Lowest to Highest - Badwater to Whitney

I moved to the Eastside 10 years ago in 2010 and fell in love with the mountains, simple lifestyle, and hearty community. It's the cliche - the small town with a big back yard became my launching point to increasingly bigger adventures.

Living here looking up at the foot of the highest mountains in the country is unlike anywhere else I've ever been - a seemingly infinite inspiring play ground.

I've always been inspired by the impossible and exploring my own physical limits - often through sure stubborn mindedness to keep just taking one more step and see what's next.

When I was 9 years old we had a school bike-a-thon that had a camp stove as the top prize and I wanted my Dad to take me backpacking for the first time that summer, so I decided I would win somehow vs the big kids. I steadily rode my road bike non-stop until my best friends' moms eventually had to pull me off at dusk for 112.5 miles (second place was a 7th or 8th grader with 70 miles). That's when we realized there was something a little different about me maybe, but that's it now - the same little spark behind these bigger ultra endurance adventures I've explored. Going in for something big & uncertain and committing not to come out until it is done no matter what! That's what's most inspiring to me now.

I've applied this approach to go after bigger and bigger records in the Sierra as I've gotten to know the mountains further. Inyo County happens to have both the lowest and highest points in the continental USA - Badwater in Death Valley to Mt Whitney summit is the ultimate logical challenge - the fastest to go from the lowest to highest points in the US only human powered. If you bike and climb, I'd like to inspire you - you can do it in under 24 hours and maybe you can do it faster too?!

It's become my pursuit of perfection - the unreachable perfect race as I hit my prime years now - use it or lose it time, what are my actual true limits - can I really get there? What's the best I can do? I love and hate my relationship with the hard physical and mental training building up all-in for these challenges the last 7 years - it's all consuming at times - working as an RN, training almost daily, preparing and tapering perfectly.

The days/week before are nerve wracking. It seems like the cockiest thing in the world to head down to the lowest point in the country and truly believe you'll be on Whitney summit faster than ever before 140 miles and +23,000 vertical feet later in about 13 hours. I carefully taper my training as perfect as possible including a strict 48 hour total fast during the week ahead and a 3-4 day carb load until driving down to Badwater the evening before. I'll start at 3 AM - just enough daylight to hit the summit and descend the technical climbing before darkness in about 13 nonstop hours. It's October - I want it to be cool in Death Valley, but not too cold on the mountain - this is the best compromise.

In the moment, it is unreal - you don't believe it, that you are actually doing this - it seems impossible. Pulling over the last big climbs out of Death Valley at sunrise an hour ahead of world record pace on maybe the toughest effort of a lifetime fighting to hold onto my prime years now at 36 years old? It's disbelief mixed with a desire to quit mentally - Now I'm at 7 hours in rolling into Lone Pine for the last steep climb up the the Mt Whitney trailhead. It's only 5 or 6 more hours you can do it?! You're an hour ahead of the record! Hang in there for me. WE got this! As I pull into the parking lot marking the start of the climb up Whitney after 135 miles biking all out - it's all I can do to get a pair of running shorts and tennis shoes on for the next phase. I down a 250 calorie Ensure protein shake and pack a few GU Energy gels and windbreaker in my pockets. There's no sign of relief yet - I will transition from biking to running/hiking/uphill stumbling in only 5 minutes then I'm on my way! I feel the shuddering, the leg cramps locking up as I straiten my legs again over the steep rock slabs and steps heading directly toward the mountain. All I can think of is keep moving. It doesn't have to be fast - but relentlessly I must keep moving my legs in the only direction they are allowed to go - uphill. My chest burns just trying to breath enough as the altitude continues to increase. I've got it ughh! Just got to hang in one more hour maybe?!

Finally I can see the final steep 2,500 foot chute leading to the summit. It's nearly a straight vertical push from Iceberg lake from here on up loose 3rd and 4th class vertical rock and boulders - I need to do it in an hour or less to best a record pace. My quads are done - floppy heavy feeling muscles now almost forgetting the constant burning aches and pains. I switch to crawling on all fours - my arms are still fresh. If I can pull myself up the hand holds on the steep terrain using my upper body I can go faster. I want to quit right now everything is contemplating mutiny including my mind.

I'm now climbing the last steep rock head wall to the summit. I take a direct vertical crack the overhangs over the route below. Come on now give everything! As I pull over the wall onto the summit plateau I switch to a run - my knees are locking up straight now, but I will my body to move faster. I slap the summit marker and collapse to just breathe. I'm here! I high five my partner never feeling more grateful to share the moment with someone. This might be the hardest physical sporting day in my life. It feels bittersweet to stand on the summit looking down on my 7 year journey now for a 6th time as I catch my breath and my heart stops pounding. I feel like I gave it everything I had. I’ve stayed true to the summit. Badwater to Whitney 13 hours 16 minutes - forty minutes faster than ever before!

I don't know what's next in the uncertain times ahead. I'm inspired to keep attempting new challenges linking the Sierra high peaks on foot or by bicycle and exploring my own limits in search of my perfect race. Last year I linked all the 14 thousand foot peaks in the Sierra on foot in one long hike over 3 days - I'd like to see how fast I could also do a fully supported effort maybe one more time through linking the peaks - in under 2 days and 14 hours if possible. It’s another record that currently hasn't been challenged in 8 years and seems to be an ultimate impossible adventure (held by respected ultra athlete Sean O’Rourke now standing on the summit of this Mt Whitney adventure with me in the photo below). I'm inspired to see others following after my challenges now more and finding their own limits.

Strava link : https://www.strava.com/activities/2773078828/segments/69160595094

FKT Page : https://fastestknowntime.com/fkt/ryan-tetz-badwater-whitney-duathlon-ca-2019-10-07

New short documentary film by Samantha Deleo :

Thanks to support from friends at : PJAMM Cycling, GU Energy, Aerohead Bicycles, Goosefeet Gear, M Drive, POD Sox, Wheelscience

Norman's 13 - Fastest Known Time / First Known Time

Norman’s 13. “Wow - You don’t know humble till you have crawled up talus on all fours!”

Where to begin? I’m going to tell you what this challenge is and how I did it. There’s also a self filmed video blog now if you really want to see what it was like out there in my crazy mind at the time!

I feel bad some, my life snowballed out of control with so many race or record attempts back to back at the end of the season until I finally crashed and burned (inevitably eventually?) and didn’t have much time left over (or energy!) to collect my thoughts. This route was one pretty rad trip entirely and just a big genuine adventure to bite off. Yes more people should do it, but also be entirely aware of the terrain you are getting into beforehand on crux sections like the back of Middle Palisade and many more that can’t all be mentioned in detail. If anything for my fatigue levels in the moment - the scenarios feel dramatic now in hindsight, but nothing is sugar coated here either.

Norman’s 13 - All 13 of the fourteen thousand foot high peaks in the Sierra in one continuous effort only on foot cross country, via mountainous passes/scrambling, or sections of the John Muir Trail. From the FKT site description: “The route is the brain-child of Andy Gohlich. The idea is a continuous link up of the thirteen 14ers in the Sierra Nevada Range, similar to Nolan's 14 in Colorado's Sawatch Range.” The final numbers now weigh in at 107.5 miles & +40K vertical feet in 3 days 16 hours 33 min car to car according to a Garmin GPS watch estimate. About 60 miles of those were over 4 passes of the JMT on good but steep trail. The rest are cross country or scrambling including my favorite section, “The Talus Ocean” between Mt Russel and Williamson, the crux technical climbing sections on the High Sierra Palisades Traverse - over the six 14K summits between Middle Palisade and Thunderbolt with difficulty regularly in the 5.7 category up to 5.9, and numerous 4th class “chossaneering” segments (some seldom very rarely traveled or maybe not really at all on the optional but most aggressive short cuts!).

I started from the Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead at 4 AM. I wanted a full day to push the first 6 fourteeners all in 24 hours. This was my strategy that arguably is possibly the best or debatable… I would do the longest difficult off trail and cross country section while fresh at the start, also traveling these 6 peaks in traditionally the most advantageous direction from South to North based on previous FKT records. Hopefully I would finish this first push at dawn the next morning now cruising on the JMT in under 24 hours vs slogging through likely in a blurry stumble of over 40+ hours in a zombie crawl at the end. Later I could still move quickly on the technically exposed, but much less physical demanding finish of the Palisades Traverse… Hitting the right and wrong spots at dark or dawn could change everything, but just got to go for it and start somewhere!

The first night was uneventful mostly in hindsight. I pushed up to Langley quickly in a relaxed but efficient pace that saw me on the first summit in just under 4 hours. I then dropped down the sand hill over the backside for the first and mellowest off trail section of the route towards Sky Blue Lake. You feel so strong, but it is daunting even thinking about a challenge this long in front of you. I’d done 15 miles in the first 5 hours and thought - just 85 more? Can’t be that bad! Ha…

I was happy to reach the first “cardio crux” of the route looking down over Crabtree Pass across the lake towards the notorious sand hill climbing up the back of Discovery Pinnacle to rejoin the Whitney trail near Trail Crest. It’s not particularly eventful - just a giant sand hill that doesn’t relent and takes an honest sustained 45 minutes to surmount - trekking poles are helpful for sure here!

Peak 2 and 3 went quickly after the quick side detour scrambling up 4th class to tag Mt Muir and then Mt Whitney now at about 10 hours in pushing over Whitney summit and taking the obligatory summit photo. I was annoyed - 4 different guys were dispersed around the summit area talking on speaker phone on cell phones. The classic American Mt Whitney summit past time apparently now! Now for one of the real “garbage” cruxes of the route… the exfoliating north shoulder descent of Whitney direct. No one really goes down this way that I know yet except on these record pushes. I’ve decided it’s one of the top 3 bad spots of the route. You’ve been warned! A beautiful cheese grater slab of exfoliating steep choss with some ++ exposure. Does anyone do this?

It was harder this year because even in September after a record snow year there was still snow on those slabs and frozen up high at the base blocking my usual down climbing corner of choice. I thought about daring it for a second hanging out above the apparent abyss, but finally was afraid to jump or down climb fully committing to the steep exposed snow and chose to take cracks and slabs much further leftward to find something that would work. Few! I hate that section!! Always!

I made the steep slog across up and over to the final exposed traverse across the Mt Russell summit ridge glad to have plenty of daylight to make the maze like traversing descent down the N Ridge now 12 hours in. I was proud of my fitness this year not feeling like I was hitting my first bonk here, but instead feeling generally psyched as I enjoyed a snack and one of my favorite Sierra summit seats (always to myself) for a few min. You feel like a king up here!

Down to Wallace Lake and the “Talus Ocean”. I knew sunset was approaching as I started up the steep climb above the lake towards Vacation Pass (I’ve never actually hit the pass as far as I know, but just take the path of least resistance up one of the most obvious of 3 steep gullies above the lake). Finally, I switched my headlamp on as the full moon rose over the shoulder of Barnard East (a bonus almost 14er dictated by the terrain - even via the lowest crossing 13,700 feet). I cranked the tunes and made it up and down over the endless talus fields finally atop the steep sandy hill above Lake Helen of Troy. Another notoriously tricky spot potentially, snow would prove to be a challenge once again skirting the eastern shore of the lake and staying high as possible to avoid the worst of the steep unstable talus and snow fields just above the waterline.

Wow! This is a new level for me! I was proud to make the lonely summit push up to Mt Williamson (2nd highest 14er in the state) near midnight exactly. The full moon was so bright, I played a game turning off my headlamp for the final ridge traverse hopping across along the summit rocks. Alright 5 x 14ers in 20 hours with a full weight pack of multi day food and supplies - got to be the fastest anyone has done this segment so far with more than running clothes on! I’m not bonking yeah yeah! I know it’s all coming later, but this is kind of rad! Maybe I’ll take my planned one hour sleep break down there at the base of Tyndall?

I’d stolen the strategy from world champion ultra distance bike racers - sleep one hour the first night on long multi day races off the bat instead of going 2 nights with 0 sleep in a row off the starting block. If it works for Christoph Strasser, it can’t be a bad strategy! I knew I’d need the extra sobriety for safety too over the technical sections outside of the long JMT slog.

A cold wake up on the shoulder of Mt Tyndall (yes there was lots more dark talus between the 2 peaks and the Talus Ocean in general, but we’ll just glaze over all that for now haha. It’s a lot of talus to the JMT non stop from Mt Whitney is all you need to know! About 7 distance miles as the crow flies with 3 fourteener summits in between + that bonus Barnard East and another 13,600 foot pass around the back of Trojan Peak - so really it’s like 5 summits of nearly 14K over 100% talus for 7 miles if you could fly around like a bird. Feel me??).

The prior surge of energy I’d had skipping along on top of Williamson was suddenly hard to bring back and it now felt like a long time ago while pushing on up the dark slabs of Tyndall in the wee night hours - now nearing 4 AM. There is something ominous still for me about doing this route on Tyndall in the dark alone - maybe particularly after feeling my first bonk/dizzy feelings. It’s just so dark you can’t see far enough ahead or below to know where the top or bottom is and the exposure is of real consequence, but the slab is easy enough you could climb in almost any direction up it - but it’s also a giant slab (littered with randomly placed precariously perching chossy blocks just for good measure points) so you are 100% friction on your feet out there in the dark, it’s really cold, and you hope you are going the right way up and down… That’s pretty much my Tyndall experience overall (maybe everything is a little extra special mentally if you are doing 6 summits within 24 hours alone!).

Alright summit of Tyndall heading down at 5 AM! 24 hours + a 1 hour nap break exactly. Not bad! I can almost smell that JMT under my feet after the never ending talus. How bad could it be? Let’s get to Split Mountain today/tonight!?!

Long story short - I didn’t realize how much honest JMT time was ahead of me (4 passes okay just trail hiking?? In hindsight for picking 4 arbitrary passes they are each the highest vertical elevation on the JMT - all between about 12 - 13K elevation - go figure - but kind of inspiring that these are the 4 passes you take for this adventure - later on you take one more trail pass - Bishop Pass also at 11,972 higher than any remaining JMT passes for bonus points!), as I finagled continuing cross country through the brush and streams towards the JMT just west of Shepherd Pass. There’s the pass - and some normal hikers! Forester wasn’t too bad (over pretty quickly from the south) and I enjoyed the warming morning sunlight up the steep switchbacks chatting with a few fellow passing hikers. No I guess I didn’t ever really get passed by someone hiking on this trip even in my more stuporous stumbles as I was just so much lighter weight than the standard trail hikers as far back there.

I hiked on… and on…. feeling the humility over Glen Pass behind Kearsarge and Bullfrog Lake - this is no free lunch after doing all those peaks already! I appreciated the familiar passing views of Charlotte Dome from earlier summer climbing adventures. Wow this is a lot of ground to cover here!

As I neared Ray Lakes at dusk my mind started to wonder about sleeping spots. I’d planned to use bear cans or boxes for any real sleep breaks and knew there were several public options back there. I made my one real route finding error of the route here and missed the turn off that crosses over the series of islands around the east shore of the lake. I hadn’t been through here in several years and ended up adding a bonus mile or so + climbing up and then back tracking around the West shore instead. Seriously you nail all the off trail navigation by dark and mess it up on the JMT in day time?! Stay humble…

I knew the elevation was low enough here, I might actually be able to sleep comfortably with my lack of bivy gear or sleeping bag and not break any food storage rules for a rare actual real stop on this 24/7 feeling adventure. Meeting some fellow campers for a few min while bedding down, I didn’t turn down the offer for a couple of extra trail snack bars “dinner” to digest while sleeping 2 or 3 hours. Not a long break, but something not moving. I’d slog on through the night and hopefully make it to Split Mountain where is it ha?!!

The trail proved endless as I started hiking again at 10 PM at night, crossing the swinging bridge at Woods Creek at midnight. Split Mountain where are you???? I pushed on through dawn over Pinchot Pass now at 48 hours + in with honestly probably 2 hours of real total sleep time. No running was happening at this point as I tried my best to steady power hike up the long pass. I’m doing alright? My knees were feeling it gradually stiffening over the endless forward ups and downs for 2 long days now and my feet hurt in their own unique ways to state the obvious perhaps! I’d hoped to be on Split Mountain before daylight!

Just before the top of the pass I met another hiker in running clothes similarly dressed as me that was running down the backside of the pass. Wow what’s this guy doing? You heading for Sawmill pass on a big running loop? He asked are you Ryan Tetz?! Yeah that’s me... No I’m going to Langley hopefully! What?? I’m Matt Zupan. He’d seen my social media or tracking link and started a day after me going the opposite direction trying to do the first complete known time on Norman’s 13 as well. He even had the same backpack as me similarly outfitted after I’d detailed my gear selection. Ha!

This took a minute to sink in was he really doing it? How was this guy running so fresh hmm damn looked fast! I guess he’s only through the Palisades and this is his first long pass?! Honestly when you’re trying to set the record on something for the first time another person going the opposite direction dead on in the middle of it on the same day is not exactly what you are hoping to see! For me at least though few things motivate me like a good competition and I knew I was ahead distance wise.. When you’re out somewhere so long in your own head you’ll take any motivation you can find in the moment - setting little goals or chasing random hikers down on the trail just to do a different challenge for a bit. I’ll at least be the first to finish this whole thing if I can complete it all and might as well kick it up a notch on these stiffy legs!!

It really set in when I soon read the summit register on Split Mountain finally that afternoon - We’d both signed the 7th of 13 peaks register on the same day going opposite directions Matt Zupan vs Ryan Tetz alright going for it! I didn’t remember the talus near the top of Split Mountain feeling so precariously adult Jenga like. I felt like I was on a possible avalanche slope of rocks on the final steep angle summit push as the big couch cushions creaked and shifted with sound in unison from deeper within the mountain. My spider senses weren’t stoked. I rarely get that feeling on talus, but on large cushion size blocks with a steep enough slope angle is usually when you’ll find/feel it. I guess there’s got to be one thing that makes sand hills look pleasant. Let’s get out of here!

Can we get Middle Palisade by dark? Yes probably. I enjoyed the easiest of the 4 passes coming up the back side of Mather pass in the “golden hour”. I took time to eat up and top off all my water capacity before heading up the rough push uphill to the back of Middle Palisade and the danger crux of the route - the Farquhar route. It’s almost urban legend at this point from the storied descriptions of this route, both my own and on other recorded FKTs. By the time I was climbing the last slope to the base of the talus field it was dark and I was moving slower again on the relentless uphill.

I’d missed my goal cutoff to climb it before dark by just 2-3 hours! Could I go up there and climb it then push further into the Palisades and camp on Mt Sill or something? It was so cold already. I remembered the PTSD feelings from last year stumbling and rapping down the descent gully in the dark. My 1 technical climbing gear & food cache is up there at the base of the gully but that’s at least 1500 feet higher and colder?! I opted finally to take the shiver bivy as high as I could and get up just before daylight to take on the mountain. There’s no $$$ or dream vacation prize up there to collect if I do this 4 hours faster recklessly anyway and I’d pushed into a zone further than I’d ever wanted to go in the dark on the self powered/bike 14ers record here last year. I’m still the first out here to actually go for this thing! I opted to do the technical climbing crux in the daylight. I ate everything left of my food down to the last 2 shot blocks as I waited to make the final push in the wee morning hours just before sunrise again.

It was a hard shiver bivy to wake up from. I’d survived better perhaps in my down pants and jacket (thanks Goosefeet Gear!) than I had the previous year up here and with higher food intake overall, but it was absolutely freezing trying to get moving again at 5 AM. I knew once I moved uphill I’d warm up, but that takes some genuine convincing to believe besides all the general fatigue - I didn’t really sleep at all for those hours waiting for 5 AM to come. I ate those final 2 shot blocks and pounded up the long hill finally warming after about 30 min on the go.

Getting my cache full of cookies, cheese, meat, chips, more shot blocks, and snacks and a Coca Cola rejuvenated my spirits as I headed up the gully. If you watch the video I shot of myself at this section - it feels like I’m in slow motion or not really there yet - all systems rebooting………. 15% now.

I knew what I had to do - push Middle Palisade and the final 6 fourteeners in one hard go or go home. This was my final day to send this thing for multiple reasons. I could feel it. I couldn’t handle another shiver bivy so high up a second time. Let’s go Farquhar! The weather forecast didn’t help at all - it was for cold and extremely high winds with the possible first snows of the season the very next day and even worse winds… might not survive a night on the Palisade crest or any mistakes up there. Let’s go find out again!

Noelle Houpt descending the Farquhar chute on one of our summer snow/condition scouting adventures!

