
- 48:03And then I, on a whim, look up Debbie Livingston's ultra sign
- 48:06up page and Oh my gosh, I went down to Debbie Livingston rabbit
- 48:12hole. So we're going to do a little
- 48:14bit of talking about her for a second.
- 48:16I don't know if I shouldn't have known her before this, but
- 48:19Debbie Livingston, First off, she has 166 races on ultra sign
- 48:25up and four DNFS. Baller, absolute baller, that
- 48:30is. That speaks for itself, but not
- 48:33just crushing races since for the last 25 years she got second
- 48:38at the Vermont 50 Miller in 2124 years ago, she's gotten a
- 48:43handful of podiums at the Vermont 50, a handful of podiums
- 48:47at lots of different races. She's won the Seven Sisters
- 48:50races multiple time in 2008, she comes in second at Javelino 100.
- 48:55She wins Grindstone in in 2011. She's a Hard Rock finisher and
- 49:00she's still racing. Absolute legend.
- 49:03I, I, I hope I run into her one day and she can get a couple
- 49:06stories from her. She has a website.
- 49:09Looks like she's a coach, maybe like a yoga instructor.
- 49:13She had a few things that she does on there.
- 49:14So go check out Debbie Livingston's ultra sign up page
- 49:17and her website and hype her up a little bit because absolute
- 49:21crusher and still doing it today.
- 49:24And then not to Scott Livingston.
- 49:26He also had 80 races on ultra sign up.
- 49:28Maybe not as competitive, but still also a crush out there.
- 49:32And Oh yeah, no, this is this is the trail on ultra running.
- 49:36This is her write up from her website, Debbie's website.
- 49:39So I'll just like read this quick because I was just kind of
- 49:41pulling stuff from her ultra sign up.
- 49:43Since 1998, I've competed in trail running and ultra running
- 49:47events all over the world. I have run more than 100 ultras
- 49:50and more than 200 trail races. I specialize in tough technical
- 49:54courses with mountainous terrain.
- 49:56I was the New England Grand Tree Trail Running Series champion
- 50:00from 2001 to 2008. One of my favorite running
- 50:03highlights was breaking a 22 year old course record by 13
- 50:06minutes at the 2012 Laurel Highlands 70 Miller, which was
- 50:11bested in 2016. I was hurt 101st place woman in
- 50:152022. The longevity, the range.
- 50:19Debbie Livingston might be the GOAT.
- 50:21OK, Next up, and we're we are getting through these slowly but
- 50:26surely. How is everything still rolling
- 50:29right now? Everything's still rolling.
- 50:30OK, Next up we have the Flume and Liberty loop, a mixed
- 50:36gendered, unsupported FKT. Sean Skinner and Alexandra
- 50:39Halley go out and run that three hours and 36 minutes.
- 50:43Sean is the local UNCA Nuna guy. Shout out.
- 50:46So they put the mixed, they put up a mixed gendered time there.
- 50:49That's the same one as that Lars ran earlier in the year.
- 50:54Next up we have the slippery Brook and bald face loop.
- 50:57FKT, unsupported mixed gender Charlie Tillett and Lisa Gorman.
- 51:02They run 7 hours and 11 minutes. A wild river wilderness area,
- 51:07FKT, love to see it. Some Backcountry trails back
- 51:12there. And then we have the Co host
- 51:16trail unsupported. Somerset Banks goes four days, 8
- 51:23hours and 58 minutes on that trail in September.
- 51:26So that was a new unsupported time.
- 51:29Phoebe Seltzer has the supported time on that trail.
- 51:33And that is, that is another gnarly Backcountry trail 162
- 51:38miles up the New Hampshire border.
- 51:40So up to the New Hampshire border, some gnarly and solo
- 51:44terrain. You're out there by yourselves,
- 51:46I'm sure. So I'm sure that was an
- 51:49adventure for Somerset and they get the unsupported FKT.
- 51:54And then I actually got this, this tidbit of information
- 51:58today. So I thought that this list was
- 52:00pretty exhaustive. But then I was running with
- 52:03Clark Plummer today and he's like, oh, did you get the, the,
- 52:06the full AT hikes in there? And I'm like, Oh yeah, I didn't
- 52:11get those from this year because I don't know the AT it.
- 52:14It goes through the White Mountains, obviously, but it's
- 52:16not maybe one that you think of. So I kind of forgot about those.
- 52:19So these are last minute additions.
- 52:21Obviously the AT is is is a crazy route.
