Successful Fastest Known Time Attempt (official Guinnes World Records holder)
Ever since I worked on the PCT as a volunteer, I wanted to hike this trail as it is the most unique and beautiful trail in the world! Unfortunately, I cannot take 6 months of leave to do the hike, so after some succesful ultramarathons in New Zealand, I decided I would run it and try and get a fastest known time on the trail, which was then held by Joe “Stringbean” McConaughy who did it in 53d 6h 37m in 2014.
Joe and I set out to do the impossible: as ultrarunning rookies we would go for the Pacific Crest Trail speed record. I would run the 4300km long trail from Mexico to Canada at over 81km per day and Joe would be my one-man-crew. We had huge struggles on the way, with heat strokes, very bad blisters, extreme sleep deprivation and many missed meet-ups. We pushed on, however, and managed to stay on schedule nonetheless. We ended up breaking Joe “Stringbean” ’s record by 22 hours. With this record we also have our place in the Guinness Book of World Records as we had saved all our evidence and sent it to them. It took many months for both of us to recover from this adventure.
7 years, 2 new FKT’s and a Barkley Finish later, I decided to give the Pacific Crest Trail another try. Using the knowledge I’ve gained over the previous years and adventures, I set out to set my best possible time on the PCT. This time I was joined from the start by Henri, Kobe, Anna and my wife Emma. Marie and Eric each joined us at different times and were a great addition to the crew. With them, we set out for a more prepared attempt and exciting adventure.
What was supposed to be the worst year ever to run the Pacific Crest Trail, according to forums and social media, turned out to be a pretty great year to run the Pacific Crest Trail. Up until 100 miles from the Canadian Border there were hardly any closures. One bridge was out at Reds Meadow – which required a small detour, and there was trail work being done at Castle Crags State Park, which also required a small detour. There was one closure we had missed, the Williamson Rock closure, where we mistakenly believed that the trail had reopend. Luckily, it was only 3.6 miles of error.
Overall, the record attempt went great – starting out with a solid desert section during which I covered 59 miles a day for the first 13 days. Then it was time for the notorious high-snow Sierra Nevada, which I entered with my teammates Henri and Kobe, so we could do river crossings together and climb the difficult, snowy passes together.
I later cruised through Northern California, narrowly running a sub-30 day California section of the PCT. I continued cruising through Oregon, pushing 60+ miles day after day, and despite starting the Oregon section of the PCT with a 5 minute hike and an 8 hour break – I still ran the overall Oregon speed record of the PCT.
As we got into Washington State, wildfires started to pop up left and right of the PCT, and there were hardly any smoke-free days. However, closures luckily got limited to one pretty big detour of 100 miles to cover 50 closed miles of the PCT. We followed the PCTA recommended detour – which was hard with steep terrain and unmaintained trails – but we were grateful that the PCT had a complete closure but that there were alternates available.
After the last meet-up with Henri and Kobe, I set out for my last section before finishing the PCT. While I was running to get the new FKT, Henri and Kobe sped across the border to be at the finishline from the Canadian side before I got there. It was close, but I was able to celebrate my finish with my crew and family
We are so grateful for the amazing adventure we had on the PCT and were so happy with the incredible support from the community of through hikers and trail angels. They were all rooting for us and we often stopped to take a few selfies.
Despite the 1 day addition because of the wildfires, we managed to set a really strong time of 46 days 12 hours and 50 minutes.
The PCT is the most unique and beautiful trail in the world!
Throughout the trail, we were followed by a film crew, who put our experience into a beautiful movie, which you can watch on YouTube