I carefully climbed up the winding gut of the loose gully system above and finally on into the steep final chimneys that guard the summit from the west side. I picked one that looked about 5.8 but safe feeling fully inside the crack/corner system old school Yosemite style, but also incredibly exposed hanging above the gully. About 2/3 of the way up the crack a very large foot hold/several foot wide ledge entirely cut loose from the wall while I was standing on it, both feet suddenly were loose and I came hard onto both my arms banging my elbows into the wall, jamming my butt quickly back into the opposite side, and surprised holding on tight as I could. Yikes man! I feel like this mountain actively has had it out for me particularly. Glad I didn’t do that one in the dizzy freezing dark now too! I’d made the right call for sure. Loose garbage chimneys bite me! Middle Palisade…

I made a couple long rappels down past the top sections and quickly was back at the base. Time to do this! I pushed on hard power hiking up the steep snow filled gully on the back of Mt Jepson as fast as I could in the blasting wind, trying not to get lost too soon on the summit push to Mt Sill heading up too early as we’d learned on other trips. If you wait longer to climb up the hillside than you first think, you’ll end up on mellow terrain to the summit ridge with no 5th class. It’s a balance not going too far to find the most direct time efficient option here. Mt Sill Summit 1:26 PM - starting the Palisades traverse officially 4 more peaks and out!

I hurried across to Polemonium opting to rap only one time to save time downclimbing off the bottom half and quickly soloing up the chimney headed up to North Palisade. Alright need to be on that summit of Thunderbolt by 5 PM to leave a couple hours of daylight to get down if anything goes wrong or we need to bail Norman’s 13! I’m well acquainted with every bail option for the traverse after so many times through it the last few seasons. I checked my pace with the time - this scenario was all too familiar from last year, but the weather added a whole nother commitment to it. I’m excited to be out tonight!!

Noelle Houpt starting down the shoulder of Mt Sill toward Polemonium on an earlier summer adventure

It was violently cold and windy on the west side, but dropping down the ridgeline by even a few feet below on the east cut the wind entirely. So I’d alternate from freezing for a couple minutes quickly climbing through sections or coiling rope up and hunkering down to warm up on the opposite side. I passed only one roped party on the “knife edge arete” at the start of Polemonium who graciously let me solo right over around the ropes. At least someone out climbing today is a good sign in all this wind! I wouldn’t have continued probably on a fun day, but this was my only chance for the record this year and with all of that behind me now. Hope that Matt guy is doing okay tonight too!

Summit of the Starlight Milk Bottle

I was stoked to find a note and small chocolate candy in the summit register box atop N Pal from a couple coworkers of mine the previous day “Can’t wait for you any longer for Ryan Tetz! Go for it!” I made it to Starlight Peak summit just before 4PM - under 2.5 hours after starting from Mt Sill, 4 peaks down! The wind mostly was cold, but this was the one spot it messed with my nerves in the head game. I waited in between the intermittent convulsing gust blasts feeling it out before stepping on to the committing first moves of the “Milk Bottle” summit block and clipping the rope on my back into the rappel carabiner.

A little more down scrambling and one last rappel and I headed for Thunderbolt Peak. I opted to just climb it while grabbing at some last tatty webbing hanging just off from the summit block for some “mental” security over the bulge. It was sun baked and attached with some who-knows-what-knot I probably wouldn’t have trusted if I’d seen what I was using before committing already that high, but gave me the little confidence boost to make the 5.9 mantle move. Sketchiest but fastest Thunderbolt summit block ascent I’ve done maybe wow! (The rope toss is way more legit and only takes +10 min if you know where/how). Wonder if Matt had left the tat?

Final Summit! Thunderbolt Peak

I made my goal sumitting just minutes before 5 PM for 3.5 hours on the traverse and was rapping off the summit with my rope threaded at 5:07 PM per the video time stamp. Wow never felt so good to thread a rap rope before! I pushed it out hard with the little reserves I had left power hiking and jogging up to Bishop Pass then running downhill to the car. Sub <4 hours from Thunderbolt rap rope threaded to car. It hurt running hard now down the hill, but I knew I didn’t need to hold back anything here as opposed to pushing the passes halfway through the middle of the JMT. I still wish I could have hit Middle Pal before dark that last night!

In hindsight I might change a few things - lots of food and real solid foods was the one thing I did right (even more maybe?). My starting pack weight was around 15 lbs including 1 liter water weight. August is a no brainer for this attempt for warmer temps, but it was such a heavy snow year, September was the better choice this season.

I didn’t bring the right gloves. I brought some great hiking/fingerless scrambling gloves for all around and one pair of warmer BD gloves that were similar to a model I’d used in the past, but proved significantly sloppier for the extra warmth version - they weren’t dexterous for technical climbing in the true cold. Taking them up Middle Pal in the dark could have been a huge mistake.

For truly climbing the Palisades possibly by night intentionally in an ideal world, I’d carry one thin set of high dexterity full finger gloves and a thicker set of real BD ice climbing gloves. I’d also consider an additional puffy or long sleeve upper layer and a minimalist real sleeping bag if you need to perch it out on the true crest. If I’d been willing to cache a sleeping bag and gloves I trusted or an extra puffy layer up there I’d have felt comfortable besides my dramatic feeling post recap description of the Farquhar route - it isn’t that bad, but I don’t want anyone to take it too lightly - go check it out for yourself. I did it fresh with a 50+ lb pack safely during the final conditions check 2 weeks prior where we dropped my cache in there. Three nights of no sleep possibly changes everything too in the moment and I’ve often laughed in some of the same locations finding my old rap anchors later somewhere just around the corner from an easy way while fresh in the daylight. It was the right call to suck it up and take the shiver bivy. I should have carried one more set of extra batteries (3 total) for the first segments and pushed it here too with some dim head lights. I did carry 2 headlamps just in case.

So I know what you’re thinking, why on earth climb the Palisades in the dark at all? I still did it in 3.5 hours though end to end in terribly cold weather condition while very physically fatigued and managed the first 6 peaks in 24 hours instead of possibly 40+ hours? Maybe it would have been a lot easier to run freshly starting the JMT section after crushing the Palisades fresh in sub 3 hr?? Go check it out! Cheers!!

One last point of amusement - it took 2.5 hours longer to do the challenge 100% on foot vs using a bike to commute around the most advantageous possible middle section for the self powered record last year. It was part of my inspiration for coming back for this one - I’d felt I’d already done it almost or the meat of the toughest parts and the idea of doing it all nonstop on foot without coming out and over the highest trail passes was inspiring to me. Dig this guys! It was also exciting to go after something big that didn’t involve any bicycles for me this time!

Norman’s 13 👊

100 Miles/40K+ Vertical Ft

FKT 3 days - 16 hours - 33 minutes - Ryan Tetz

Corrected stats were 40K + Vert Ft, 107.5 Miles via Garmin Forerunner 935 worn 100% during the event. Let’s just call it a solid 100 miles here I say?

*Link to my full live tracking page/map from during event thanks to PJAMM Cycling!

*Video Blog (Full Raw Adventure Footage - 1st cut)

*Fastest Known Times Page

Sponsors : PJAMM Cycling, GU Energy, Aerohead Bicycles, Goosefeet Gear, M Drive, Nutriex Sport, POD Sox

California Fourteeners - Human Powered (bicycle, run, hike, climb) - Fastest Known Time

Blog Day.....

I just finished the biggest challenge of my life? What to say? Bittersweet, stoked, dazed and confused?? Hmm content but still sore!!! Yep - I don't even know how far it was yet! The California 14ers consist of 15 high peaks over 14K elevation starting with Mount Langley near Lone Pine, CA in the South and spreading across about 600 miles via bicycle ending furthest North at Mt Shasta.

My good work buddy Dana Anderson came out and camped out the night before to share the stoke for the send off! I left the Cottonwood Lakes trailhead at 6:10 AM totally amped up on adrenaline and in slight disbelief that I was actually doing this! I tried running immediately off and on, but felt silly letting myself run with SOOOOO much to come ahead so settled for a brisk walk on all but a few downhills. I enjoyed a nice sunrise winding around the mellow terrain through the Cottonwood Lakes. It was my first time on this trail. I took my time stopping to adjust shoes & gaiters and starting to apply tape to potential hot spots. Going into this, my feet were my main concern for the long haul!

I made it to Langley summit in about 4 hours (possibly a fastest GPS time in 2018 from if you believe Strava, but I thought I was holding back a lot more than that!) and stopped to sign the register then off to the giant sand hill down the backside of Langley (there would be some perks to doing this whole route North to South instead, but finishing up the hell of a sand hill(s) on the back of Langley as the final challenge would definitely not be one!!). Feeling good, I ran a bit more and passed a few hikers. I came across one couple with massive packs slogging up the winding rocky passes headed toward Crabtree Lake, and they just looked at me and both started laughing out loud after seeing my tiny running pack way back there! Okay have a good day though guys really!

I found my first real challenge on the giant sand hill on the back of Discovery Pinnacle and for the first time kind of wished I'd brought those trekking poles I'd left behind! "Sandatory Trekking Poles" would be awesome here, oh well! That hill is mean, but short lived and over in about 45 min. I dropped down soon to Trail Crest briefly hitting the JMT headed toward Whitney. A man eyed me up and down in my full running kit and asked, "What is this, one of those ultra runner challenges? Yep! The fourteeners, hopefully all of em' this week!" I quickly cruised up to Muir Summit and then back down to the trail headed to Whitney Summit. That's 2!

Whitney was the usual busy scene and I waited in line to quickly sign the summit register and snap obligatory photos, then headed down the Mountaineer's Gully. I had plenty of water on me already and decided on a small wild card move here - heading straight down the choss slabs on the North side of Whitney from the midway saddle on the Mountaineers Route. They definitely weren't as scary as they looked from some angles, but were probably in the top 3 loose sh*#ty choss scrambles I would do this week (oh, but definitely not the worst yet!). I down climbed loose gullies and crack systems full of readily exfoliating garbage blocks - kind of like ice climbing when it's so cold everything is dinner plating!

The steep gully heading up the South Side of Mt Russell was next and went relatively uneventful - a steady steep one, a grunt! But, when I got to the top, I felt a tinge of weird dizziness for the first time traversing the summit ridge. Something was a bit off. Am I bonking?? I ate a couple packs of fruit snacks and started the somewhat funky slab traverse that heads down far looker's right off the summit (for seemingly a good ways every time I do it!). It was around 5 PM on the summit, where did this day go already? That's 4 peaks down though!

I headed on to start crossing the first big talus field sections of the route with a little bit of down climbing around the cliffs between Russell and Wallace Lake. It was dark by the time I rolled up to Wallace lake and I’d stubbornly refused to stop and put on a headlamp yet and payed for it by stepping into the grassy bog mess on the south shore in the dark - getting both my shoes thoroughly wet and soaked through just in time for dark!

Not to worry, it's dinner time ;-) I pulled out a bagel, some almond trailbutter, beef jerky, & a snickers and pretended to make dinner for myself while sitting in the bothy bag (a want to be tiny emergency windbreaker tent that sometimes greatly helps morale at cold times alone) near the lake. I topped off my water adequately. Oh the next section is my least favorite of the route and I'm planning on being up all night tonight! I popped my first caffeine pill and went ahead and changed my wet socks after "dinner". Alright let's do this! I tried to crank up my pre-loaded Spotify playlists downloaded on the phone, but because the phone was totally out of service I was stuck with just one song -  Runaway Train by Soul Asylum. I went ahead and rocked out to a couple play throughs anyway and began the charge up the steep rocky gullies above without hint of trail from the lake. Into the dark - Williamson here we come!

This is one of my least favorite sections of the route because it literally is composed of just 90 % or more giant Talus fields pretty much endlessly without relief from here till Shepherd Pass - a distance of about 6 miles or so with 2 more fourteeners thrown into the mix + about a 13,800 foot bonus climb on the pass over Mt Bernard East just for kicks! Alright well get to it!

Somewhere in the middle of this mass of dark endless talus fields is a lake called Lake Helen of Troy. An aptly rugged name for sure, if there was somewhere in the world where a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings monster was going to pop out and drag you away into the depths for good, this would probably be it. At least that's what I think every time I come through here at night - just a dark vibe! The entire shoreline is steep 70% + angle unstable couch cushion size blocks or snow that drops straight to the lake with no real shoreline (and would be lots of fun to try to attempt to climb back up out the water via the frozen snow if you biffed yeehaw!). My first time through I felt like I was playing "adult Jenga" touch a block - feel a half dozen more shift and creaking, repeat.... This is the loosest shittiest talus I've ever found anywhere in 20 years of climbing that I've needed to cross. I "couch surfed" several spontaneous blocks down prepared to full on bail immediately even into a committed intentional face plant if necessary to escape the potential carnage if required! Luckily tonight I found some better beta that I'm going to give away here - stay high and right as possible and come in on a high angle avoiding the entire South & East sides of the lake if you can. More adult teeter-totter, less playing threat to life Jenga! Alright!! Psyched!

Williamson... Oh Williamson you broke me! If the sunset dizziness on Russell was a warning, at 2 AM on the steep gully heading up Williamson I found the wall! Ugh. I crawled up the hill one step at a time as literally (on hands and knees) things slowed to what felt like a snail's pace and no matter what I did, weren't improving anytime soon. Stumble/falling up hill ahhhhhhh!!! Come on! I was too dizzy to stand up straight - something was totally off. Even on the final push of the Badwater to Whitney records where I'd occasionally seen flashing white halos at the edge of my vision, I'd never felt this out! I'm out here alone with no bivy gear pushing through my ultimate limits in the dark on the second highest fourteener in the state! Okay man! I keyed the GPS in to make sure I was in the right gully and not doing anything weird.

I finally arrived at the base of the 4th class chimney leading up to the summit ridge. I'd practiced it 2 weeks before effortlessly, but looking up at it at that moment, I knew I absolutely could not & likely would not survive climbing it right now. Besides it's so damn cold!! What to do? I decided to try everything - all layers of clothing on - check, bothy bag on, another caffeine pill, eating - eating a lot!, lets do a 30 min nap awkwardly sitting here cross legged/fetal position too! Alarm clock on! I rose up 30 min later feeling less dizzy - okay I can do 4th class carefully! I placed my hands against the cold rock making the last moves one by one while squeezing my body inside to the top. The summit was just as cold. I was disappointed not to find the extra Clif Bar “marked for someone who needs it” from the week before in the register too as I sat in the Bothy Bag and signed my name.

Looking down the Williamson crack system during a day time recon trip 2 weeks prior. Green dot is my pack at the base!

As I approached the dark downclimb back into the chimney, not so dizzy, but still half bonked, I took off my gloves to climb with greater sensitivity and thought "this is for all those years climbing Ryan, don't mess this up!". I might be dizzy, weak, and cold, but I know how to climb easy rock and squeeze inside wide cracks correctly. Hold on good! The slog down the rest of the gully was uneventful and I was glad to have my gaiters on to keep the infinite loose pebbles out of my shoes. That's 5 peaks in a day!

The sun wouldn't be up till 6AM and I didn't feel comfortable heading up Tyndall in my current state in the dark. I stumbled across the big talus fields and took a break topping off more water and drinking next to the last lakes before heading up the mountain again. Maybe I should just go home? Can I even climb Tyndall right now? This week is all over if you don't do it right now! This is for the mission (oh how these decision moments would become an all too common theme in the week ahead - make or break time).

Dead tired but still alive on Tyndall! 6 Down! 26 hours

I was slow enough that I didn't have to wait long for the sun to come up on the mountain and start the grind up Tyndall. The North Rib of Tyndall is a choss pile, but far from the worst this week. Basically you climb a ridge like feature around the loose choss blocks piled all over some class 3 slabs. I felt weak- even slower than Williamson. Am I just going to tip over or have a seizure or something? I'm moving still, this isn't hard, and the warm sun feels good! Bad news though - we are almost out of food after eating up on Williamson and a long ways from the trailhead! 24 hours in! I summited with a half pack of Clif Shot Blocks and about 400-500 calories of GU Roctane sugary/carb drink left I hope! I sat down feeling dazed and complacent on the summit. Mixed feelings. Is my record attempt over? I feel done? My God this will be a long hike out with no food! Take it one step at a time!

After carefully scrambling back down the slabs, I was glad to soon hit a real trail for the first time since starting out. I was supposed to do this in the dark though hmm. I guess my time isn't terrible though? Six fourteeners in under 30 hours off trail? Oh man I'm stumbling along now! The sunny sandy switchbacks soon became heated up in the direct sunlight - 90 degrees, 95, 100, 103?! Still no food!? The sand became hot and began to burn my shoes which inflamed and woke up every blister sore in my feet. Aghhhhhh please stop! Why is there no shade trees even like once a mile on this trail!? This is my new least favorite trail....... I texted out to Jo. Mixed feelings. I'm over this! I have terrible feet blisters to the point of audible yelling/dancing?! I stopped and pulled out the med kit and tried different things for the blisters. One pair of socks was too tight, ahh that blister pad feels great - no it hurts like hell worse than before 15 min later, what now? My surgical toe from my foot surgery let me know it was pissed off too like no other - burning, screaming at me, EFFFFF.... ugh! I'd saved one trump card for my surgery toe - a special soft rubber toe condom called a Bunga Toe Cap - designed for ballet dancers with black toes to keep dancing. I placed it on carefully with added foot lube between all my toes, put on the loosest pair of socks, and used a needle to drain a couple other blisters - then trimmed them with the tiny scissors of my Swiss Army Knife! Woot this still sucks, it's still 100+ degrees with no food, but it is no longer torture!! Winning!

I stumbled on wishing again for real I'd brought those trekking poles to push down the sandy hill (I would bring them next time specifically for Shepherd Pass post x 6 peaks). I tried running off and on, but my body really wasn't having it with the overall soreness. This is when I started to have my first real hallucinations on the trip. Every time I was near water, I could hear country music blasting non stop. I kept hearing people on the trail behind me, but they were never there. I tried to race them down the hill anyway! Out of the corner of my eye at turns I'd see someone over and over, but they were never there when I'd try to find them. Oh look a family playing in the river. Hmm? Nope they aren't there! At least I got country music on blast! There was nothing else to do, but slog on. I wasn't sure if the the attempt was over or not. Hmm this is weird! I finished the half pack of shot blocks and slowly sipped on the remaining Roctane carb drink. Trickle calories! Keep at it huh?

After the eternally slow slog I finally made it down to the trailhead a couple hours before dusk (5 PMish). I found my cache and started up the stove to rehydrate a Mountain House freeze dried meal and a Tasty Bite. I wish I'd packed double food extras. Too late now! Luckily I'd anticipated this section or the next might take a day and a half compared to Sean O'Rourke's ambitious record splits and packed an extra day of trail food just in case! There was nothing to do but eat, sit, take some time to clean up and tape my feet with the extra medical supplies, and decide on what to bring next! I pumped up the bike tires and loaded my 3rd string older bike bags on the bike to carry the few extras. Zip! Well I'm on the bike and it's not dark yet! Down to Independence! I really wished it was Lone Pine in a way for better food options, but it was what it was. I headed to the Independence Mini Market (arguably the worst food store/market on the Eastside as a whole including all the gas stations ha!). The store is notorious for having no air conditioning even in the middle of 100+ degree summer days. I had a soda, and bought even more trail food - peanut M & Ms, 3 snickers bars, Beef Jerky, Gummy Bears, that should help!

Split Mountain here we come!

I was on my Cross Bike with knobbier tires - for the paved road not totally ideal, but I just cranked along steadily up the highway towards Aberdeen and the turn off for Tinnemaha Campground and Red Lake trailhead. I decided to take the more direct dirt road turn off paralleling 395 on Tinemaha Road (is it an insult to rednecks that the spelling is different for the campground and the road through it??).  This might have been a bad call - while saving a few miles in directness, the skinny cross tires spun out and crawled along up the dirt on the loaded bicycle, but it did get me mentally warmed up for the steeper dirt to come! I had a deal with myself in my mind - finish this and you get 3 hours of sleep at the trailhead tonight! Yeah!!!

Fuller Road and the dirt roads that wind around the back of the mine to avoid the private property soon proved full value! UP, up, and uphill we go! Sometimes the bike would lose traction and I would do everything I could to spin it up to high cadence and keep going up the loose less traveled road, but I didn't win them all and I would biff it. I had my first few crashes of the trip trying to force the bike on uphills it didn't want to do! Wish this was my mountain bike for tonight... too late! Biff!! Ugh. Fate would hold that while looking forward to my first 3 hour sleep break of the trip, about a mile from the trailhead, my tubeless tire went flat. I tried to pump it back up, but it wouldn't have it nope! HDFU time Ryan - it was a sandy slimy mess to pull the tire off and it was full of trail grit/sand stuck all over the sealant. I used my finger over and over to remove the tiny rocks now plastered all over the inside of the tire......oh I want that sleep break... well if any mountain lions are stalking me out here tonight nows a perfect time with me sitting around here alone in the sand at midnight!!! I loaded a tube and got the tire up and running finally on my way... then I got a bloody nose - not sure why - just because this is one of those adventures. I packed a gauze 2x2 from the med supplies up there and hit it. Come on! A half hour till sleep ahead!

