The original version of this story was published on iRunFar.
Nolan’s 14 is a stunningly difficult route, even by Colorado standards. Scaling 14 14,000-foot mountains, this epic sojourn through the Rockies is no easy task. But it now has a new fastest known time (FKT): French ultrarunner François D’Haene sped to a new record on July 5.
Located in central Colorado’s Sawatch mountain range, Nolan’s 14 is not for the faint of heart. Over the course of 95 miles, the trail gains 45,000 feet in elevation, with an average elevation of around 12,000 feet. The time limit for the route is 60 hours. It’s estimated that the trail only has a 15% completion rate.
D’Haene’s time of 35 hours, 33 minutes, and 41 seconds beats the previous FKT set by David Hedges. In 2023, Hedges pulled off the line in 39 hours, 6 minutes, and 40 seconds, so D’Haene is now ahead by about 3.5 hours.
D’Haene traversed the route south to north, starting at the Blank’s Cabin Trailhead at 7 a.m. on Friday, July 4, and finishing at the Fish Hatchery Trailhead outside of Leadville at about 6:30 p.m. the next day.
His splits show that it didn’t take long for him to start opening up a gap on the previous FKT. At the top of Mount Shavano, the first peak in the series, about 4 miles and 90 minutes in, he was already 10 minutes ahead of Hedges’ time. By late in the evening on Friday, as D’Haene reached the top of Mount Columbia, peak six of the route, D’Haene had built a more than 3.5-hour buffer on the record pace.
The original version of this story was published on iRunFar.
An Experienced Endurance Athlete
D’Haene, 39, boasts an impressive ultrarunning resume. He won the Hardrock 100 in 2021 with a new course record and placed second the following year behind Kilian Jornet. In 2017, D’Haene set a new supported FKT on the 211-mile John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California with a time of 2 days, 19 hours, and 26 minutes. He’s won the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, a 108-mile ultramarathon race through the Alps, four times.
The day after he finished, D’Haene reflected on the challenges and thrills of the trail.
“There were scree slopes ‘perfectly’ arranged (or not), forests of well-aligned fir trees (or almost), and rivers to jump (or cross up to your thighs). We invent the trail step by step, following the contours of the land, shortness of breath, and route choices, day and night! That’s Nolan’s 14,” he wrote on Instagram (originally in French).
“The summits of Columbia and Harvard are very technical, and we took them in the night. It would have maybe been better to do them in the day, but, well. Then, when sunrise came on the second day, there were just three summits left [La Plata Peak, Mount Elbert, and Mount Massive], but they are all very big and took all the day to finish.”
D’Haene Did His Homework
Given the high elevation, the weather also posed an obstacle. “The weather on Friday started crazy, we were a little worried with the forecast,” D’Haene said. “We had small thunderstorms and even a little snow. Then after that it was ok. But during the night, it was cold.”
D’Haene said that he originally learned about the route several years ago from prior record holders, including Anna Frost and Iker Karrera.
“I went there last year and practiced some on the route,” he said. “This year, I came back and practiced on all the route. I love races but I also love FKTs, and for me, Nolan’s was a great place for an FKT.”
D’Haene’s final thoughts on his achievement were short and sweet: “I am so happy, but, wow, it was crazy!”
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