- 52:24Very, very competitive. I have not through hiked and I'm
- 52:28not as plugged in. Like you know, when someone's
- 52:30going on a crazy record of Tara Dauer, Jeff Garimeridge, that's
- 52:35it. Whoever's going on it, Christian
- 52:37Morgan, whoever's going, I'm looking.
- 52:38John Kelly, whoever's going, I'm looking at it when it when it
- 52:41gets hyped. But I don't know as much about
- 52:42the timing and days and stuff. But here the FKT's from that.
- 52:46The northbound self supported Sarah Baker goes 74 days, a
- 52:51little over 74 days. She bests Elizabeth Thompson's
- 52:54time by 6 days on that route. And then self bound self
- 52:59supported Lila Herod So a local goes 52 days in 18 hours, best
- 53:07Heather Anderson's 54 days on that route.
- 53:11And then self bound self supported Jeff Garameyer goes
- 53:145854 days 8 hours. He best the southbound self
- 53:20supported by Joey Campanelli by three days and then he bested
- 53:27Joe Mcconaughey's northbound self supported by 4 hours.
- 53:33And that was the route that put string bean like on the map.
- 53:37And that was a route that many people have talked about as
- 53:39being extremely competitive. Will never go down this route.
- 53:45This is insane that this person did that.
- 53:47And Jeff Garimer goes and and takes that time down.
- 53:51And so, yeah, very, very impressive there.
- 53:54And I, Jeff Garmeyer, I, I should know him.
- 53:58I, I think he, I've seen his name before on some of the White
- 54:00Mountain stuff, like some of the 4000 footers.
- 54:02So I don't know if he's local, but puts down a super strong
- 54:06time there on the AT like a super, super competitive route.
- 54:11And that sums up the FKT recap from 2025 in the White
- 54:17Mountains. We ripped those through those
- 54:20pretty good. Like I said, lots of interesting
- 54:24develops. There's interesting develops
- 54:26there, developments there, some new routes going and, and like I
- 54:32said, a lot of the, a lot of the bigger routes, a lot of these
- 54:36people have gotten, you know, gotten on podcasts and you can
- 54:38hear their stories. So I didn't go too much about
- 54:40route details. And if you want to hear about
- 54:42what each people did out there, there's lots of resources out
- 54:45there. But I just want to do, I want to
- 54:47go through a dedicated White Mountains FKT list.
- 54:52And I'm going to start doing this every year because I feel
- 54:54like some people cover the FKT scene and some of the Northeast
- 54:57stuff, but a lot of the things just kind of get overlooked.
- 55:01And I feel like you got to be in the mountains seeing what's
- 55:04going on on these routes all the time to appreciate some of these
- 55:08times. So if you're a White Mountains
- 55:10folk and you know what these trails are like and you're
- 55:12hearing some of these times, let's get some more people out
- 55:15on there. Let's celebrate some of the
- 55:18people that are doing these FKTS because really there is a lot of
- 55:21stuff going down and there are a ton of people who are out here
- 55:24hungry right now. It's it's super exciting to see.
- 55:28And I definitely consider myself one of these people.
- 55:32You know, I have big goals and I love getting out there and I
- 55:34love the Northeast. And I think the trail running
- 55:36out here is just so amazing. And we have some some crushers.
- 55:40I feel like I say it on a lot of the podcast, but we have some
- 55:42crushers out here. And hopefully it just gets a
- 55:45little bit more publicity. And like I said, when you get
- 55:50pro runners or people that are doing kind of the big races that
- 55:54get covered by a lot of the big media out there, it's all the
- 55:58more popular out in the Western US.
- 56:00Some of the Europe stuff, like the big races.
- 56:03And they're all stuff that I love to fall and I love watching
- 56:06them. But I think some of the times
- 56:08here get overlooked because of how steep and how technical it
- 56:11is. But there are a lot of routes
- 56:13out here where those pro elite fast runners come and they just
- 56:18can't. They can't hang on the technical
- 56:21steep stuff. And I'm telling you, some of
- 56:23these times are super, super competitive and, and super
- 56:29impressive and they will stand for a long time.
- 56:31And I think, yeah, I think it's just we got a really good thing
- 56:34going here. And I think the sport is
- 56:36definitely growing. There's more momentum in the
- 56:38Northeast and the White Mountains.
- 56:39You know, I feel like I'm talking, it doesn't get a lot of
- 56:41hype. It's been getting a lot more
- 56:43hype and, and lots of people are doing it.