I'd left the Bothy bag behind and swapped out for a SOL (Survive Outdoors Longer) emergency bivy sack - the top of the line one that can actually breathe and has a zipper and draw cord. Stoked, I laid it down on the sandy dirt and got inside it with my clothes on - sans sleeping pad, but who cares! I set the alarm for 3 hours and 5 minutes! (got to give myself those extra 5 to fall asleep for full credit?? =) Hey this isn't bad I'm warm at 7,000 feet in possibly the tiniest sleeping bag equivalent known to man! Oh if I knew what is in store later though.....

BEEP....BEEEP... BEEEEPPPPPPP. Wake up 4:30 AM! I ate a breakfast of gummy bears, a 350 calorie Ensure Plus, and a GU Waffle! Alright stashed the bike on the other side of the river laid down behind a big boulder that involved crossing through sticker bushes. No one will come over here!! I sent 2 Garmin InReach messages out to Dana describing the location. If you have time to grab it this week up this off road trailhead here's some coordinates, I'll cover the gas $, otherwise no worries, it's my least favorite bike - if it gets lost, I'll survive!! I still wasn't sure about how this would go on Split Mountain ahead, but this was my first "just one more mountain" and see how it goes moment. I knew I had to go see. If I totally floundered then I'd know I was really done if so.

The Red Lake trailhead approach to Split is rough, bushy, and a little tricky to follow with multiple faint trails to choose from intermixed with seemingly random cairns, but generally you get a feel for the style of the trail creators and follow the right one mostly! Pants were nice starting out. I still got stabbed by plenty a sharp desert plant in the legs and some of the trail is full on almost jungle status bushwhacking for short times! I was stoked to get above the brush line and into some real trees. The first sight of Split Mountain is absolutely beautiful.

Soon I was eyeing talus, snow, and the start of false summit plateaus. I caught my first pairs of hikers heading for the summit. One older couple - that asked me in detail what I was doing, how I was moving so fast (I'm moving fast again?! Woot!), and how old I was? It was her 60th birthday and I told them that was awesome!! They insisted I stop for a photo. Alright I'm moving again feeling okay! I passed 3 more hikers on the way to the summit and was soon at the top. Maybe I can make the Palisades today! It was cloudy and I heard thunder for the first time a few times, but far away. I texted the InReach for a weather update - 10% chance of showers and clear tomorrow. I'm good sweet! The descent off the mountain is largely a giant steep talus field that finally hits some grass at the bottom with some nice lakes. I spoiled myself and took a full 5 minute foot break soaking them in the cold water before applying a few more new strips of tape and new socks. Ahhhhhhh :)

This was the cruiser part of the trip. I soon hit the JMT and was the spectacle of weird looks, chuckles, and questions to other trail hikers as I enjoyed the novelty of hiking on the nice trail. "No Pack?!" - Yep - It's going to be a long night! "Now that is ultra light - look at him!" "Is this just going on a walk through the park for rock climbers?" "You have a camp somewhere right, you are just day hiking around from?!" Nope... "Wow we won't keep you long!" The novelty and conversation was nice as I motored by a couple dozen hikers. I'm not bonked!

I knew it would be short lived though as Middle Palisade and the big off trail hillside approach came into vision. That's where I belong! I had some sense of dread, because the few reports online and couple conversations I'd had about the Farquhar route had all referred to it as loose & gnarly - something you would only climb for records' attempt sake. One local guide had even mentioned doing 7 rappels to get down it with a client and he wasn't even sure what route it was or not. Sounds about right! The "Farquhar Death Chute" eh? It was 5 PM again. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of heading up possibly the technical and danger crux of the entire route with darkness looming, but this was another "for the mission" moment. I wasn't about to sit on my hands below a few hours till dark and the next morning. It has to go tonight or not!

The route is extremely loose. It's one of the worst I've ever climbed - sandy loose blocks piled in steep exposure linked by intermittent rotten physical full body chimney systems... What did I get myself into?

From the Summit Post description : [Secor states, "This route is exposed and has much loose rock, and it is easy to get off route. Only experienced climbers should attempt this route." This I believe to be a gross understatement. During our climb one member of our party was almost severely injured by falling rock, and afterwards we decided to rename the route "The Chute of Eternal Peril". There is not a solid rock to be found on the entire climb. On top of this is constant severe exposure, and guesswork for route finding. Just when you think the climb can get no worse, it does, and if you are planning on descending the same route you will find no peace of mind while on the summit. If you decide this route is for you, be prepared for a very serious and painstaking undertaking. Each step will be cautious, and each decision critical. Climb up the face/semi-gully along sandy ledges and very loose rock. Even if you get the privilege to stand on something solid, it will be covered in slippery sand.]

WTF??  Winning?! Good thing I didn’t read any of that before heading out too!

I made my way up carefully climbing precisely over the loose blocks and bulges occasionally knocking off large dinner plate + size rocks. I finally got to the chimney crux a couple hundred feet before the summit. You have 3 choices - all rotten wide crack fun times - pick one! I took the middle one, but was unwilling to climb it inside the tight loose chimney (is that a thing?) with my pack on. I was hesitant to be split from my pack near dark at 14,000 feet, but it had to be done to get through this garbage. I headed up quickly to the summit in the fading light, signed the register, and started down... wait? All these junk chimneys look the same and are ridiculously exposed. No slings in sight here either. Does anyone climb this? I went back and forth across the summit ridge. Sh#t I should have marked the top with a cairn grr stupid. Being stuck up here tonight with just a puffy jacket would be really bad! I started down one of the gullies and realized I could pull out the InReach and track exactly where I was in comparison - ah the right system is 30-50 feet down and right! I trended down and right till I got to the top of the steep crack. There's my pack!! I carefully climbed down again inside the crack. Stoked!

What a “tight loose chimney” looks like - Courtesy “Wobby” SummitPost.org

Dark with hardly a ledge to stand on and definitely not sleep on... I'm tired. I've had 3 hours sleep total in 3 days and of course I'm here right now 8 fourteeners deep. I felt like I was a guide guiding myself - 2 different people - one confidently watching over everything from the outside knowing I was in a deteriorated state needed guidance, the other a goofy little kid that just wanted to go home and sleep with some kind of shaky balance. I was even talking to myself that way. It was definitely time - I pulled out my secret weapon. Just in case I ended up climbing the Palisades in the middle of the night somehow... I'd brought along what I've grown to call the "God Light". It's saved me and partners multiple times before when we've been caught in alpine terrain well past dark. A special designed runner's headlamp by Light and Motion, it's the best thing I've found money can buy that is both light and bright - like turning on 5 or 6 Petzl/BD lights on max bright. Once you turn it on, you've got 6 hours baby! Oh man it's a long steep way down.

Middle of the Farquhar Route - Courtesy “Wobby” SummitPost.org

Back down at the saddle "safely" below the crux headwall I made a gamble - Some of the notes I'd taken suggested at least one speed record had aborted the choss route and booked it right exiting down the other side of the face here (NW Bowl). I'd put the precise line into the GPS program back home just in case. I decided to go have a look. Am I losing my mind? I think I really just didn't want go back down the Farquhar right then! I scrambled down for about 15 minutes and I got a bad feeling. My mountain sense said no. This goes down to vertical face that is too steep and too long for your 30 meter rope and if the raps don't go you'll end up stuck! It was probably only 200-300 feet, but in the dark onsight it wasn't worth finding out. Back to you Farquhar! The battle is with you tonight! I'm so effing done with this record attempt right now... Is it really that bad or am I just tired? F#*K

I carefully picked my down climbing carefully kicking and pounding on the many loose rocks to see if they were "secure" enough then using the God Light on sections in between to decide if I could down climb them or not. The sloping sandy slabs above exposure scared me more than the choss mostly and I opted to rap. That was pretty much how I proceeded off and on down we go! Anchors that I was willing to actually rap off weren't particularly easy to find among the loose blocks & without trad gear. I'd only brought 20 feet of 5mil cord to rig anchors and after a few raps soon went through it all. Luckily I was getting closer to the ground. I could see the final crux chimney direct I'd taken that had felt about 5.8 on the way up guarding the bottom of the route. Definitely rapping! Thank God for the God Light! Well this record is over anyway - I thought I might as well straight line it off and leave the rope fixed, why carry it out? I thought about it for a minute, but that seemed poor style - I thought of Vic and Frank heckling me at the Zoo house telling em' how I'd left my rope behind in some alternate reality then arresting me (both old roomies became real cops recently) ha really right now?... Ahh get the knife out Ryan! I was out of webbing, but I knew I could cut off part of my rope shorter and leave it fixed as an anchor then rap with the rest! In 20 years of climbing I'd never intentionally cut my own rope on a route. It pissed me off and just seemed unsettling somehow - a failure, but it was the right call. Okay well now I've got a 25 meter rope!

I was down, but I was not on the ground, just loose talus infinity. I wanted to get down to one of the lakes below - lower elevation would be warmer - in hindsight maybe it wouldn't have made a difference - they were all at 11,700 + too. I realized I really was bonking after coiling the rope - it was 1:45 AM. I worked my way down the talus and I fell hitting my hands hard and cutting them. I got up and and walked some more and soon fell again, hitting my hands hard once more. I knew I had to stop or I was going to fall my way down this hill in worse shape. I found a small rock overhang protecting me from potential rock fall from above and literally dug out the talus against the wall like an alpinist chopping out a snow ledge to have a place capable of laying down. I put on all my clothes and got in the emergency bivy sack. This is going to suck. I don't think I'll die though or it is that serious - just definitely sucks! Luckily I had plenty of extra food thanks to my Market shopping stop and was able to put some down before hunkering in for the night....

The Shiver Bivy... how long will I be here? The cold settled in and while my upper body and torso were warm in the puffy jacket, my legs froze. Fetal position, back, fetal position, back, sit up - rub the legs good! Eat something. Okay back to laying down... shiver brrrrr brrr. Up again. Back down! Fetal, Back, Fetal, Back. I can't get up now. It's too cold. I'm going to have to wait the whole night till the sun is up. I spent from 2 AM till 7:30 in the shiver bivy according to the GPS track but it seemed like forever! Ahh the sun is out!

I tromped down to the lake feeling (surprisingly?) okay. Should I go down to the JMT and just have a nice hiking day out over Dusy Basin? That'd be nice and it'd be plenty warm if I needed to camp again? Nah I should at least hike up to Mt Sill and learn the beta for this section! Bailing off behind Polemonium is probably easier than the JMT anyway. I started my morning march eating and chugging along after topping off my water. This isn't too bad hmm. I felt a second wind and thought maybe I can do the Palisades right now! I started to push harder - nice and steady up the giant talus hills and passes behind Mt Jepson and Mt Sill. Mt Sill by 12:45 that's not terrible? I thought of my friends back home watching - look at Ryan casual starting the Palisades at 1 PM that cocky crazy guy?! Sure.

I knew I couldn't afford to spend another night exposed out high no matter what. I'd have have to hit Thunderbolt by 6 PM at the latest to ensure 2 hours of daylight to get down the easy descent chute. A non-negotiable deal with myself as I considered the possible easy bail out points with my short rope. Oh not this again - it's for the mission time! I reluctantly laced up the pair of comfy Mythos climbing shoes I'd been carrying all along (ouch my feet don't want these!) at the striking knife edge ridge line climbing onto Polemonium. I made quick work of the ridge, stopping shortly to booty the first bomber fresh looking anchor cord I found since I'd left my extra webbing on Middle Pal. The climbing shoes hurt my swollen feet, but boosted my confidence immensely on the steep terrain. Mt Sill to Polemonium ----> U notch in under an hour. Hey I got some gas pedal back baby! I'm not bailing!

It was a quick climb up the chimney onto to North Pal and summit with a few minor down rappels - a little trickier than what I'd rehearsed with my now custom shorter rope! Soon I was at Starlight eyeing the pointy summit. I tied a rope loosely around one of the spikes at the base then to me and started up. The worst part of Starlight is the start then you are on the summit before you even realize! I rapped off the fixed anchor into the corner below to more scrambling (hey this is way more solid than anything Farquhar!). I'm actually having fun!

I passed the site where Jo had fallen and gotten seriously injured the week before with a concussion and 3 head lacerations leading to a full value self rescue and waving off a helicopter evac, while rehearsing this part. Yuck! I didn't linger long at all. I realized that where she fell we were basically totally down off the technical in the class 2/3 walking zone near the bottom of Starlight - almost safe, but she had found a harder way to climb and somehow slipped a hand or foot unexpectedly. So crazy! A reminder to take extra care!

The slab connection up to the chimney on Thunderbolt was the only onsight part of the traverse for me. I'd never gone up it. It was exposed and a little exciting, but good holds or crack were always available. I moved quickly across the most exposed moves from the slab into the chimney system. To the summit! This time I would attempt the rope lasso to protect this thing. I watched my old guide friend Jed Porter's video and replicated the toss perfectly the first time then used my belay device in reverso mode carefully on the 7.9 mm rope to easily self belay myself to the summit - 4 hours exactly nearly from Sill to Thunderbolt not bad - not even 5 o'clock yet! 13 out of 15 fourteeners down!! Woah. Three days 10 hours in! That's not that slow?

Proof of summit! Thunderbolt

I was stoked making quick work of the gully and Thunderbolt Col heading over to Bishop Pass still in the daylight. I enjoyed another sunset descending the pass. I'm going to be in Bishop before 10 o'clock tonight I might even sleep! For the first time I felt like I was really doing this and could. Now it's just 3 days of biking in a row! I'm making it to Bishop!

I bombed down South Lake on my road bike in all my layers from the Palisades. My South Lake cache was bare minimal - mainly just water and a fresh bike - so I quickly jumped on the bike and got going remembering to watch out for the notorious deer while moving so fast. I got a jolt of excitement at the bottom crossing the Indian Reservation at night as 2 particularly vicious looking “rez dogs” charged me and I got to out run them wearing my puffy, pack, and mountaineers coil rope over the shoulder! Peace doggies... that woke me up though! Soon I was at the garage that would be my only multiple stop transition hub. I quickly made a tasty bite and Mountain House Mac & Cheese, then went to bed again around 12:30. I'll be nice - 4 hours sleep tonight for 4 days. You've earned it!

Tasty bite and instant Epsom Salt/Baking Soda/Listerine foot refreshing treatment for filthy feet. Perfection Achieved!

All I have to do is ride bikes now? What is this challenge?? It was a mental milestone and frame shift to picture myself just riding around on bikes the next few days. I finished packing up, made my oatmeal, and was headed out geared up on White Mountain by 6:30 AM. I updated social media for the first time since starting off on the way out - for the first time, I truly believed I could probably do this. Believe it Ryan! If I could out and back today on the steep hillside canyons up and down White Mountain with a decent time and without terrible/significant knee pains/injury etc, I could certainly grind out some flat miles on the highway! This would be the final “for the mission” limit testing hurdle between me and actually being able to send this thing! Just a 71 mile mountain bike ride with 14,750 feet vertical gain today!

I enjoyed the novelty of spinning around on the bike starting up the wide dirt road at the bottom of Silver Canyon knowing what was ahead - a 14.5 mile road climb with a max grade of 43%, possibly the steepest climb on the Eastside. I’d long decided this would be my route during the weeks of planning logistics - both the most direct route and not some kind of fancy extra + road bike to mountain transition via the Bristlecones. Maybe I lost some time with this decision, but it just seemed the honorable way whenever I thought about the mountain and then putting the Sierra mountains finally in the rear view today! It reminded me of taking Old Priest Grade by choice when I set the Trans California Direct bike crossing record. To do anything involving going around and not taking it straight on, would always be a personal cop out for me. The last sentinel on a grand sized life adventure to not forget!

I did my best, soon climbing the numerous 20% + grade sections in the cool morning air. I rode more than I had in the past on the only other ascent where I’d biked up here with skis for a winter ascent, but still the road traction proved difficult - even my 3.25” fat tires eventually spun out at all but the highest cadence on the steepest sections! I would power up and spin my legs quick, but when traction was lost I’d have to quickly unclip from the pedals and bail out at the last moment to avoid crashing the bike. I’d then walk for a couple minutes and try again. Hours passed… I crashed a couple times when I wasn’t quite quick enough. I was getting a real honest blue collar ass kicking fight from the mountain, but hanging in there!

11:30 AM - I finally crested the summit taking a rest and swapping out for a pair of clean socks. I encountered a group of off road jeepers curious how I was riding a bike up this road (they were mountain bikers too- “There’s not enough traction to ride up this road with bike tires, we tried it once”). I said, “Just one pedal at a time I guess!” I realized I hadn’t had the benefit of a mini mart stop today and was feeling the food stress with my new incredible appetite - “I’ll probably make it, but this will be close.” I pulled out the $20 bill I always carry with me on these kind of adventures and asked, “How much will this buy of your lunch? I’m probably okay, but this one is kinda epic!”. They laughed and said don’t worry bout that - handing me a handful of classic granola bars. Trip insurance today woot!

The upper section of White was a mellow and easy spin compared to the canyon. This kinda feels like the first rest day of this week almost - I’d probably never say that on any other day! Passing the Barcroft station at 3 PM I knew I was a little later, but not too bad! My favorite part of the day was picking the technical/balance-y lines riding from Barcroft to the Summit saddle - a fun challenge for a change! It kept me motivated and I rode all of it without a single step missed. I love this mountain bike!

I used Chris’s beta from the Aerohead bike shop - the fastest way up White is to leave your bike at the top just before the final downhill to the summit at the Saddle - otherwise it’s a mandatory push bike heading back up. I left everything else but the InReach, a windbreaker, 1 GU, and “summit snickers bar” and headed for the top! OH my…. I loved the feeling of being so light, but for the first time now on my 14th summit push in 5 days, my calves were pumped up like they were borderline approaching compartment syndrome - so tight woah!! I decided to keep to the nice road switchbacks instead of cutting cross country direct via talus and just moved it steady - lead calves huh they’re so pumped?! I hit the summit just before 5:30 PM and savored my Snickers while writing an excited note in the register! 14 peaks down 1 left!?! Shasta is finally locked in the sights this is unreal!

I used my new stoke to run down the hill on the talus direct option - I feel strong. I never used to run talus like this, and in cleated bike shoes!! I was excited to get back on the bike and rip the downhill back to the canyon. It was fun and technical picking the lines once again with a few short uphills and just letting the bike roll. Barcroft at 6:30 PM. Think I can get back to Silver by dark! It’s a bit of a grind to Silver Canyon with one notorious final uphill before the end (got to get those 14K+ vertical feet in!), but besides a few layer changing stops was uneventful. I flipped on my regular headlamp starting the climb just cranking along and finally hit the top of the canyon descent at 9PM. Some hunters stopped on ATVs to ask if I was okay, then dropped into the canyon like wild men at full speed. Wonder if I’ll catch `em!?

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Beautiful Sunset off White Mountain - Photos were not enough for how awesome it was up here in the crisp evening air cruising at full speed! Some have asked what my favorite view of the trip was? Right here!

I’d brought a regular bike light to run at full strength to do this descent in the dark at full speed. I should have just enough battery! The descent was a blast. I had to be extra careful to hold balance at speed around some of the steepest corners. The ATVs stayed ahead of me until the last sharp corner where I finally caught up! I’m going to go ahead guys! Yeehaw! Ha!

Out of site of the ATVs about 2/3 of the way down now I rounded a corner and saw something I’ve never really wanted to see on a bike. AGHHHHHHHH! A mountain lion crouched in a rock embankment about 15-20 feet off from the road. He/she looked about as startled to see me as I was to see him. The lion head checked back and forth quickly - left then right - almost cowering against the rock. It was startled by me and didn’t know whether to run or move, but definitely not pursuing. I was hauling ass lit up with bright lights - literally 40 MPH + plus down the wide open dirt road. There’s no way he can chase me woah!! Ciao!! Yikes.

Sweet I’m fine! I hit the first water crossings a few minutes later. At the second one something went wrong? My wheel was out of true? Hmm the wheel had gone into the frame now just a few miles from the pavement, but also still a few too close to that spooked out lion a couple miles back! I should have slowed down more for the water! Ugh. I considered my options and felt creeped out sitting down on the road messing with the wheel. I pulled out the tape reserved for my foot blisters and wrapped it quickly around the bike frame several times & tried hopelessly kicking at and pushing the wheel back in line. It’s GTFO time on White Mountain! Oh well a bike frame is $1000 worst case… This adventure doesn’t stop just yet - definitely not here and not mountain lion bait tonight!

It was like riding a resistance trainer downhill. I pedaled cringing as I knew I might be sealing the deal on my beloved bike’s final ride. Sad. The tire kept spinning rubbing tightly against the frame. I couldn’t keep it upright through the remaining water crossing sections and had to just walk through creeks knee deep carrying the bike. This is supposed to be the easy cruise to the bivy site for some sleep! 10:30 PM - back at the pavement I kept grinding through the rural Laws neighborhood until I was also sure I was out of reach of angry errant dogs and ahead to Hwy 6. The bike situation wasn’t improving. Finally I stopped and took a closer look again - the adjustable rear drop outs on the Salsa frame designed to allow different wheel sizes to fit had moved on one side just enough to send the wheel off on a crazy angle (I thought I’d tightened those as tight as I could before?!). I was able to push it back adjusted some - it still rubbed out of true and the derailer was now confused, but I was able finish last couple miles back to the garage finally - 11 PM I’m done!

I wanted to get up as early as possible to start the 450 mile bike tour/odyssey to Shasta. I tried to pack the road bike for the final touring load out while waiting on my now customary Mountain House and Tasty Bite dinner. This was the first day I really felt sore in general at the end. Bummer about the bike - I was almost here! Packing was nearly a lost cause - this or this? I don’t know. Let’s go light? I’ve never bike toured a day in my life before tonight hmm!? Probably should have! It would be so nice to get out of here early! I laid down on the garage floor with my rehydrated (and always immediately too hot to eat for a while) dinner. What else can I snack on? I didn’t want to get up off the floor - my legs wanted to be stretched out straight. Lets just eat and sleep…. I only finished half my food this time before I found myself reaching for the cozy sleeping bag - 4 AM again alarm. Check!!

I figured out that the key Mike left opened the side door to the empty house - I’m taking a shower and shaving real quick before this bike epic - better to ask forgiveness than permission! Maybe it will wake me up some! I took a caffeine pill and jumped in the shower - wow that feels good! Day 6! This was beginning to feel like the challenge that never ends - it just resets every day with a whole new tough objective.

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Now serving non stop and once only direct service to Shasta!!

Packing inevitably took a while as I pondered what were the things I really needed to bring to bike all night through how cold of weather? How much food? Batteries? How much Roctane Carb Drink? Bring the flip flops? A sleeping pad? I loaded up probably a little heavy, but afraid to go too light! 7AM start - oh well. I should have packed better all ahead of time, but not terrible! We’ll just bike forever!

I started out hitting the Sherwin Grade almost immediately climbing the 4,000+ feet out of Bishop. Okay this is slow, but not that bad… steady spinning! And there is a restaurant at the top with something other than food called “Mountain House” after 6 days!!! I was excited knowing I’d hit Tom’s Place in time for breakfast and that easily kept the stoke going up the big hill climb of the day - better to get it done first thing - that’s kind of my style!

I sat down at Tom’s Place and felt like a total king - a real chair, coffee, ice water and a full breakfast spread no way!! I’ll take my shoes off! There was nowhere else in the world I wanted to be! I talked with a few tourists and was very grateful for every bite of some real food! Okay if White Mountain is a rest day, today is a vacation! Who cares if I’m going to attempt to ride all night?! I was happy. So happy!

Heaven! Real breakfast and food on day 6!

Umm no more breakfast!!! Gone!

I enjoyed cruising through the familiar spots and and passing my home in Mammoth Lakes, CA. I feel good on the bike! I stopped whenever it was convenient - it was even worth a few extra pedal strokes to head up to the Mobil Mart in Lee Vining (good thing too for + calories - I’d have a mostly steady headwind to contend in against from here on to Carson City yet unbeknownst to me. Oh yeah!). I had my first mechanical issue soon heading north - a brake got twerked out weird by some road debris and I had to get the bike tool out to force the stuck rocks out and adjust it - some new scratches on the frame, but mostly fine! Glad I got tools!

I started the next big climb of the trip up to Conway Summit - 8,143 feet from Mono Lake - this should be the last real big climb till Shasta yes! The climb was long and steady, but I spoiled myself with a sit down stop at the famous Jolly Kone in Bridgeport. Here I had a decision to make - there are 2 danger cruxes for the bike route from Bishop to Shasta - roads I would only ride on a record attempt/race and not without some urgency. Walker Canyon is the first section. My friend, James Nichols, had urged me to consider the alternate route through Yerington bypassing Walker and the narrow/no shoulder road canyon. It was approaching dusk and I knew while this was a longer alternative, it was probably not the right call to head up Walker Canyon right now - besides that will scratch out 50% of the major bike hazard time totally and all the ongoing current road construction! I’d never headed towards Yerington before, but lets do it!

I didn’t know if I’d find any water out there, so I stopped along the river and used a “BeFree” water filter to squeeze out a few bottles before really getting out there. The water was slightly brown, but seemed okay enough so I went with it! It was funny leaning down over the river perched on rocks trying not to fall in - in my awkward bike cleats/shoes! The ride proved to be very pleasant - mostly flat rolling hills through rural countryside.

Eventually it got dark and the road started descending fast enough I stopped for a layers break. This was the first time I’ve used a dynamo hub (power generator in the bike wheel) to self power a bike light - it works pretty great and totally alleviated the stress of constant battery problems riding indefinitely into the night. It could also charge my phone, tracker, and rear flasher lights. Cool!

Eventually I started to get a little anxious- this is taking longer than expected? Where am I? There wasn’t a single store or business in site on this route! Good thing I had the sense to top off water! I figured out that the outskirts of Nevada towns/cities out here all start the same - storage units and garage warehouses 20 miles out like endless strip malls - nothing else, no businesses or gas stations. You don’t notice it so much till you are on a bicycle!!

10:40 PM I finally hit the familiar HWY 395 again. Wow I’ve rode all day! I was stoked for a town or something, but nothing was in site and it was surprisingly a good long steady hill climb ahead. It was getting quite cold here - 35 degrees F on the bike computer. This is how I’m going to do this though - I’m the ultracyclist - I ride forever!

I stopped and adjusted layers, made sure to eat, and trudged on!

At midnight, finally approaching Gardnerville!! I got pulled over by a Nevada Highway Patrol Officer. I updated my social media with this status : “I just got pulled over for “hypothermia biking”. He says people have been calling concerned tonight there is a cyclist on the road this late and so cold out (mid 30s). I had to show him I had a whole nother 2nd down puffy jacket, watch me while I put my 3rd pair of pants on, and pull out the heavy gloves! I came ready for this!! Some couple (probably the ones that called) even insisted on going and getting me random fast food and so now I have Taco Bell here too haha!”

So I sat on the side of the road in the dirt with all my clothes on eating a totally unannounced Taco Bell burrito and chatting with the officer in front of the police car lights. After explaining what I was doing and that this was a competitive effort and major life achievement he understood and with a very informal “standing sobriety” check let me go with recommendations for a few motels ahead. Thank you sir! That’s never happened before? PS Hey by the way, that’s a pretty sick bike, I’ve never seen a bike like this in my life! Right on!

I was stoked to arrive in Gardnerville. I headed for either the first fast food or service station to scrounge for something. I saw a Jack in the Box. The inside hours were well past close, but I headed for the drive thru and found a teenager in line in his car trying to order late night food. I pulled up alongside his window, “Hey buddy!” What, what, huh? He thought I was the drive thru speaker and was frustrated trying to order. “Hey dude!” Yeah, yeah, yea - I’d like to order… “No over here. Hey guy!” Huh? This was getting slightly hilarious. I was ready to give up, but then he finally saw me with my flashing bike lights. “Hey I’ll cover something on your order if you help me order some food. It’s just late and I’m hungry for anything and they won’t let me on a bike.” He turned out to be a real nice guy - apparently this has happened to him a few times before when he was here late at night on foot. Cool! I offered to pay for his whole meal this time, but he wouldn’t take it and was happy to help out. I stood carefully astride the freshly puke stained ground from other recent late night customers and handed him my debit card. He paid me in cash for his portion. Wow you rock teenage guy. Definitely fist bump! (and 6 x tacos + a burger too!)

I went over to the closed Taco Bell next door and sat down on the flat sidewalk against the wall because the lights we’re still on. They were totally closed, but the cleaning guy noticed me sitting outside. I told him I just wanted a place to sit & eat and was on a big bike adventure. He thought that was awesome. “What’s your favorite soda?? Wait one minute. I got you!” He returned with an extra large Mountain Dew. “Don’t worry, the cops won’t bother you here for another hour while the lights are on, take your time!”

I headed north from Gardnerville at 1:42 AM. Onward! At 2:12 AM I made an error and somehow turned around and headed back south to Gardnerville before I realized this scenery looks way too familiar. Deja Vu! In an ultra running or bicycle race, it’s usually a classic sign to stop if you ever find yourself pulling this maneuver in the middle of the night. I’d done it! I started to look for sleeping spots, but was uncomfortable in the urban setting - the motels all said no vacancy. Really?? I would have paid $100 without a thought! Keep pedaling!

My Dad sent me an InReach message, “You need to stop and sleep. You are barely moving. You will be better after you rejuvenate and get some sleep.” Alright thanks Dad. Trying out here! It’s always funny to look at yourself in these moments as an outside observer - yeah need to sleep I’m too slow… sleep spots are bad. Can I hide in those bushes by those houses, nah it’s too close to the highway though!? It’ll be okay it is what it is!

I decided to sit and eat at least. I pounded a half lb of gas station gummy bears and some beef jerky! I was now on the long straight away of nothing climbing towards Carson City, but fenced in on both sides on the highway by little fences. I’d had dreams of making the In N Out Burger in time for closing just ahead originally many hours ago, but that wasn’t happening! At 3:43 AM I found an apartment complex that had some of kind decorative garden terrace out front a few levels tall - no one will climb up that! I hoisted up the bike and found a nice flat dirt space - in clear site of the highway, but far enough out of the way I bargained no one would bother me by the time I was gone!! Awkward peeing off the edge towards the road though!

I set the alarm for 3 hours. I got up and took a moment to enjoy my flip flops while making oatmeal and marveling at the size of how small my modern day stove, cook set, sleeping pad, and bag were in comparison to the stuff I grew up with! Another awkward pee and we are out of here! I felt good to be in Carson City. Reno was my original goal for the first night, but made it pretty close! The next section would be downhill too. I felt okay enough - oddly, my fingers were the most sore of anything - likely from touching so many rocks over and over again through the Talus crawling and Palisades - swollen up like sausages and 2 split fingertips where they callused up and cut. I struggled to adjust the twisting boa buckles that close my bike shoes - it felt like pins and needles in my finger tips and I just couldn’t get it tight enough - guess it doesn’t matter too much - my feet are swollen bigger anyway!

I stopped in a service station and bought a couple large Coca Colas and more snack food (I eat everything in sight now!) to bulk up my rations again; a nice man and lady both held the door for me as I carted my bike around. I soon caught up with the Carson City scheduled local weekend bike ride as riders gathered together on the street readying to start the morning ride. Where we going guys?! I took a moment to socialize. Most of these guys were 60-70 years old and had some stories to tell. They thought I was crazy, but congrats so far! I headed out ahead, but nice visiting! The fast riders in the group soon caught me passing in little pace line groups way faster than I had any hope of wanting to try to go at the moment. Finally about 20 min later the 70 year old guys caught up to me. Want to ride with us for a minute? Sure.. more stories. I almost could keep up! I hung with them for a couple miles cranking it for me before my bike started making a noise and I pulled over to double check it. Nah you guys go ahead. Thanks for the company for a moment and keep at it! We’d tag team each other passing and catching back up at the many stop lights the next few miles, but they were always just ahead of me. I guess I’m just meant to chase you boys today! Thanks for the motivation! Our routes soon split off as I headed straight into the city to avoid the freeway.

I saw the only person I actually knew in route for a moment. My work buddy Dana, who had dropped me off at the start of all this, was coming back from the Reno Rib Fest and shouted at me standing up out his truck window in passing hooting and hollering then texted, “You look like Forrest Gump except you’re on a bike. Sorry no time stop or I would have. Keep crushing it! Get’er done!”

I finally found my In N Out Burger on route and stopped for an early lunch. A nice couple watched my bike and asked all sorts of questions. Susanville here we come!

I turned on my old favorite Matchbox 20 album from high school and sang nearly all the lyrics aloud shamelessly while grinding along through the dozens of city stop lights and signs. It was 95 degrees +, but the silly music made it fun “Oh God I shouldn’t feel this way noooooo - reach down your hand in your pocket - pull out some hope for me! It’s been a longgggg day, always!!” and by the end of the album I was through the city! I got a call from my good buddy Jason Lakey to share the stoke while I was passing Renown Hospital. I’m doing it - in the middle of it! I sent a picture off to my coworkers and they sent a happy photo back. Yep I’m doing it!!

I knew I hadn’t checked on my bike derailer or chain since starting out a few hundred miles back so I was stoked to pass a bike shop - Black Rock Bicycles. I walked in and the door was open. No one was in there! I approached the back behind the counter and they clearly weren’t open. “Oh that door was unlocked?” They were swamped dealing with the aftermath of bikes from Burning Man, but they let me go ahead and take my bike behind the counter after hearing about the kind of adventure I was on. I used the shop tools and stand to do my own quick tune up on the bike, pumped the tires, and lubed the chain nice and good for the final haul (they even let me open a brand new lube off the shelf)! I offered them $ for the trouble and time, but they wouldn’t take it! Good luck! Cheers!

Putting the city behind me, I knew I was on the outskirts as I saw the standard Nevada 20 miles of storage units and warehouses come into view again. Alright this is the deal. The last push on the bike! I’d planned to dump the bike bags which would be useless dead weight for the final push and ride all night with everything to finish it all out (whatever that means at this point). My exit vehicle was coming up that night from Fresno and wanted me to leave them downtown somewhere at a casino, but I didn’t want to deal with going way inside and negotiating with anyone so I waited till I found a rural gas station once I was out of the city.

I immediately got a flat on one of the first big hill descents. Okay 300 miles for first flat isn’t too bad! I took my time fixing it and used the patch kit to conserve my fresh spare tubes.

It felt great to be on the bike with the bare minimum cruising the mellow highway and out of the city. I’ll make Susanville by dark, then it’s only 133 miles after that! I stopped and bought an ice cream, more Coca Cola, some gas station Pop Tarts, and Gummy Bears, and topped off water again. This is kind of mellow almost! Perfect temperatures too. I could feel that I was definitely not powered up like my normal self, but I was happy and glad to know that there was mostly downhill ahead until the final climb to Shasta! Beautiful mellow rolling hills and countryside on a nice road! Getting this thing!

I was almost to Susanville when I got a flat. I repaired it and got going, but soon I had a flat again WTF a half soft tire, should I just keep riding on it!? Nope all the way flat... Then I realized it - It wasn’t the tube - I’d broken the fancy custom made in China valve extender for my aero wheel. The tubes were fine, but there was no way to put air in them all the way inside the deep aero wheel without this special adapter. An effing tiny little piece! I never carry spares oh sh*t!!! I didn’t have any real good tools besides a small multi tool wrench and this thing needed a replacement! No bike shops open on Sunday or at 7 PM either. I called out to Dad and tried to think of everything a Walmart or hardware store might have that could fix this. Get a floor bike pump - a couple different kinds. Tire patch kits. Glue. Pliers. Duct tape. Plumber’s tape! What else possibly? A new valve extender if they sell it for bikes anywhere! Buy it all and just get here!!

I’d wanted to quit officially 4 times on this event by now in the hardest parts and I knew even this close to the finish something would likely come up that made me want to quit again. This was it! Another test so frustrating because I was stuck in place - no motion. When my feet hurt bad in the Palisades I’d found comfort in knowing I had enough medical supplies available to at least do something to help myself or try to. Fail. Eff! There was nothing to do, but find a place out of sight on the road and lay down. We might not find this stupid piece somehow till a bike shop opens tomorrow in Reno and I’m done?! I woke up 2 hours later to my phone ringing in my ear and Dad yelling at me to get up and start aiming lights at the road somehow. Where was I? I don’t know, not it a town! Like 17 miles from Susanville somewhere??! That’s the best I got! Look at the Garmin track - he didn’t have data service anymore. He called in to family back home to track me on the internet. Alright he’s close…. there!

We fought with the wheel. We got it pumped part way up, but not good enough. I got another flat. We tried again. This time we reluctantly popped the wheel with a nail intentionally to get the thing off while wrestling the tire levers since the valve wouldn’t release the air either. Finally with tape wrapping the connection and a hefty dab of patch glue, we tried again. The pump wouldn’t hold strong pressure! It hurt my swollen fingers pushing it into the stem with every bit of rock climber finger strength I could muster. For some reason I grabbed the basketball adapter side of the pump and tried it on the Presta valve. I pushed it down and held with all my strength no matter how bad my fingers hated it. It looks like it’s pumping up! It is. More pumps do it! Errrrrrrrrrgh!

I had a full pressure tire! 10 PM, oh well I guess I got a nap and was planning on an another all nighter anyways - into Susanville finally! A last stop at Safeway and Taco Bell for another big soda and stack of (6) bean burritos for the night push! I collected on my bear can cache just outside of town from my drive up to Shasta and loaded up my warmest ski gloves, favorite Dynafit jacket, new alpine pants, 4 more rounds of Roctane, nearly a full pound of Welch’s Fruit Snacks (the absolutely easiest thing to eat for calories when you feel like total crap - gas station gummy bears will work, but these are way better!), and pounded another 350 calorie Ensure right now - one to drink + one to take with - cause just because - more calories! I’d planned hopefully to do this last section at night intentionally from the beginning in a push to both mitigate the most dangerous sections of highway biking normally in daylight and a chance to finally somehow give’er my all to the end! Bottom of the ninth inning - just give me one more all nighter Ryan!!

Luckily it wasn’t half as cold as Gardnerville and Carson City. The road climbed gradually in the dark then continued through flats. At one point I was trying to open a fruit snack packet and managed to lose total control of the bike almost. I ran shooting across the far lane before stopping and dropping off the back wheel like a mountain biker headed down the hillside. My crotch got pulled into the rear brake and totally tore up my tights awkwardly - self-neutering attempt narrowly averted. I was luckily mostly fine! Never do that again!

Because the mechanical shenanigans, Dad would have to stay within striking distance and went off ahead to sleep in the car at rest stops. Hopefully no more flats in that wheel!! It’s on. Shasta or bust tonight! I didn’t drop the hammer (could I even have?), but did everything I could to move steadily through the night taking caffeine pills on the clock and downing a burrito every hour or so. Yay for downhill! I felt like I was cruising as more and more downhill sections came finally! I stopped at the rest station exit and the secret after hours water spigot I’d scoped out at the fire station to fill up the camelbak with the obligatory pre-measured Roctane carbs- my mouth had started to hurt literally probably from eating so much food in general, but I think most of all from the sugar bomb carb drinks and sodas. This stuff works great for me on 8- 24 hour pushes - I love the quick sugar, but a week of it and eating like this??! I’d developed a nasty chest cough too - no stranger to me in ultra events - it’s the sugar bomb of thousands upon thousands of calories. Does the body even actually process it? Where does it go? I’m finishing this bike tonight! GU Energy is my primary nutrition sponsor and I love this stuff racing it hard, but I don’t think anyone’s body is meant go through all of everything here above after so many days! Thanks again guys for the support!!

I did good till about 3 AM then I started to feel a wall coming. I was weaving slightly on the fast white line riding descents or literally slapping myself on the helmet while blasting pop dance music. Sobriety nap! I usually take 15 minute naps when it gets this bad. I don’t really sleep, but stopping and closing my eyes and eating something usually revives me just enough. I took 2 rounds before sunrise. I was relieved to see the sun rising without too bad of fire smoke! The course pre-drive had been on an extra smokey day and I’d crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t be getting smoked out like that on the final 50 miles. The best way to describe things, is that you could definitely see it, but you couldn’t taste it or smell it strongly - no coughing from it particularly either. The fire smoke has been terrible this summer! Alright some good luck!

Then I really found the wall again. I was optimistic I could get into Shasta by about 9 or 10 AM if I could just keep moving… The last 15 miles or so into Shasta are a steady grind uphill I’d forgotten about till now after seeming so easy on the drive in 2 weeks ago. It didn’t matter what I ate. The bike was crawling at 5 mph if lucky! There was nothing to do, but slog along. One pedal at a time right?! I finished one hill and took another 10 minute nap only to soon start another big one! The drivers were crazy. I wished it was still night - taking these roads intentionally at night had been the proper risk mitigation strategy indeed (Shasta was the other most dangerous road section I alluded to earlier of 2). The drivers and large forest service trucks barreled down the narrow 2 lane highway at 70-90 mph constantly. Must be no cops nearby around here!