- 56:44But I myself definitely want to stay on top of a lot more of
- 56:48this Northeast stuff. I want to be on top of all the
- 56:51the races that are coming up, all the FKTS that are going
- 56:54down. I have a vision for having like
- 56:56a hub of FKTS and even maybe Strava crowns one day and races
- 57:01all in the Northeast and keeping that all updated on my website,
- 57:04which I'm going to update soon. But yeah, just really, really
- 57:08cool to see all the stuff that's going on here.
- 57:11And I hope more people get out and do this, do these FKTS.
- 57:14I think this is, I mean, a lot of people are the races are
- 57:17getting awesome around here. Like I love how the White
- 57:19Mountain endurance races, when I started doing them, we're not
- 57:22getting a lot of press and now they're getting a ton of press
- 57:24and like the Bubba's, the Scutney, like all these things
- 57:27are starting to get their their light.
- 57:29So it's just cool to see and hopefully we can just keep
- 57:33pumping the northeast and and hype the northeast trail scene
- 57:36up. I was thinking like, should I do
- 57:40a race recap from 2025? Some of the best race results,
- 57:43but I could do that maybe later in the winter.
- 57:46So for now we're going to do this.
- 57:47This was the 2025 White Mountains FKT recap.
- 57:52Like I said, go give some love to some of the people on these
- 57:55routes. I didn't give a ton of
- 57:57information on them. So each of these people are
- 57:59going to have trip reports, you know, the mileage, the vert, the
- 58:02paces on there. So go check them out.
- 58:05We got some time off. It's the holiday season, some
- 58:07time off. We're probably doing a little
- 58:08bit of scrum, doom scrolling. Let's go doom scroll on some of
- 58:12these some of these FKTS and hype some people up.
- 58:17And then I thought there was there was one last thing that I
- 58:19was going to say. Yeah.
- 58:23The racing. Oh, yeah, no, yeah.
- 58:25And obviously it is December 20th.
- 58:27So there is, you know, two weeks left basically in the 2025 year.
- 58:34And I am just going to put it out there that, well, maybe I'll
- 58:38cover it if they do it, But this is a disclaimer that this does
- 58:42not include everyone. If someone goes out and runs one
- 58:44of these FTS in the next two weeks you didn't get in the
- 58:47recap for the year, I apologize. I'll try to keep an eye out for
- 58:50it and cover it maybe in the next few episodes or something.
- 58:52I don't know if anybody will it just nuke to rain and warm and I
- 58:57don't know what the trail conditions are looking up north.
- 58:59Actually, I take that back. I don't know what they're
- 59:01looking like. But this morning I was torn.
- 59:04Do I go up north? I got a busy day today trying to
- 59:07do some Christmas shopping going away tomorrow like doing.
- 59:12I got a lot of stuff I got to take care of.
- 59:13So as a guy, do I stay local? I mean, everything here just
- 59:17kind of melted. Do I go up north?
- 59:18But it looked like they got a foot of snow up there plus on
- 59:22some of the peaks. So I was like, I don't know if I
- 59:24have all the driving in a long trail breaking day.
- 59:27I don't think I have time to do all that today.
- 59:30So it sounds like there was more more snow up there.
- 59:32But if people go out and pack it down, there could be some fast
- 59:37times in in winter is tomorrow. So it is fall right now, people,
- 59:40I don't know how it is fall, but it is still fall.
- 59:43So winter starts tomorrow. So I'm sure there I'm sure there
- 59:45are some people who are starting the winter 48 winter running or
- 59:49they have some winter objectives out there.
- 59:52So who knows what happens in the next week.
- 59:54But that was the recap of the year.
- 59:59Yeah. Share this if you.
- 1:00:00If you know somebody who did the route, like I said, let's try to
- 1:00:03get the the Northeast trail scene going.
- 1:00:05Share this, get it out there, hype some people up.
- 1:00:08And if you didn't get an FKT, if you did, if you did get an FKT
- 1:00:12this year, congratulations. If you didn't, you got someone
- 1:00:15plotted for next year. Go after them.
- 1:00:18I'm go after them. Let's get some names.
- 1:00:21Let's get some times in these routes.
- 1:00:23And I'm sure next year like we'll have more action on all
- 1:00:25these routes and hopefully it's an even bigger the year than
- 1:00:27this year. So that's it.
- 1:00:31Yeah, I guess the next episode won't be till after Christmas.
- 1:00:34So Merry Christmas to everybody. Happy holidays, and we'll see
- 1:00:38you next week. Peace.