The death pass - there’s one thing road bikers fear almost universally more than anything else. This is when you may really die - other people may die too, but you will definitely die - you only get so many of these in a lifetime and are lucky to survive every time. You are on narrow straight away 2 lane highway with no shoulder. A car is coming on straight at you. All of a sudden a second car passes the first car and comes head on at you in your lane at an extremely high speed - you have a second or 2 max to react. For a moment everything hangs in the balance you and both the other cars perfectly aligned with arms lengths or inches of space to spare. I edged slightly to the outside edge of the white line and we all hung in the balance - the oncoming driver doesn’t often expect to see you or they wouldn’t have been so stupid. They see you now and fate decides for everyone. That’s the death pass. I’ve survived 3 in my life. That’ll wake a zombie bike guy up! I’m wide awake!!!! Damn!

Unfortunately it was short lived as I climbed the final hill slogging into Shasta, counting down the miles in single digits now. How much further could it be?! 11:30 AM - I got to go down for a nap again. I pulled over in the dirt on a highway turn off about 20 feet off the road and laid down with the bike practically on top of me. Doesn’t matter. Set an alarm!! 30 minutes! This would be a new special low point - I woke up 50 minutes later with an alarm blaring and 4 missed calls from close friends and my Dad. The kicker - I had ants crawling all over me in the dirt aghh!! Wow man. You are out of it! I felt like my current life status = face plant. I knew there was no likely summit attempt happening today let alone the final big climb to the trailhead! I’d been hopeful to also break the women’s car supported running only record time too - just got to go summit right now and be down by 6:10 PM - definitely nope! I think it’s still a call out ladies that I was even close to striking! Get to it! ;-)

I rolled into Shasta at 1PM like I was auditioning to do a special David Hasselhoff slow motion music beach biking scene! Hello town well here I am... I know I’m zeroed. The crazy mountain climbing bike champ is empty - humble me for the finish! I was finally really out of gas for the first time the whole week. That poor Ryan that spent 6 hours in a shiver bivy at 12,000 feet could drop kick me like crumpled tissue paper right now. I really can’t…….

I pulled over at the first grocery store I found - an awesome little hippy health food store called the Berryvale Market. Perfect! It even had grassy park behind it for customers only. Yes! I bought Sandwiches, Cookies, Soda, Licorice, Random assorted snack bars, Waffles, and a Smoothie. Nap/Eat/Repeat!!

When I’ve hit near this low before usually at bike races I know it takes hours of eating and napping to revive. So I fell asleep surrounded by food and would wake up & eat more then go back to sleep! My bike computer had been showing around 7,000 calories per bout for a half day at a time. It’s safe to say that on some of these mega pushes I burned 20,000 calories in a 24 hour sitting at the end this late in the game and who knows how much during the 5 days I spent doing the first 14 mountains. No joke!! No wonder I could eat anything!

At dusk I was - go figure- still hungry. I took the bike down to Round Table Pizza and ordered a large pizza. The guy at the counter looked at me - “You really look tired man. Do you want to go lay down on one of the benches in the back and just sleep?” Maybe I should. Can I get soda? “Oh don’t worry about it I’m giving you a free soda this time dude! What are you doing right now anyway? The California Fourteeners by bike - all of them and I’m on my last one. Shasta!” I passed out on the bench in the empty restaurant. A random stranger walked by and I knew he was looking at me -“You don’t give an eff as much as me either haha!” he said. I didn’t even open my eyes. Nope I don’t I said! He laughed pretty good. I called my Dad and shared half the pizza with him to cover his dinner. He was now on perpetual standby for whenever this finished. “Your Mom is very glad you aren’t going up on the mountain tonight Ryan.” I high fived the pizza guy. I’m heading up to the trailhead thanks! I can do this!

Back from the dead! Rider Up!! It was so emotional to finally be facing off staring down the last mountain now at dusk after all this. I wasn’t strong, but I knew I’d recovered the steady grind… so this is what going 4th round with Haleakala feels like! (No one has ever gone 4 rounds with Haleakala - the world’s longest/highest paved road climb in Maui. I have a record for doing 3 times. Any takers?!? This is probably what it feels like though!). It even resembled the Hawaiian volcano a bit as I looked up at the last climb from town - yep just 10,000 more vertical feet now then this in the bag just like Haleakala. I’m coming! We’re finishing this finally! OOORAH!

I knew I could get onto the mountain tonight, but summiting would possibly be a full epic. I’m seemingly plenty good enough at finding those situations on my own, I don’t need to head straight into it! In hindsight now, I think maybe I should have headed up to the snow line with good bivy gear and got the dawn start, but in the moment, I decided to camp. How early to get up? This is still a record effort, should I get up at 2AM?! I could probably sleep till 2 PM ha! 6AM is definitely lazy. Your 4AM time is still a competitive effort and respectful… Done! I was moving on the mountain by 5:50 AM filling out a “summit permit” and headed out after the customary oatmeal (I’d saved special dehydrated Patagonia brand oatmeal for the start and summit days as a treat). I took the few extra minutes to have a real cup of coffee and left the caffeine pills behind this time. No Roctane or Tailwind carb drinks either (I brought GU Waffles I totally dig FYI for the record!). I didn’t need to force feed myself sugar syrups or Coca Cola any longer even if I’m a little faster on it. I wanted to enjoy this day. I didn’t need to zombie stumble the finish on in the dark all night once more with it all on the line in some new way. This was kind of just a special time for me now. I loaded up my favorite snacks and just enough water that I shouldn’t have fill up anymore - but brought the tiny BeFree mini filter just in case! I even get trekking poles for the first time! Good call 2 weeks ago - ha sometimes I get something right!

I started the steady climb up the mountain - It was a spiritual special moment and Shasta after all, so I played some Enya while I cranked along up the granite steps heading to the talus fields. Feeling good again! I passed one old local hiker out for a morning stroll to the Sierra Club Cabin and told him I was finishing this journey! He wished me well as “younger man in life” - “Enjoy finishing all that and congrats to you on something so big! You’ll always remember this!” He was the only person I’d see on route to my last objective.

I went straight up Avy Gulch. The local guides and rangers swear off this route late in the season and it is no doubt dangerous (always as far as I can tell), but I didn’t feel any worse off in comparison to the many things I’d been through this week. Everything that could melt and drop rocks was pretty much entirely melted out and the 5 foot wide strip of snow down the gut of the terrain would be easy to jump off probably well enough in time. No Farquhar moments today! I felt slow and toasted on the mountain, but stoked to be just holding it steady again. I was surprised to see later that Strava recorded my time on this section for the first 3.5 miles as the second fastest known recorded ascent of all time (and later the 3rd fastest conquering the summit plateau via Misery Ridge). Just no! I guess I was possibly the most acclimatized person to ever climb Shasta though likely!

I put on my crampons and used my trekking poles to head straight up the frozen the snow. It was the easiest path. Soon I was inevitably approaching the Red Banks aka The Mud Banks- these giant looming mud towers and gullies guarding the top of the mountain make Sedona, AZ mud clods look totally solid! It looked doable to physically jump about 8 feet and clear over the bergschrund on the back of the summit ridge line - actually fairly reasonably surprisingly, but I wasn’t sure if there would be another schrund crossing back up or more after, so I headed back down to the standard mud clod climbing route. For the first time of the day I thought of unholstering my ice axe I’d carried in reserve to pound into the crumbly mud for purchase. The first extra direct variation I tried probably would go, but had a little more exposure than I wanted for probability chance of a fall, even it was only 30%. The next chute over went okay with what felt like 5.9 mud climbing after breaking a few obvious holds while testing and few more unintentionally. Shasta is a unique personality choss pile challenge - cool!

Once out of the mud the summit was rather pleasant. I found a last remaining small snow field that turned out to be “sun cup hell”- melted potholes surrounded by 2 foot long sharp daggers of frozen snow and ice abounded and I quickly aborted the direct crossing and took the long way around a farther edge. The summit itself was pretty cool - unique in it’s kind and built seemingly from a free standing tower of quartz from the top of the volcano? I remembered seeing my friend Viren posting video of climbing the direct finish variation, so I opted for that up the slightly spicy loose quartz holds straight to the top - probably 4th class, but fun! It kept the last finish a little exciting. I signed the register with a sense of disbelief at how unreal it was to be done with all this - eating some nice cookies I’d saved from the Health Food store just for right now (thanks to my friend Tom Grundy for starting the trend of Summit Cookies! I did not forget!). I encountered one other hiker on the summit - a large Asian man that spoke rough English. He'd come in from another route just behind me and was excited to tell me that he’d seen his first bear on the trail! I listened politely and finally told him I had to get going, acknowledging gruffly to myself that these records officially end at the trailhead per tradition - I strongly believe records should end on the final summit and not an arbitrary trail parking lot, but it is what it is and I can only at least voice that opinion.

Summit Stoke - 15 Fourteeners after 8 full days!! Shasta!

I got going - at least it would motivate me to get down quick! No glissading (sliding down the snow as a fun quick descent) today that’s for sure. The little strip of snow remaining was full of little baseball and larger size rocks that would have quickly ended such an attempt. I opted for the sandy loose talus on the sides of the snow. The sandier the better because you could slide down it on foot without hurting your feet in the larger unstable rocks. The worst of it had actually been the mud clod slabs - flat steep mud with softballs all over the top of the surface - it was nearly impossible not to fall at least a couple times as the ground washed away entirely. How many times have I taken that fall this week now?! Pretty much!

Thank you GU Energy for supporting going for my dreams!!

I made one last fall with a quick last second recovery in front of a woman just leaving the Sierra Club Cabin and she laughed, “Good save!”. From the Cabin down I could full on run. Part of my body didn’t really want to, but I was going to do it! Just a couple miles more! I did my best running the trail and stairs as it traversed the mountain, then down, finally straight down to the parking lot!! I booked it passing a couple of hikers right before the finish probably thinking I was crazy! Excuse me, sorry on your right! Yes I can see the finish!!!

I pulled out the Trekker- 2:49 PM - exactly 8 days, 8 hours, and 39 minutes! ! I’d made it!! I sat down next to the bathroom to finagle some shade and was immediately relentlessly harassed by swarming yellow jackets. I didn’t care! I had a fun time talking with a local ranger who shook my hand and was the only person on site to offer sincere congratulations and a little surprise I’d actually hit the Avy Gulch this time of season too!

I was slightly disappointed to just miss my original goal of a 7 day window by about 9 hours, but I did it and felt good about really giving this a good go and for a first attempt with inevitably a few big stumbles! Officially 36 hours, 2 minutes faster than the best known effort by bicycle.

Thanks for coming along for this adventure! Some of the wilder moments are about as far out there as I’ve been on on my own! Thanks friends for reading, all the encouragement, and helping me believe in a dream! I’m still sore. I’ve been resting at home for a little over a week straight now and back working at my day job!

-Ryan Tetz

What’s next? I want to be the first to attempt Aconcagua from Sea to Summit in <24 hours with my bicycle. I’ve started working and saving hard now and a fundraiser here: https://www.gofundme.com/aconcagua-seasummit-22841039 - I’m suggesting a $10 donation if you like following my adventures and believe in chasing the dream. Excited!

For Hans Florine and the first inspiration - #dohardthings

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Footnotes, Stats, & Style -

From my best estimates : 72.1 miles Hiking, 555 miles Biking, 80,000 Total vertical feet gained

I wanted to do something bigger this year besides just finishing races or knocking a few more minutes off the speed record times on Mt Whitney. Also there was a bike record in the Sierra that included Mt Whitney and didn't even have my name on trying yet?! Saddle up!

From what I could tell looking at the history of few known ascents of the California 14ers by bike, no one had used the most appropriate equipment or direct routes yet. I would combine the available beta and my multiple quiver of standard ultra racing bicycles, local resources, ultralight running gear, and local experience to attempt theoretically the most direct and aggressive possible route . I tried to make it similar to Sean O'Rourke's car supported fastest known effort in practical execution not by having a team, but instead using well stocked supply caches (med kits, new clothing, food, stoves, special backpacks etc) available in between where he would have made transitions at each new trailhead.  I would use 3 carefully selected bikes placed strategically in line to go point to point on near the same route as the car driving efforts. I carried the bare minimum to the point - it sometimes felt a little scary - hesitantly leaving everything from favorite gloves/jackets/and emergency shelter cached behind at these transitions if they hadn't been used frequently so far!

I ran/hike/scrambled in a + half size large pair of Salomon Speedcross 4’s - Extra wide version. I wore stirrup style hiker gaiters the whole time. I totally destroyed a 20 liter Salomon running pack that barely fit just enough!

Dig these shoes/setup! Salomon - Speedcross 4

I practiced the longer segments I hadn't done yet over multiple day trips or overnight backpacking a few days at a time to get in shape and decide on my own strategic route choices (it would also help later if I had to do who knows how much of these sections inevitably in the dark!). Since it has been so smokey in the Sierra the last few months, most of my base fitness came from these outings, weight lifting in the gym, treadmill time, and occasional late night/after work bike outings in the thick of the smoke when I was feeling extra stubborn. I would have preferred about 6+ more 100 mile rides in the last weeks beforehand, but the conditions were pretty terrible for road biking this summer!

The logistics took days to set up as I rested & awaited the full moon with 2 weeks requested time off work as a registered nurse in Mammoth Lakes, CA. I cached both my personal vehicles as temporary "bike lockers" at trailheads and arranged to use my landlord's empty garage in Bishop, CA (who was conveniently out of town at Burning Man for the week!) as a transition hub between White Mountain, Bishop Pass, and the Shasta 450 mile bike segment. I drove up to Shasta and carefully checked out all the available mini marts/shops/water spigots (key beta!) available on the more rural sections, found a safe enough way to mostly avoid the freeways biking through downtown Reno, a last push food/clothing/medical bear can cache after Susanville, and arranged to leave my crampons, axe, trekking poles, and the final summit pack in Shasta with an old roommate's Dad that happens to own the local guide service.

I knew I wasn’t anywhere near Sam Skrocke’s style and I wasn’t trying to be. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve never met the guy, but Sam is the man and has the equivalent of the unsupported record in comparison where I schemed up and cached supplies shamelessly setting up each transition ahead. Hats off for your efforts and adventures! I envisioned and saw how I wanted to do it and went about it a very different way.

So what was my style? All out! Speed = Priority #1. I consider it Cache/Self Supported since I was alone 99% of the time carrying the gear needed for each section, but inevitably depended on others for a few things and didn't shy from occasional trail niceness offers when I was seemingly pretty rarely around anyone on the mostly off trail route (or nice people buying free food/drinks etc at restaurants/gas stations when they figured out what my goal was!). I unfortunately had to call out for mechanical failure on my aero wheel set that I absolutely couldn't fix and there was definitely a delay. I had friends on emergency retainer for that "pick me up” phone call or even mountain rescue emergency response (many are on the local SAR team) if it ever had to happen. I got pulled over by the highway patrol once for "hypothermia biking" near Gardnerville, NV and had to prove to the officer that I wasn't totally crazy by showing him I had a full stash of additional warm layers ready. I just biked until 4AM what gives?? =)

I mostly got lucky with mild weather this time, but the steady headwinds from Lee Vining to Carson City and again some from Reno up to Susanville, probably cost about 4 to 6 additional hours on the bike. I’d guess you’re likely going to get it bad somewhere though on a week long trip?!!

What an adventure! I think my style is close to the ideal possible speed method outside of finding someone to hang out for an entire week cooking and driving up and down etc between trails or having a couple of extremely fit friends capable of accompanying some of the mountain sections without any slowing down. I certainly made plenty of mistakes. Most of all - I wish I really would have dialed in the transitions, but it was harder to know exactly what I might need on a first attempt. The technical climbing cruxes in the Palisades are definitely fastest solo/free solo with just a 20-30 meter rappel rope for mere mortals like me! Knowing everything now, with the gift of perfect 20/20 hindsight, I would have gone just a little lighter even on nearly everything except heavier on food - but definitely less sugary/carb drink mixes in favor of real foods (I also really ate way too many Mountain House meals only for the first 5 days too ha - I ate 1-2 prunes a day to stave off any possible complications ;-) !!).

I’d like to return for 2 more attempts before I turn 40. One a refinement on solo/self supported - I’d have a personal exit van stashed at the trailhead that I could just drive home in at the end after sleeping as long/as many times as needed and relieving some of the final logistical stress. I’d really dial in the transitions in pre-prep packing and gear/route variations (definitely some improvement to be had in the Sierra!). With good weather & luck I would like to see this record solidly in the 7 day window (I believe 6 is possible). I might even do the whole route in reverse to change it up a bit.

For the other attempt I’d like to have a shot at a near full supported effort particularly with someone cooking and driving and possibly a strong friend or 2 for some of the mountain sections. I believe it’s possible to go within the 6 day window for me - 5 days being a competitive limit potential, if not mine. The main silent variable here - which is always hanging in all my record attempts till I really go out and do it on the ones that matter most - my real time trial bike would be allowed to hit the pavement. There’s really nothing that compares. On flat ground it’s 60 watts less effort at all times to be on the TT bike - add in no extra weight penalty at all and you’re looking at 100-150 watts less effort for the entirety of the biking. This could take a full day off the biking section - doing it in closer to 24 - 30 hours flat. I didn’t want to climb the mountains tired after slogging it out on the bike - but possibly you could go either way at such a pace potentially with little side effect with enough fitness.

I’m still a sucker for a good inspiring challenge and love that this one encompasses the Sierra! ~Cheers

Post trip feet fun times!

Borrego Springs 2017

Let's write.

I'm home and I'm back at work today. It feels so good to come home from a tough event and not have to go back onto a grueling night shift regimen or co-depend on 5 cups of coffee along side the other night nurses after something big! More than I can say here! <----- This is the highlight of my year by far!

I went back to the 24 Hour World Championships in Borrego Springs as my season-ender on an excellent season of biking this year!

Last year I didn't quite feel prepared enough ahead - I had trouble with the cold temps in the wee hours... I'd experimented with a new nutrition carbo drink that seemed to leave me feeling empty. There's a long somewhat entertaining sufferfest write up here if you remember : http://ryantetz.com/blog/2016/11/8/how-did-my-bike-ride-go

This time I was more than ready. I'd trained much harder. I would be smarter!  No new nutrition shenanigans... Only tried and true! I would take exactly at least 350 calories a lap of gels and sports drink and additional salt tabs to bring my sodium up to 500-600 gm an hour. I would take in additional solid foods consisting of fruit, PB & J, or instant mashed potatoes, and 350 calorie Ensure drinks with any signs of slowing down or shivers with the cold night laps. I'm going to go out at 85% of my steady pace learned from the new Badwater to Whitney Record 9.5 hour bike and just cruise around out there!

Okay sounds good! Now for some humble pie to come along.....

The nutrition worked well - like a well oiled robo-enduro machine, I religiously consumed my calories from Roctane and Gels. The riding felt good... there was a bit of annoying wind, but the sexy new TT bike was cruising. I aimed for about 200 watts and managed to average 196. Exactly 85% of the 232 I'd held during the sustained 6 hour uphill start of Badwater to Whitney just 2 weeks ago...

I had extra warm clothes prepared just in case for the cold this time too!

I felt good. I brought about 50-60 more watts to the table across the board this year in my cycling with all the training up till now. This worked and I managed 127 miles in the first 6 hours, not quite my fastest flat solo century pace (so I was holding back some??), but in hindsight it was probably pretty fast!

At 8 hours something switched and I watched my HR start to drop no longer wanting to sustain my favorite 145 Beats Zone II cruising pace. I sensed trouble, but this time I was ready for it!

I stopped and put on warmer clothes and tights and ate an entire thing of olive oil doused instant mashed potatoes, some fruit, and a coke! Okay just got to continue along steady!

NOPE

I couldn't really move the bike. It watched my HR drop 10 more beats on the next lap and came in and ate more food putting down a couple thousand calories + over my base normal at this point. More warm clothes! I wasn't shivering really at all this year, nothing like the uncontrollable shivering cold lap I'd done around this time of night last time. More laps, more food... I watched as my HR continued to decline 10 beats a lap until finally I did a 2 hour lap...

This is all too familiar.. With a HR locked down to the 80's and now 13 hours into the race with a 2 hour lap I knew what came next after this all too well - A 3 hour and 4 hour lap of ultimate depletion with HR heading toward 60 and getting kicked off the course for "drunken biking" by the officials... No!! The race referees had already trailed me around specifically at this point yelling things like, "Hey!! Good morning! Are you awake???!!" Other bikers looked at my slow pace and always passed asking. "Are you okay? Is something wrong?? What's wrong?" Or "Woah geeze man steady there passing!!" Yeah I knew this whole cycle all too well. The race director gave me an old familiar dirty look coming into the pit seeming to mean to me, "You again, this? I'm going to have to kick you off the course soon again same thing all over this year?"

The kicker was I wasn't going to make my 400 mile goal now at this point. I'd said to my close friends ahead of time that I wouldn't leave the course to go home without 400 miles, but it wasn't going to be possible now. Nothing left to race for/against and pending ultimate depletion/being kicked off the course again 2 years in a row?! I officially called my race at 13 hours. This one hasn't gone well.. It was so very easy until it wasn't...

I took a 5 hour downtime and sat around sleeping and eating/drinking a ton in camp seemingly endlessly. With no tangible objective left to race for I was hesitant to even stay for the rest of the race this time (I'd already done 300 miles before, so that wasn't really a carrot now either). I hated the idea of just going home right now already though and had a hankering curiosity to know if I would recover like I did last year at all? Assuming this is total glycogen depletion probably, is it possible to recover? Last time it took 12 hours to be able to move the bike again? What do you do?

I went out for at this point what I considered some novelty laps.  "Just to get a few more!" I was still slow. HR around 100, just didn't want to kick back on, but it wasn't impossible slow either - but slow enough for lots of cyclists to still ask what is wrong constantly.... Yeah I'm just riding guys. I'm way slow don't care! A few laps of this perhaps! It was 92 degrees out now and other cyclists were struggling with heat, but I was so slow it didn't seem to matter or phase me much from my "novelty cruising" pace.

At one point Marko Baloh passed me again and I remembered last year my success chasing his pace for the last 6 hours or so of the race... maybe it would work again. I tried! Sorta.. I could kinda at least keep him in site in the distance, but nope HR max 139, not willing to go over the 140 governor yet, not quite! My fancy aero water bottle found this exact moment as the perfect time to fly off my handle bars and I had to dismount the bike and walk backwards looking for tiny small pieces of metal that had come unscrewed. Guess I won't find out if I can hit 140 or not right now!

I continued on and realized I still felt pretty darn drained slogging around out there and phoned ahead to my brother to ready another batch of PB & J, coke, and instant potatoes! I'd sit and eat and just grind this thing out to the finish now! I continued on another slow lap with many more cyclists passing me and cheering some now, "You got this only a few more hours!". Finally, my old coach, Hoppo, passed me again... but not quite as fast as he had been most of the day up till now! I wanted to catch up and chat a bit before he went out of sight, so I tried chasing him down and rode side by side for a little bit. Hey it kinda worked this time woohoo!

He said he had gone out too hard too leading the entire race for 12 hours and I figured I must have done my version of the same thing, he was really feeling it now. A switch had finally flipped now for me... Glycogen available now loading up reboot!!! My HR bumped up to 146 and all a sudden I was cruising at 200 watts again.... Geeze 15 hours later?? Instead of being passed by every cyclist in sight, I was now passing every cyclist in sight! Wow okay this feels easy again, the pain in my knee from the low grinding cadence was gone too sweet! Later other riders would comment to my Dad and Brother (I've seen Ryan out there a few times, he either looks like death curled over on the bike or he is hauling ass past me!!!)

Only 2 hours left in the race, but at least it will be fun to finish at pace! A nasty headwind had picked up for the final push to finish this last long lap before the short course, but my power was holding, cool! I hit the short course line with 60 minutes left to go!

I finally had something tangible to race for, so I picked a hard pace and dialed my HR up to 165-175 and locked it down for this final hour at 250 watts and attempted holding 28 miles per hour on the flat. Nothing to lose here if I crash and burn now what gives??! It felt easy and again and I had power to burn! I wondered if I could sustain this for an hour?

I did my first laps in 9 minutes each. I was passing the whole field! WTF when I got it I got it! I passed Hoppo again and cheered him on. It felt good to be doing something well finally. Maybe I could be fastest on the final hour TT course for the day? I don't understand myself or how my body works sometimes, but this was fun! Maybe I built the wrong athlete? I'm pure power! I ended up only being passed once on the final lap, by the guy that won the 6 hour TT. He was cranking 280 watts the whole time! I was indeed 2nd overall for the day on the short course behind him and if you believe Strava the 6th fastest of all time to do the short loop. Finally a small carrot!

I think I went out too hard. I think I probably wasn't totally recovered also from the signature all out effort on Mt Whitney just 2 weeks before (I originally planned 3 weeks between events, but windy weather forecasts on Mt Whitney had forced me to push it back a week).

It's these kind of racing days that make me question everything mentally even coming off a hot win on the Badwater to Whitney record a couple weeks ago. Am I any good at this? I feel like I suck. Is any of the stuff I've done legit of these various records I hold?? Adding 50-60 watts to the bike in a year isn't too bad (after crutches and 2 months of forced rest this summer too)!? What am I doing out there though? I feel like I've got a lot to learn, so investing in loss is a very valuable thing figuring out these ultras. I wish I had it figured out though! Failure is sure humbling....Thanks to my friends, family, coaches, and (gulp) sponsors for supporting and following along!

~Cheers

Ryan

Whitney to White Mountain Adventure & Enduro Update

So cold......................

We started from Lone Pine on road bikes at dusk heading for Whitney Portal. Brent Obinger and I would attempt to summit Mt Whitney from the bottom using hiking and bicycles through the night & down then biking back to town and pedaling North to Big Pine and the classic winding road climb up to the Bristlecone visitor center at 10,00 feet - finally switching back to hiking and this time mountain bikes for the summit of White Mountain Peak - Two 14ers and a lot of mileage in between - and the highest points across on both sides of the deepest valley in North America (Owens Valley).

It was Brent's plan and an ambitious and good idea. I was excited to find someone else local that wants to get after something so big and seemingly crazy and knew I was in immediately - arranging my training schedule and few seasonal goals around entirely. (Read: I'm pretty much in for any of these kind of challenges if someone comes up with another "good" idea!)

It felt good to hit Whitney and Whitney Portal fresh for a change first thing that evening starting at 5 PM. We cruised it at PR pace for me while still trying to just spin it out. James Nichols followed in my truck and provided extra stoke and a few essentials before a quick transition at the portal into light weight packs and running vests. We were joined up also by our local friend Tyler Honeman for this biking and peak section for his first time on Mt Whitney (and ours' too entirely by dark!) .

Last year Brent and I had learned our lesson in being a little light weight on the summit after the Badwater to Whitney Push & this time came well prepared with full fingered ice climbing grade gloves, down jackets, shells, head and neck gators intentionally for the 29 degree forecast.... this COLD would be a theme indeed for the trip as the winds picked up on the mountain heheheheh little did we know yet oh yeah......

We moved quickly and mostly on route navigating the Mountaineer's Gully by dark. My back packing trip with Daniel Moor 3 weeks earlier helped keeping the trail fresh in my mind in addition to a last minute decision wearing a special biking grade/running edition Light & Motion headlight that could see 100 yards off distances at a time.

There was very little trouble until arriving about 2/3 of the way up at the typically moderately technical rock step just below Iceberg Lake. The small but broad 1/2 to 1 inch trickle of water across the step had mostly frozen in place leaving the wet but "un-fronzen" spots more secure to step in as we traversed around via some tenuosly loose rocks surrounding while trying to get our feet as little wet as possible in the cold! Be quick!

We took a short snack break before re-collecting and putting on all our shell layers besides our puffy jackets for the steep and remaining direct climb up the gully off we go power hiking! I had come down the looker's left side of the gully a few weeks prior and recommended this for a moment catching back up to Brent, "I think the steep snow might be too exposed to cross higher up." Brent responded "You can usually climb on the side around it." I thought hmm this could be interesting and realized we were already in a completely different gully already anyhow. Okay!

I remembered this now from last year's ascent now scrambling up the rock exactly here (and later Don Bowie telling me this was the shortest way) with Brent the tiredest I'd ever been (perhaps for him too) in a high mountain situation or anywhere after coming up hard from below sea level at Badwater. I'd been so worked I'd experienced these strange bright white flashes off in my peripheral vision akin to lightning shocks on the horizons, but there wasn't any lightning - Stop, breathe, breaths, 10 seconds, move!, crawl, go 10 more steps!, breathe, wooo, wooohhhh, ahhh .. oh yeah I remember that.

Coach Lakey carefully and perfectly guided us on the 4th class finish with exact hand and foot beta like I would give a first time climber hoping for a good $ tip at the end of the trip (in our matching trio of Altra running shoes ha!). Pulse oximeter was still in the 90's on the summit and hiking all the way out through it with not a sip of water from the summit that night gave me a whole understanding of my self confidence and how low I could go, but really really go..... Brent had open bivied part way down the descent near trail camp and refused to let Coach and I start him an emergency fire below - adamantly telling us to leave (later arriving a few hours after knocking on the camper at Whitney Portal). This was a true wild man in heart too! Badwater to Whitney is no joke either.....

It felt frickin' great to be fresh in this gully this time, even as the winds picked up. We easily scrambled up the familiar rocks approaching the notch thankfully dry and entirely free of ice. I looked for options to cross the snow as we went higher if needed and saw one "sketchy" spot that might involve hopping onto an exposed boulder in the middle hmm.. As we reached the top of the snow patch, it met the cliff and we were running out of real estate. The snow here was bullet hard and clear ice along the top edge with big exposure... I'm not hiking across that. It was really crampons and 2 ice tools terrain right there at the moment and we had one ultralight Camp Corsa ice axe between 3 people. Nope!

Brent looked out ledges to the right . I looked across at the other side of the familiar snow patch from 3 weeks ago. It had been sketchy then kicking my heels in momentarily in the middle of the snow pack and this time it was bullet hard pack. I'm not sure that goes tonight either! We could go back down and around and see, but yeah looks gnar from here!

Brent suggested traversing a ledge to our right and having a good look. We traversed across about 40 feet on a couple foot wide ledge and looked off above. Hmm. It looks easier soon like 3rd class and then a ridge after a couple moves across through those flakes? We looked at the snow again. I climbed up. I climbed back down. Is it worth it, does that go? I didn't look that hard. I looked off above with my 100 yard flashlight beam again. This trip isn't going if we don't do this gully somehow.. I made the moves - easy lie back and another nice ledge okay! I climbed up more and looked at the easier ridge above. It looks like it goes looking off and better terrain above again. A few moves to a big ledge again, then a 5.6 move off the ledge- Handjams feel pretty damn solid in gloves thankfully! I told Brent I was going to check it out further with the good light and raced above climbing quickly 100 feet to more ledges and occasional 4th and single 5th class moves more than I bargained for, but always getting easier ... alone in the dark, midnight, 30 degrees, 13,000 feet, gloves, running shoes, and cold wind heh. I realized I could see about 20x further than the other 2 guys with this super headlamp. It'd have to be me to figure this out or come down. Perhaps the first time I've said in my head honestly "I feel like I'm in Patagonia" likely on some unknown descent trying to go home or at least I imagine this is what that might feel like.

Luckily the wind felt calm and sheltered as we got further inside the gully. One last short corner above some 3rd class (my feet are jamming perfectly into this slabby crack sweet!) and then a horizontal splitter that fit both my hands like a #2 camalot in a solid double hand jam to mantle my feet onto another good ledge while holding on securely and I was at the top of something. Okay where? There was a crack system heading down to the left that could go if we had to that looked also about 5.6, but not if we could find something else first. I headed up and found a long narrow but totally flat 2 foot ledge traversing around the back of the formation. I walked along the ledge easily and then was standing on mellow ground and soon found cairns and an easy 2nd class way into the gully above the snow! I saw Brent and Tyler eyeing another possible down climb below that looked far worse I'd checked on the way by. Nope EFF that way!! It goes, the rock's not that bad, except careful climbing around the flakes inside the crack over there, then it's super easy from here! I climbed back down to meet them just above and guide directions with my light. They climbed the moves around the mantle and the last corner and joined me on the buttress where we easily and thankfully followed the ledge back into the main gully. Good route finding DUDE! Few! Enough of that for one night too! Brent "Yeah soloing in gloves is something, what grade do you think it was Ryan?" Hmm 5.6 or 5.7 maybe? Good thing hand jams in gloves felt good! I wouldn't have done it if it didn't feel secure I told myself, but I wandered about down climbing 100% if I'd got cliffed out at the top, it'd been a bit of gamble, more than I'd anticipated over the first step, but it had worked out! Tyler with a goofy look - "Alright guys we finished phase death climbing!"

The wind blasted us as we turned the corner and made the traditional last 4th class moves seeming super mellow now in comparison. Are we going to down climb all that for the descent again though?? Eff no! On the summit at midnight, okay, not too bad! We hit our first big time hurdle and committed to the longer 12 mile trail hike out (that lower we step would likely all be frozen solid ice now and probably worse too, another reason). Apparently I only hike down the regular trail with Brent twice now officially after about 10 times on Whitney- after last year we were too fatigued and knew it to negotiate the down scrambling and this year the conditions sucked and we'd had enough for a night... going back down to the snow level again and having to come back up would likely be a sure fail for the trip too.

We got some pretty funny stares and comments - 3 fit guys racing down the trail passing eager hikers at 2 in the morning and carrying minimal kit. "Did you guys summit? Yep the view was great!" It's definitely the first time I've done Whitney entirely in the dark.

The wind picked up more and more on the hike out and encouraged us to move. Finally my mega spot light battery was done after about 6 hours (rated to 9, but I figured nothing lasts quite as long as it's rated and I'd turned it on full blast for vision a good amount) and I switched to the back up e+LITE  I'd kept tucked in my front pocket. Functional, but not as fast hiking for sure! Luckily Tyler had also brought 2 headlamps and spare batteries we soon augmented mine to keep me full speed on the trail as possible. The LCL/PCL tear/ meniscus knee injury I'd suffered earlier in the summer began to ache during this speed downhill hiking phase, but I did my best. I felt bad dragging just a little behind and Brent told me to keep together with them so I did my best. I was the only one that had carried super light trekking poles up and over the mountain fortunately and that did help! Slog on this trail is so long switchbacks....... Cold wind!

Alright transition time! Tyler kept all his clothes on from hiking and said, "I'm rolling down road warrior style guys, I got to get to work back at the hospital now" -for one of his shifts starting that morning! Brent soon followed and I had the happy experience of stripping naked ninja quick in the Whitney parking lot and putting on a bike Chamois, 3 jackets, serious gloves/neck gaiter/bike over booties etc... okay rolling! Ick wind! Sweet a North wind.... The wind was blowing and gusting hard enough on the descent I had to lean in to it to keep from getting blown sideways on the bike. I soon caught up with Brent and we rolled into the park for another layers transition and traded out my truck for James Nichols' so he could make it home in time for a job interview that afternoon too!

Brent "Yeah that wind, it's almost like a North Wind eh?" We knew we kinda hosed heading North straight against the wind (the forecast later reported North wind gusting 18 - 45 mph). Sweet we are heading North dead on against the wind.... We both knew what it meant, but we didn't say much, head down, let's roll.

This was brutal. If anything kills your psych mercilessly, it's hours of dead on headwind biking. The combination of the cold and the wind together in the dark was just evil awaiting the sunrise as I tried to regulate calorie intake and forced down salt tablets to keep myself wanting to drink and a few 350 calorie ensures (ultracyclist's secret calorie bomb weapon in 20 seconds or less!).

The ride went on and on.... What normally takes me under 2 hours casually, took us 4. We couldn't keep up the power into this, just spinning around out there. At one point I got pissed at being cold and insisted riding in full down jacket and balaclava until I was hot just to give the wind the middle finger in my own way for a while! Ugh oh man...

Dr. Peter Clark found us on the road and brought some cheerful energy to the ride as best he could, "You guys should have done White Mountain to Whitney, you would have rocketed there in like an hour flat going the other way! Haha".

Finally Big Pine... and the sunny shelter of the canyon heading up Westgard Pass. I got on my easier geared climbing bike and laughed... Spinning up this iconic and steep climb on moderate gears out was the most pleasant this trip had gotten too yet, normally the crux moment of the Everest Challenge races and many a personal ride. Pete headed up to the White Mountain Research Center at Barcroft to check out the conditions up ahead and returned with good news! "Stepping out of the car at 11k with the 60 mph wind was like exiting the Mars Lander. Mid 20 degrees with howling winds!" Cool.

I caught up and traded places back and forth with Brent a couple times on the climb. We really are a pretty good honest match for each other. Seemingly always within 5 minutes either way on these longest adventures. We enjoyed a cash of sparkling fruit sodas and chocolate chip cookies we'd left hidden next to the entrance Kiosk amongst bushes inside a bear canister the day before sweet! I prayed for the wind to please die unavoidably imagining riding the final head wall in a dead on headwind at 10,000 feet+.

Mentally that was a draining thought as I started to crank up what Pete referred to as the "Switchbacks of Doom", that wind up so steeply standing on the bike pedals is all but mandatory for the most fit cyclists. Please don't be wind, no more...... I feel bad I'm bonking. This is dumb, what am I doing? Stop and pound a gel, more salt, a 250 cal sport drink, push down hard with your strong legs! Brent was gone I couldn't see him ahead now. Pete headed off ahead "See you guys at the switchbacks of doom, I want to get one of those epic sufferfest black and white photos!"

I suck. What am I doing up here? I can't pedal this right now. I'm falling asleep on my bike (I would notice these micro dozing moments when my front tire inadvertently bumped into the toe of one of my bike shoes, between fatigue and traveling seemingly so slow uphill it was a challenge to steer the bike straight either way). I went into the negative cave... ahh he's so far ahead, I'm blowing the mission, how can I bail gracefully on the mountain bike section if we can't keep up because of me? Keep pedaling. Just keep pedaling! I have done 102 miles and 21,000 vertical feet at this point plus hiking around Whitney 20 miles in a circle all night, I suppose I ought to feel somewhat worse than the Everest Challenge finish line here... this day is so cold man!! Can I even do the 40 miles of Mountain biking right now? I felt uncertain still.

I made it to the visitor center and Brent assured me I was actually still only 5 minutes behind in arrival, it's just difficult in the winding switchbacks to see each other for a while. It was 3:30 PM not terrible, but we had wanted to be here by noon today, those extra hours on the longer hike and headwind had been costly!

Brent enjoys a well earned ol' favorite canned Ravioli at 10,000 ft

I started up the Jetboil while slowly switching into mountain biking kit and started in on my first hot food of the day and one of a few calorie bonking secrets - instant mashed potatoes doused liberally with a healthy dose of olive oil! Something to keep the fire stoking tonight! Ahh that's amazing! There was painful blister on the outside of one of my feet. I have to duct tape over it at least! I felt rushed as I do at every transition in a mega event, but I did my best to put on my gear and stuff every possible piece of warm clothing or bike backpack/bag into a crate and load it up into Pete's 4wd.

We'd lost our primary support person in James Nichols having to head out for the job interview and were planning on doing the final 20 mile out and back mountain bike ride unsupported. The forecast was for 19 degrees and windy. I tried to imagine the 2 races I've been in where I've biked overnight in 20 degree weather and what it took to warm up in the low moments and what that would mean here with dwindling reserves. "What are we doing here Brent? Do you want to go to war tonight?" Not a typically an expression I use on my normal outings.

Pete had offered to drive us out at least to the beginning and see us off on the mountain bikes. We at least had to try! That was a good spark and having someone out there on the most fatigued/coldest part of our adventure yet felt. I could bring a 25 degree ultra light sleeping bag, emergency blanket bivy sack, and a tiny 2 man nylon bothy bag to huddle in I supposed worst case if we had a mechanical failure or one of us went down.. and Brent had borrowed a Delorme satellite messenger that could text all our friends in town if we really needed it bad! Bring all your jackets. Luckily we could just load it all into Pete's rig for now!!

Woah... I felt a spark of energy getting on the mountain bike. It was slow, but so much easier than the last headwall on the Bristlecones just cruising on big tires and gearing. Zak Tourville had loaned me his gravel grinding favorite mountain bike and this thing was awesome! I quickly charged up the first few hills, laughing remember how messed up it was the time Steven Barnes had made us ride shiny road bikes up this dirt road for 3 miles during one of his 24 hour races just to make it hard! I hadn't been back since! I felt good, something about those mashed potatoes. Brent was coming along alright too. I asked him how he felt and he said okay. Twenty miles on this road ehh? We've already done 7 and that was super easy. Maybe we got this?!

Brent wasn't so sure. We'll be up all night a second night in a row till 2 am? Pete's not going to be here with us, we'll have to ride the 20 miles back too. Hmm wasn't I the one secretly wanting to bail out gracefully somehow just an hour ago? Pete said we had to ride at least to the Patriarch Grove. The downhills on the full suspension bike were fun and we enjoyed taking classic pictures with Pete in the perfect evening light. It was 30 degrees out, but miraculously the wind had died with the setting sun on the horizon. This was no joking, very much honestly the warmest we had felt all day(s) yet on this COLD adventure at 11,000 feet as the sun set for the second time almost 26 hours deep.

Wow we'd made it 12 miles and 2000 feet on the dirt before dark. Pete said he was in for the duration whatever we wanted, he'd camp snoozing at the gate if we were going for it tonight or pick us up if the wheels fell off. It's funny because after wanting to bail an hour ago I figured Eff it after so many hours, what's 3 more - and 19 degrees out, no wind, that's probably warmer than Whitney was last night maybe? Who cares anymore anyway it's only been COLD always all day! Damn cold! The part of me that likes to finish things was here and I could believe at least that we could do it. Only 8 miles to go!! Let's beat this thing! We do it or not!

Brent assured me that the last 7 or 8 miles were super rough and that wasn't the point that we could do it or not. I knew he felt we could too right then. This was his wild dream and we were supposed to top out the summit in the daylight, and really not to top out a second 14er at night (all night) 2 nights in a row. We'd lost 4 hours due to problems on the route outside of fitness, it wasn't me or him being particularly slow. We'd gone over the time. We'd really needed a committed support plan on the final mountain too for safety and this crazy cold today! I knew he felt bad pushing Pete here on the fly. It wasn't my position now to decide to go on a bozo run for the finish line here either way. Okay.

I stubbornly ground up the last hill ahead to "burn off" a last little steam in one last burst of energy while Brent and Pete drove off ahead and waited turning my altitude score up from 22,900 to 23.5K for the day, 116.5 miles, 25 hours and 40 minutes. A worthy adventure, and perhaps the toughest day out I've had yet in it's own unique ways. I've never done close to this much vertical feet in so little distance or combined hiking, road, and mountain biking together all in the pursuit of vertical. Haleakala was 30,000 feet, but it was distanced over 266 miles, which is hugely mellower in a different way vs STEEP and hiking too. The sustained cold/headwind was really a tough opponent to tee off with willing against my own mental game and at one point had me in some low points, the low points always suck, but I love this ultra stuff! Brent is an awesome and solid partner and this was a pretty rad idea overall!

After getting back to the stash vehicle at Bristlecones and stepping out into the cold air after the warm ride down in Pete's rig I felt absolutely freezing and totally naked in my strategic layers of spandex tights and down jackets. The temperature had dropped and it felt like without much reserves left, I had no way of generating heat if I wasn't moving and the cold was so real and so sharp! A big part of me was pretty glad too to not be on a go for it mission slogging the summit on through the night again right then!! I think we made the right call! Thanks Brent! =)

Thanks for all those that supported out there or sent encouraging messages on the way and Peter Clark for these awesome photos!!

Cheers!

-Ryan

PS - I felt somewhat frustrated knowing I was unable to attempt my first intended big challenge of the season at all in the past couple weeks due to weather, and missing the target here somewhat again, but it was mentally a successful outing pushing overnight for 24 hours in tough conditions. Can I take a 3rd loss too if I fail at the Badwater to Whitney record attempt in the next few weeks? I only truly have myself to lose to right now at the end of the day? I think I can handle it either way if I know I got out and do my best and really want to be there and do it to that ability in the moment. I hope the weather holds up and lines up okay for a true effort mostly most of all. If I don't get that, I'll have to be okay with not doing it this year too and keep excited with everything else in my life - I'm enjoying staying fit right now a lot so that shouldn't be too terrible and I got a fun climbing trip and official 24 hour race in Nov too! The toughest thing is everything has really come down to conditions or not more recently. The line on Whitney right now is more serious particularly in below freezing temps currently when the snow is hard and recent ongoing snow dustings! But I did the same snow mid day 3 weeks ago feeling pretty mellow and safely when it isn't 29 degrees and howling winds! I'll bring crampons and axe for the rest of this season if returning and intend to get there earlier in daylight hours if so!

How did my bike ride go?

First of all thanks to all the members on my support crews the past 6 weeks and those others along that have helped in numerous many ways - Jason Lakey, Peter Clark, Don Bowie, James Nichols ( Extra special thanks here - James has now been involved in about 50% of my ultra cycling endeavors as is officially my Ultra Crew Chief), Shannon Robertson, John Stackfleth, Chris Hopkinson (Coach), Brent Obinger, Rich Meredick, Mike Britton, Gina Steinhoff. It takes a village! It's always surprising how many people get involved in these kind of efforts and there's no way most things could happen without them. Thank you- All and each of you and others not mentioned that loaned gear or worked with my bikes - Very much! You're efforts are indeed appreciated! Thanks so much!

Thanks also to some of my favorite companies that have encouraged and got behind some of my bike adventures lately : Diamondback Bikes, KTM Bike Industries, Wheelscience Race Wheels, Marc Pro EMS Recovery, PODsox Athletic Compression Socks, and my favorite local bike shop - Aerohead Cycles in Bishop, CA.

I don't feel like I'm any good at any of this. Although I am my toughest critic. It's perhaps why I'm so apt to head out on another big adventure, only while winding down to the finish line of another one does it feel truly satisfying. Ego is a bear and insists if an effort is not the best then it is not anything, although it's impossible for us to always perform our best.

It was one of my worst racing days. It was one of my best racing days. It was one of my first racing days in a long time!

I started as usual and tried to hold back while holding steady easy high cadence. Starting a race at 6pm was an odd start time experience perhaps, but it had gone well for the first 5 laps or so nice and steady.

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What did you get yourself into this time?

I had been trying out a new fancy nutrition sports drink recently called Infinit. It seemed to be working. Marketed as one of the "everything in a bottle" all in one super drinks, I'd seen other friends do well on it during major races and after recently throwing up nauseated again on both the Badwater to Whitney sprints this last month I wanted to try something else besides GU products and gels.

Infinit seemed to be working well - sure went down pretty easily. Although I had to stop to pee frequently almost every lap and my pee burned! WTF? (James drank one bottle later and said his pee burned too - sympathy burning?) What kind of fancy chemicals are in this stuff?? Acid buffers, coq10, caffeine, whey protein?? It tasted carbonated almost, but felt like it ran right through me. One thing I didn't like so far is that they limited me to 294 calories an hour in one bottle based on an hourly calorie formula for double my lean body mass.

Here's some sexy marketing from the package:

"An isotonic solution is the most efficient way to deliver all you need with zero stomach distress. If there is too much "stuff" your drink will be too dense and your will treat it like food causing gastric distress, dehydration, and cramping. INFINIT's patented Osmo'fit system ensures your nutrition solution will work better than any generic powder. You can have the best ingredients in the world but if they are too highly concentrated, or the mix is wrong, you might as well be trying to compete while eating a cheeseburger."

Sunset coming through Death Valley the night before our recent adventures

Then I had a cold chilly lap. I felt like cold suddenly had snuck up on me. I feel cold hmm. I called James to ready up my regular favorite warm layers, pounded an ensure drink for + 350 calories (maybe that'll help?), and headed back out around. Damn it was still cold! The next lap I stopped and put on even more layers and winter gloves. I headed back out once more.. shoot this is the coldest lap yet! What's wrong?! I keep putting on more layers? Everyone else is wearing just arm warmers or nothing extra. I was shivering and all I could do is drink cold carb drinks and hum to myself in the dark for the 18 miles. It was now my 3rd cold lap...

I wrote to a friend, "I can't figure out why I'm so cold and everyone else seems fine in shorts and jersey. This lap sucks. I'm shiver humming around dreaming of getting a down jacket next go around. I'm getting lots of calories. It doesn't make sense. I shouldn't be this cold."

I didn't know what to do. Was I just tired? I tried to rest it off and sit in the heated truck a few minutes this time.  Eat more?? More ensure! Finally I reemerged in full winter down puffy jacket and insulated tights, heavy gloves. Okay one more lap try again... This time my body was clearly pissed off. I'd thought getting all warmed up would have saved me, but my heart rate refused to elevate. Heart rate 83 and 20 watts, what?? What is 20 watts?!? Have I ever done this before? I was slowing down more.. I tried to stand up and push a little more out of the saddle. Nope, my heart rate was locked in at 83. With nothing else, but my bike computer to watch out there in the dark, I felt like the the eterna monitor watching ICU nurse back in the hospitals (my day job) watching my pacemaker patients hearts beating at exactly 60 beats per minute. I'd found my speed governor. Alright only one thing to do, finish the whole lap out again... I felt like I was crawling. I downed both my bottles of sports energy drinks, including the special extra higher caffeine one I'd asked for this time.

Something was really wrong. Was I just that tired? I really hadn't slept the night before either much, I was too amped up for this?? I headed back to the truck finally. I told James I should probably just sleep. I didn't know what was wrong. He made me hot Top Ramen soup on the Jetboil as I passed out in the front passenger seat blasting the heater and seat warmers.

"We didn't come here to give up. Think of all the other things we've done?! You didn't give up falling asleep on Tioga Pass at 2am in 27 degrees?! You can do this man!" "I know James, I didn't come here to quit, but that last lap felt pointless, I'm crawling around the course on my bike!" I decided to wait the couple hours till day light. If I was just too tired, maybe that would fix it or if it was the cold, the warm sun would. Maybe I just wasn't ready for this yet? I'd never been so slow before though all these crazy times? I think I did the 27% grade exhausted on Sonora Pass 200 miles deep at 10 PM faster than that lap and this is flat!! I'd never let myself down like this felt. Super stubborn power didn't seem to be working here this time.

Disappointed. I knew I was receiving a humble beat down and it was frustrating not really understanding why, but I didn't really want to quit either. I passed out there in the seat. The sun would be up soon.. At 6am the sun rose and folks stirred about as the 12 hour category racers prepared to start their day. I changed kit, but kept wearing the down jacket and winter gloves almost as a security blanket. I wasn't going to take it off too early that's for sure!

It was a little better. Still disappointed, but at least I had a moderate pace. I continued onward drinking Infinit bottles and steadily crawling around the track. Was I really going to do this like this for the last 12 hours of this event?? Who knows.

Another lap. Things started to get worse again. At least I finally had the down jacket off! I was lucky to generate 70 watts though. My heart rate didn't want to go above 100 and I couldn't pedal much harder if it didn't respond. I even figured out a little trick.. If I breathed in and out quickly and shallowly staccato through my mouth it would raise my heart rate up about 20 beats up and I could go a little bit faster!! What was I doing???

I finally pulled in to the pit area at the end of the lap and told James something was really wrong again. He said he was going to give me an ensure and 2 carbo drinks every single lap from here on out. I also took one of my pill sized bottles of Reese's pieces out on the course and started eating those too. Okay we are doing every thing we can!

I remembered after my last ultra DNF how I had felt and talking to my friend Joan Deitchman, how after going through a similar experience, she had decided one day to finish out every ultra no matter what happened till the time was up as best she could. I was going to keep going this time! At least I wasn't cold now. I texted my coach- I was sorry to disappoint him, but I was literally getting my ass handed to me out here- still moving, but basically crawling around the course. I'd stopped twice and tried to recover, eat more, but it hadn't helped much. I feel out of fuel. Damn maybe I'm not ready.

He replied, "Just keep plugging away and stay positive! You are not disappointing, just showing me where we need to improve. Just give 100% all the way and we will dissect at the end." Thanks Coach, alright!

I kept on chugging. This time rounding the back bend coming up to the town before the start, I dropped down to 20 watts again. I felt like those guys in the TV commercials slow motion running while Chariots of Fire is playing in the background, except this was my full speed. Pretty much everyone in every category racing got a chance to pass me here on this lap. I was going 4 - 6 miles an hour up this little hill now. I didn't feel sleepy, I just couldn't move! Other cyclists started to yell at me, "Come on man!! Pedal!" I shook my head nope. I was??? "Wake up man come on now!" WTF so frustrating ugh...

Maybe it's a bad sign when people who think it's normal to ride 24 hours on a bike start to worry about you. Some of these cyclists really started to worry about me calling up ahead to the race director, "This guy is swerving and hardly moving out here on the back bend." A race van came to check up on me. Are you okay?? Yes I'm fine, I'm just slow (I knew I was swerving, but I was way over on the shoulder & I felt totally awake sleepiness wise, it's just really frigging hard to drive a bike straight at 4-6 miles an hour!). I had absolutely no power. This was a new low. I didn't know it existed, but apparently it definitely does. It was like all my reserves had been depleted too.

When I got to the Pit the officials gathered and asked how I was doing? I told them "So so". I'm moving. They said I had to stop for an extended break now or they were pulling me out of the race.. Wow. I'd never heard that before yet, but I didn't have much choice. "I know. I got to stop." I'd really planned on stopping anyhow based on how terrible that lap went. I knew something was seriously wrong. I told James something is really wrong. The first 100 miles had taken 5 hours and the second 14? It's a flat double century. Why is this kicking my butt really so brutally? The weather is pretty nice too! Do I really suck so bad?

I was resigned to stop caring about the race. I sat down in a tent and took my shoes off. I slowly nibbled a turkey sandwich (not quite a cheeseburger! Thanks Alin Lupas!) and sipped down a Redbull while snoozing followed up by a Coca Cola. Race? What race. This definitely is not a race! I really just didn't care now. Maybe we should just quit? We'd gotten me warm, but I still was having terrible morning out there? Maybe it was this INFINIT stuff. I'd only used it on training rides prior to this big event (how else do you really put something to the test anyway?). James didn't think it was working at all.

He removed all the remaining Infinit drinks from the ice chest, packed it up, and got out my spare GU Products I'm all too intimately familiar with. Yes I know how to race on Roctane. I changed in to my favorite jersey and shorts. Maybe there's still time for 100 miles?

I approached the officials again. They looked at me like this was a police sobriety test I had to pass. "How are you doing?" I'm alright now. I feel better. I just want to do a few more laps; let's see how it goes? "Okay you look a person again and you are really talking, good luck!"

Alright back out there! Roctane routine on board, fuel up baby! Hey my heart rate, it's 120? Huh cool.. See how it goes hey! Before I knew it, my heart rate was up to 142 and I was spinning at my favorite 90+ cadence. What gives?? Nothing to lose! I was excited and enjoying just being actually riding somewhat normal again. I eased around the first half of the course. I felt good! It was like I was on magic jelly beans, this was not the same day! I started passing people. Finally nearing the stop sign bend, the famous rider (24 hr UMCA champion in 2nd place today), Marko Baloh pulled up on my side. I remember thinking clearly here after umpteen who knows how many times, "You don't get to pass me anymore Marko" And it was on... I'd found a way to race somehow even though my race was long past over. I could do this! I motioned to James to do quick transitions in the pit. Moving again man feeling good! I did a couple full loops with Marko (36 miles) always just behind me. Finally I never saw him again hey not bad! It was at least some little high point on such a lousy crushing day.

Finally pulling away on my own I continued to hammer it as best I could. I'd promised my coach to give my best effort the last 4 hours and at the 5 hour mark I'd finally found a spark of energy somewhere. Maybe I can get 300 miles? There really was nothing to lose now!

Relaxing a just a little. It was almost immediately I saw the signature yellow jersey of Christoph Strasser (world champ) come flying over my shoulder to my left once again. Ahh what the hell it worked on Marko!?! Let's chase him too! Most of the first half of my ride had consisted of me riding around lonely in the dark cold humming to myself and suddenly getting passed by this maniac (awesome athlete) zipping by me at 30 MPH out of almost seemingly nowhere then gone! James had dared me to try to respond for 1 minute to one of these passes today. I had to chase hard this time to close up the gap. Neither of us wanted to draft (against ultra rules) and I was annoyed as I got up closer he kept switching lanes from side to side across the road like he didn't want to let me just continue straight away. This guy was pretty strong, I'd done this half out of curiosity just to see what his pace really felt like, it was doable, but didn't feel sustainable like chasing Marko had earlier. I definitely wasn't about to one up his pace up off ahead a whole nother notch. One of his quads also probably equals up close to about both of mine combined on the scale! Was this really the same riding day of a few hours ago? Damn! ;)

Finally I pulled up next to him and rode side by side for a few minutes. We had a conversation for a while (easier for him!). He gave me that where did you come from and what are you doing look (or perhaps oh great.. another young punk to trying to chase me)!? I got the feeling I was allowed to ride side by side, but no one in the 24 hr category was really allowed to pass easily. We talked about how many miles we had done and both feeling sick today and I told him I'd had a really terrible morning. You really are strong indeed Christoph! I think it's so awesome what you are doing out here today! Good luck getting 900 kilometers!! When the conversation died off I let him roll on ahead. Wow!

This may indeed have been a terrible day of riding, but actually chasing down the world champ 270 miles deep on one the worst riding days I've ever had while he's in process of setting yet another world record is so bucket list and a silver lining for the ride. It gave me a little spark of hope, if I actually madly trained my butt off, maybe I really can pull up on a guy like that one day for real and the racing made this shitty day fun again!! Who knows if I'll ever get to line up at another race with him again.

I kept going. The officials looked at my one man crewman, James, asking, "What did you do to him?! What did you give him. He looks fresh!". I thought.. well kinda, I haven't really rode for real today so far ha! Honestly I felt like I was on some super drugs or something seemingly impossible in comparison after getting back to normal. I was downing a more typical 1.5 - 1 & 3/4 bottles an hour of Roctane + a handful of other favorite snacks which = 375 - 500 calories an hour. Maybe I just needed a lot more of the Infinit stuff? 294 calories really seems light duty + being cold hmm? I don't know. I got my ass kicked straight up now no denying. I'm not really sure what exactly went wrong though. I'm just now doing my best at getting back in to good shape. The cold was sneaky because most of the other riders were wearing just arm warmers or nothing and appeared fine while I was in a down puffy jacket. I would definitely be more cold conservative in hindsight.

Anyhow, you'd think I'd learn not to experiment on big rides, but I feel like in a way this whole ultracycling thing is always some sort of ongoing experiment/problem solving affair. There's always a next ride. It's hard to get it just right mostly and I was sick of always throwing up GU products charging up towards Mt Whitney. James and I have a few ideas for things to test here locally under 200 mile + conditions. We'll get this!

Finishing the short course standing with everything I got left. I'm still amazed in the contrast in how I felt.

I finished out the last 4 hours strong as I could and managed 114 miles in the last 6 since I was pulled off the course just missing a last lap by a minute under the time limit for 308 miles on the course. It didn't feel like the same day at all and I wonder why I finally recovered so well? On the final short course few mile laps I was standing up out of the saddle and pushing 450 watts on the straightaways charging towards town. Not the same rider, not the same day really (20 watt loops????????)!? Gosh I love Ultra though and I miss it!!! I'm still going to be looking to have a good ride ahead at one of these events soon. That's my goal. The competition is fun, but at this point not much is truly really harder than beating myself. I want to do my best. Mentally it will be nice to space out the time distances more too. Training by doing lowest to highest blitzes on Badwater to Mt Whitney is certainly some good honest tough preparation, but more stressful on the head game. Physically 2 weeks feels like a fair enough recovery though in comparison to some of my past stunts.

All and all by a guy with only 50 hours on a bike under his belt this year before these last 6 weeks it has been a pretty successful go of it so far (that's 3 x 24 hour enduro events under my belt!).

Cheers!

Thanks for reading! To more ahead always!

-Ryan

PS a few more fun photos below!! We took James on his first experience rock climbing with my old roommates at a climbing gym in San Diego, checked out the surf, and made an obligatory stop at In-N-Out Burger of course! James took a couple nice finishing shots of Christoph Strasser too who went on to finish today for 550.2 miles! I perhaps should have paid more cautious heed to the omen of my fate's chosen race number as well : # 151 - Like Bacardi, possibly a one way ticket to the toilet, the hospital, or your deathbed.

Content... or Crazy... or Genuinely Happiness?

151

Like Barcardi- possibly a one way ticket to the toilet, the hospital, or your deathbed.

©Zoo Monkey Media

Debt Free

I've been sitting contemplating in disbelief this past week.

I don't know what to say or write well enough to explain all my feelings.

What now?

I'm broke.... Yes I'm flat broke as in I owe no one else any large sums of money!

This is the first time I've been able to say this in 14 years - since taking out school, car, and credit card loans starting age 18. Now I'm 32... Where has life gone?

I'm stoked! This has been the biggest longgg goal I've had. It's a bit numblingly unreal.

Maybe I'm writing this blog piece now to be cathartic. I'm so ready to move on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll apologize here now for those that read on; I'm about to take you along for a bit on a journey to my darker places this last year or so :

This has been the toughest year, perhaps thee toughest year I've ever had. After years of night shift nursing I felt burned out on my job and absolutely stuck in a bad situation without any light in sight.

I'd burned out 2 years ago after racing my bike in a bid to be a "real" athlete (turning 30 call it a midlife crisis?! I'd somehow managed to establish/challenge 3 endurance world records on a bicycle in a one year period - including going from the lowest to the highest point in the lower 48 and a day on the world's longest bicycle climb in Hawaii).

I feared adrenal/chronic fatigue now. Is that real? I'd stopped sleeping it felt like - reporting to work on time at 3 am every night for long hospital shifts had became a double edged sword with my ongoing athletic feats -I could never get to sleep at 6pm to get enough sleep before the alarm rang @ 2:30 AM again. I gave it up; I stopped biking cold turkey and attempted to find a way just to rest back to normal somehow. It all felt too late. I felt like I couldn't fight it anymore (but I had to - can't quit I have 60 grand of almost impossible to discharge debt still cosigned to my remaining aging grandparents).

My hospital coworkers and I often survived on 2-4 hours of sleep a night while working through many ongoing 12 hour shifts. Sometimes I'd informally poll the nurses and doctors surrounding me and not a single person successfully had more than 3 hours of sleep between shifts - this was our norm. I tried to sleep, it just didn't work. I'd sit in my bed early looking at the ceiling trying. Even worse - I'd go to bed early then wake up at midnight before my 2:30 AM alarm went off sitting with anxiety waiting for my shift to start. My body somehow learned to survive on the 4 hour or less plan and I would awaken anyway - even exhausted on my days off. I had nearly continuous migraine head aches from low sleep nearly every day. It had slowly become normal. All I wanted was good sleep, but somehow my confused body rhythms & adrenaline would kick in a good spike waking me at all times of night and I'd feel like I hadn't slept at all.

At a lowest point I couldn't recall sleeping at all for 5 consecutive nights - I tried the whole time. I called off sick from a couple coming shifts and my supervisor was upset when I told him honestly I haven't slept at all I can't.

I'd tried it all -white noise, yoga, meditation, supplements, black out curtains, benadryl, melatonin. It all helped in the beginning, but now after 4 years of this, my body was so confused in combination with the fatigue from my cycling feats, I'd virtually stopped sleeping. I needed a break from this schedule desperately!

I went to my manager and told him I wasn't doing well. I was already only working the minimum number of shifts allowed and it wasn't working. I needed to work any other schedule in existence or have a break somehow, or even a leave of absence to sleep for a few months. I went beyond to his boss too. Eventually I went as high up as I could having sit down meetings with every manager outside the hospital CEO asking for any possible theoretical other hours than my current schedule - even straight nights would be an improvement over arriving at 3am (I'd done those for years prior to this and while tough I'd never felt this bad). Some tried to empathize, but to paraphrase shortly in the end I was told to "take it or leave it, these are the hours we have for your position." It stung of a similar conversation familiarity I'd had years prior in AZ. Off the record, one manager honestly did respond, "Oh no- You know I'd rather shoot myself than work on those hours, that's a reason I took my job."

I didn't want to leave my job in the community of Bishop that I'd made my home, but I needed a change or an out.  I started eyeing my debts - If I could pay them off I could quit and walk. I cut the $7,500 zero interest credit card I'd maxed to fund the pinnacle of my racing the previous year among countless other costs. I doubled the scheduled payments + any occasional extra earnings and paid 20 grand off that year. It was a start.

I'd virtually quit biking, though I didn't want to let it go. My "training" was half ass. I really wasn't up to putting in steady hours anymore in hindsight. I felt guilty even doing it now. My ego and self confidence were still strong though wanting to believe. I'd wanted to be an athlete more than anything else since I was a kid. I'd put so much of my self image here. Maybe I could? I competed ironically for a hospital sponsored team in the local triathlon and managed to do one of the sprint loops on the biking section at a course record equivalent pace (2nd to an amazing Swiss athlete though on the same day) helping win the event for my team. Hmmm?!

My ego told me to try at least a little anyway; a few weeks later showing up at one major ultra race that season in Oregon. It was soon clear to me on the bike I had lost something- I wasn't the same rider - unprepared & exhausted - no degree of stubborn could get me past that! This race was supposed to be harder than the others I'd done before - The next step, possibly the "hardest" of the type in 48 hour races, but it seems like every race in ultra is touted as the "hardest" something or another (I will say Race Across Oregon has one of the more legitimate claims). I didn't want to be out there anymore; not like this. Biking is tough enough already - this would only be suffering (fittingly the race high day time temperatures also hit 109° F). I tried fighting against my pride throwing up 3 times during the race for the first time ever on my bike near the back of the race. On my knees throwing up in an emotionally crushing moment at 10 pm that night, I quit and walked away from the race with a DNF (did not finish) less than half way through- also a first time. I really wasn't ready mentally or physically. I'd really got my butt kicked. I was done - biking combined with the word "race" and particularly "ultra" was seemingly way too expensive too. I can't do all this and pay these bills while working crazy hours. I learned some hard lessons here.

It would be the only race I tried that season (and since).

Something had to change now.  I talked with my high-school best friend Jerhet Ask as we carpooled up to a wedding in Oregon a few weekends later. He could tell I was stressed out. Ever Mr. Practical, he told me to, "C'mon, just do the math with me dude!" (with debt), as he played out insistently the entire Dave Ramsey CD seminar during the 10 hour drive. I could do it! It was reassuring talking to a close friend who also had significant loans and worries after finishing grad (dental) school. He became my accountability buddy in the coming months. Thanks for always being there Jerhet!

I calculated out exactly how many debt payments and how long it would take me to pay off the combined final 40K of student debts and the remaining loan on my truck that year. I decided to put all my drive and ambition here. If I'd paid 20k the previous year while still sorta trying to race bikes, I could double down hard core and do this all and be done instead of several more years (or 7 still just making payments). Of all the ambitious obsessive things I've done with my drive over the years, this would be perhaps the most boring, but most useful I'd actually done. I could do one year hardcore. I had vision now. I started paying immediately every pay check off the top at least $500 every time religiously in addition to my regular payments. I was fighting back now!

I felt even more frustrated back home as I watched new nurses or travel recruits hired in to other positions with different hours that year. I'd asked for a department swap or a shift swap, but it felt indefinite waiting at this point and even the flip side of this shift would still be middle of the night in the long run (I was told it was extremely difficult to replace me - in our department specialty of Intensive Care, as of this writing not a single remaining RN from the last 6 years has stayed for 3 AM). It was getting even more difficult to see a long-term future here.

I could quit this nursing job now, but almost any other job is likely going to start me out on nights anyway (my previous employer in AZ had asked for 5 years full time before earning a chance to go to day shifts)? I felt trapped. I also knew if I could somehow last through this last year a few more months, I'd gain significant retirement benefits (now valued equivalent at $42,000 401k value someday) or nothing at all for the last 5 years under the particular peculiar cliff vesting system.

I briefly experimented seeing a psychiatrist locally to help me deal with the stress and another online that set me up trying CBT exercises (cognitive brain therapy) for anxiety/insomnia through the computer on some weird program (I figured if anything could help try it!). I felt willing to try anything and it was free through my benefits why not? Honestly none of it really seemed to help much other than to stoke a doctor's ego about making future "ambitious plans for me what an adventure" .. finally he had a "cool healthy patient to talk to", nice sure... at least it made my Mom feel better. The root problem was too obvious. I really just wanted a break. I soon requested and got a full refund for the extra program option.

Finally I moved onto Ambien prescription sleeping pills after learning many of the nurses around me on this shift for any extended periods of time had eventually turned to this or a couple other prescription medications to survive. The physicians I worked with gladly obliged to write me as many sleeping pill scripts as I could possibly want while vocally stating disdain & some sympathy for the particular routine. I'd stubbornly and cautiously avoided sleeping medications up to this point for 8 years of other various night shifts. It gave me a couple more hours of sleep a night on average to hang on a little bit more, but I felt unsettled taking pills even only for work nights (one of the most common side effects is short term memory loss- particularly unsettling, although several nurses had confided this was the only way they had survived when they had to which had finally convinced me).

No one was happy. I did my research and talked with retired nurses that had done the shift for years or had moved on to different departments. They reported feeling miserable the whole time. This also eased the guilt of thinking it was just me, but made it even more clear I needed to find a change. Interestingly among a rather conservative group of many older nurses the most repeated word used to describe their first thought upon waking up at 2 or 2:30 AM every morning for work was the F-word. Yikes, I got to get out of this! The tumultuous times at the hospital with the nurses forming a union vs the CEO firing many employees and then soon getting fired herself for her particularly ruthless conduct methods made it clear if I needed any other indication to look around.

A 'humorous' cartoon that ran in the local newspaper at the time: 

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Like to work here? What's exactly going on hmm?

I started applying to other nursing jobs in the area and considering travel nursing jobs if I had to which led me to applying at Mammoth Hospital. I even briefly considered the numbers on selling my truck and living without for a few months if I had to on the extra money.

A few months later I finally got a call from Mammoth Hospital. I'd never worked in a surgery department before, but they were interested in talking to me and all the positions in that area were day shifts..... Okay well let's talk!

Unfortunately they only had per-diem fill in positions available, but we could do this as a trial period and if I was a good fit they promised a full time job by summer. I took the position which was stressful in a new way, but this time I had some hope. I applied all extra money directly to my bills.

I did thankfully receive an offer for a supervisor position at my existing employer during this time that would be day time hours, if I hadn't started the new job I probably would have taken it just for some change (it certainly paid much more than I make now), but it also seemed to be the only job no one wanted with open positions for over a year & nearly always almost exclusively staffed by temporary travel nurses. While a $100K job is pretty rare in Bishop (or in nursing in general), a job that no one I'd been in contact with liked or lasted in didn't seem like a very long-term solution and the new job was already one of the better working environments I'd worked in.

I counted out my debt payments and Ambien - exactly how many possible work nights I'd be willing to do before quitting. I put in the longest time off request I could to at least rest somehow in the meanwhile. A couple more months? I had a plan finally. I told my family and friends - July at the latest, even if I didn't get a full time job, I would be clear or could afford to work as a part time nurse a handful of days a month and local mountain guide through the summer to get by.

I did eventually get the job. It was bittersweet leaving my coworkers after five and a half years (the longest I've been anywhere), but I feel like a person again. It's almost unreal. I don't have migraine headaches constantly. I haven't touched the ambien prescription since I left. I drink one or 2 cups of coffee in a day, or none, unlike the 5+ cups I've watched myself & many other nurses down like freshmen at a red cup party at times to survive. When I quit at NIH I was the longest standing RN in any department remaining on the 3 AM shift continuously (without at least extended absence or time swaps). In a way, perhaps I was the last man standing for a period in time in decades of ingrained culture of "this is just the way it is guys", (Good news!! This particular shift has recently finally officially gone away for good just this last week after a couple decades stay too long in my opinion. If I influenced this decision at all even slightly to the administration I'm very glad for fortunate nurses in the future).

I've spent the last 3 months relaxing and having fun trying to be normal. I'm sleeping normally through the night again. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I actually enjoy my job. While the interactions and interventions were often meaningful, it was impossible to enjoy work while feeling so miserable and surrounded by oft-miserable coworkers.  I could never feel settled. I've been on some version of continuous night shifts without option opening from November 2007 up till 3 months ago at my 3rd nursing job. I wouldn't do it again if I knew it would be like this. I never wanted to fast forward time so much. If I didn't have the starting financial obligation I would have likely quit years ago under the stress.

I wrote this note last February when I felt particularly hopeless, but I felt too embarrassed and guilty to share :

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You will not work night time shifts forever.. you will not always work 50 or 60 hour weeks. You will clear your debts owed. You will sleep normal again one day. This is the sucky part of the story. You'll find a new opportunity or walk away. You've been through lots, you've learned discipline, & can do anything for 21 weeks to personal freedom.

Here's some particularly poignant writings on Adrenal Fatigue :

"Once your body can’t keep up with your stress levels, you start to burn out. Your brain is signaling that there is a stress, but your adrenals can’t produce the required amount of cortisol to keep you going, and you start to crash. Now you’re in adrenal burnout and experiencing low cortisol. Your resources to fight the stressor have been depleted.
The simple act of falling asleep actually involves the interaction of multiple neurotransmitters and hormones. In adrenal fatigue, cortisol levels are markedly disturbed, which causes fluctuations in the release of both adrenaline and melatonin; poor sleep is the end result. Melatonin is a hormone released by the pineal gland in the brain, and it's numerous effects include taking us into a state of deep sleep. Its release is inhibited by cortisol and by light. As a result, the flicker of a laptop screen before bed or raised cortisol levels in the evening reduces the release of melatonin. This pattern is often seen in stage two of adrenal fatigue, the resistance phase, where the release of cortisol remains excessively high to cope with perceived demands. Sleep is not good at this stage.

The 'crash' arrives, along with the all-encompassing fatigue, when cortisol levels drop. This marks stage three of adrenal fatigue, the exhaustion phase. Unfortunately, sleep gets no better; cortisol levels cannot maintain blood glucose effectively between meals or during the night, ensuing the release of adrenaline as compensation. While this reaction maintains life and avoids a hypoglycaemic coma, it also activates the sympathetic nervous system, the branch of the nervous system that makes us alert, anxious and wired. Waking at regular times during the night is a reliable sign of compensatory adrenaline spikes. Using herbs such as valerian root in stages of adrenal exhaustion can actually cause unexpected and paradoxical reactions; when the body has registered a definite requirement for adrenaline release, suppressing it with otherwise-gentle herbs like valerian can cause a counter-response and an even larger adrenaline release (this can also occur when the neural conditions are disturbed, although this is beyond the scope of this article). In any case, it is key to remember that the adrenaline is there for a reason – to compensate for a lack of cortisol.

If you continue down this path, chugging caffeine to keep yourself going, skimping on sleep to get your work done, or skipping meals to prevent gaining even more weight, you’re headed for serious burnout. The kind you can no longer ignore. At this point, your adrenals, thyroid and hormones are imbalanced, and even though your doctor may look at you, perplexed, because your blood work came back ok, you know there’s something wrong because you’re not feeling right, you’ve gained weight, maybe have anxiety, and your hormones have gone haywire."

Maybe I really was a walking "adrenaline junky" of sorts after all?

I found my out. What is well rested again? I cleared all my debts and hit my goal. I pushed too far, learned some hard lessons, made big changes, and walked away from a tough crazy sport in my prime when it probably wasn't really appropriate any further at the time. I got a new job. The final payments cleared this week! I've spent the last few days re-evaluating my financial status.

In other words, longer story short, I can also say one of more satisfying possible existing phrases I know how to say-

Got the girl, got the job, got the car!

What's up next now?? ;)

I got an idea or two still.. I might go back to school eventually (this time without debt!). Really, I've been resting.

I paid off $60,000 in personal debts in 2 years.

Thanks for reading

-Ryan

P.S. Thanks most to Paul Rasmussen and Jerhet Ask for being there particularly the last couple years when I've felt down and out at times. Jerhet has been my best friend and always at the most important times always there- even far away. I'm also indebted to Paul forever for everything. I have really lived & loved the little climber house known as the Zoo for better or worse.

Thank You!

Also everyone else who has stuck up and supported me on the way that didn't have to!

P.P.S. How'd I ever get to here exactly anyhow?

I went to the same school as my parents after growing up attending church schools as a Seventh Day Adventist. It was what we did.

I graduated school at age 21 with $81,667 total in loans and personal debts accrued during private christian education as a nurse. I'd spent a year in business school prior to switching to nursing (partially scared of paying off all those school debts with a business degree! Nurse, doctor, teacher, and pastor are traditionally the most common accepted career choices in the SDA upbringing. Accounting was also really exceedingly boring!). I almost exclusively paid for my education with loans and also room and board expenses while living on campus as part of the religious culture. It seemed the normal thing at the time and why not all my friends are going? 

This was somewhat worsened by deferring payments for a year and planned graduated repayment plans. I'd also made some bad decisions particularly- actually buying a car on a credit card during college and using it again to pay the differences in exam fees & moving expenses. I sure want to go back and tell myself different sometimes.

A decade later this is all equivalent to half the average medical school education debt in today's 2016 ($170K) or paying triple my after tax starting salary if I had lived at home for 3 years (I thought about this briefly but had a particular horrible interviewing experience at the Placerville hospital). I'm not so sure I'd ever go to private school again knowing this. Those experiences I don't regret, but the aftermath would be a pretty big stretch to call worth it. I certainly wouldn't go through it again the same knowing now. I had no idea as an 18 year old. It's crazy it's all getting even more expensive.

I'd eventually take on an additional of $24,000 in auto and medical debts bringing me up to $105,665 grand total yuck. Then I've tacked on bicycle racing ambitions most recently and been fortunate to explore some extreme sports dreams on the way.. It feels like all I've known is debts though. It took me 8.5 years to pay back averaging $10,000 a year paid in payments before finally getting serious about it the last 2 years. I don't want to know how much interest I paid. Although most were low interest loans, since I had so many I had to take additional private loans at higher rates at up to 5-10%. Some were fortunately re-consolidated later, but I focused payment on the highest interest first otherwise most recently. I honestly took action way too late. Looking at how many years it would take at age 21 to pay back (times hardcore paying) my initial reaction was denial and followed up secondly by how stressful my first year of nursing was by just survival. I avoided working till age 23 chasing my first passions- extreme skiing and my dream job at the time in Yosemite on the Search & Rescue team. Denial is still definitely not the answer.

I'm a bit proud now to actually have more retirement accounts than anything else after having over a dozen loan accounts and credit card accounts combined at one point.

I wanted most to live in a mountain town while I paid it all back applying first in a dozen various mountain states, verses looking for higher pay- though I refused lower paying options like the South East and Utah. It's been a long haul, but I've made it. I had no idea I'd be on various night shifts for such a long time or that it would be so competitive/difficult to switch in my department, though not actually particularly uncommon. Recent coworkers & friends at nearby hospitals report some 5 year wait lists in the ICU for day shift positions. Honestly nursing is such a tough job (particularly ICU is one of em too- the shelf life of many ICU nurses is 5 years), it seems like a bit cruel joke. One of my friends is a great nurse as any I've seen, but after finishing her 4th year of night shifts she confided to me this year she wants to quit nursing now ONLY because the night shifts are killing her and she doesn't see an out or that moving will help anytime soon ahead. I can empathize greatly. It's a disheartening reality for many. I bet many others just want a break for a while like me, but then starting all over again?

I also insisted on putting away a minimum 10% into retirement accounts along the way from the beginning even though I was under initial debt including even this past year. I'm somehow now worth a net worth of $99K on paper mostly in 401k or equivalent retirement accounts and assets - maybe someday (more than my original loans now ironically, but nothing I will see or touch before 65 so maybe I'm not always totally terrible with it all).

My bank account says I now only have $183 to my name. I made it to my 1 year goal with 9 days to spare to pay off the last of my debt this month. I'm excited to finally just move on from the guilty feelings, stress, and growing up.

The biggest secret was relentless immediate almost zealous consistency - on paydays I'd already made an extra online payment out by lunchtime. Yes, the secret is perhaps again obsession tendencies surprise surprise... Also not buying much anything extra, cutting $ to any of my extra hobbies, no significant vacation or long distance travels (it was seemingly difficult to use much time if wanted under recent circumstance), & also temporarily taking a second job during transition. Really, all kind of boring stuff, but true. I also learned to eat simple things like oatmeal, beans & rice, + PB & J, fruit, etc more often... minimal eating out/coffee shop (sometimes I'd go out socially "for drinks" and intentionally leave the wallet and only drink water or only pay with spare pocket change in coins). Really keep it simple- it feels much more doable when you see an end and can really focus on a goal. It took a wake up call for me to see this and a good friend insisting & believing at the right time -he also kept me accountable (Jerhet). That's amazingly powerful stuff here at the end.

Also, never forget this guy. Thanks again to Paul! Always! I know I'm fortunate here. I can't ever really repay living simply at the Zoo the last few years - a both trying & priceless community at times. We are perhaps all kind of weird in our own ways, but we've also belonged here too as a funky tribal family of sorts. It's become my new Yosemite again in a way after giving it up years ago much sooner than I'd wanted to and now also a place of growing up. My heart has been here and you have been my family & home over these years. I'll miss it greatly always when looking back some and moving onward this year. It's been quite a memorable time and tenure. Thank you sincerely Paul.

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~ If thy faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.     -Proverbs 24: 10