Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 10:29:26 -0600
To: ultra@LISTSERV.DARTMOUTH.EDU
From: "Blake P. Wood" bwood@lanl.gov
Subject: Re: Any word on Nolan's 14?
"Robert Youngren"
At least two of us, and I assume Fred's okay too.
Very briefly: we only had three runners start: Gordon
Hardman, Fred Vance, and myself. We all went over Shavano
and Tabeguache together, then Fred dropped back. We all
progressed much slower than any of us had anticipated,
and unfortunately two aid stations in row (the backcountry
ones) had pulled out before we arrived, following the
schedule that had been set up earlier. Lightning chased
Gordon and I off Princeton's summit. It rained off and on
the first day and night, and drizzled almost continuously
the second day, with the summits socked in with clouds.
This left the lichen covered rocks very slippery, and every
descent and traverse across a boulder field became an
excrutiatingly slow hands-and-feet rock-to-rock crawl.
It took Gordon and I 33:30 to get to the top of Harvard
(the seventh summit). Huddled on top of Harvard in a
snowstorm, out of food (due to the missing aid stations),
faced with an estimated 20 hours before the next food/aid
(at Winfield, four summits later), Gordon's usual mild
pulmonary edema kicking in, no communication, and our
second night out starting before our next summit, Gordon
and I realized we'd used up our safety margin, and decided
to call it quits. Ironically, after we had made
this decision the weather cleared, but I think we did the
right thing anyway. We hiked out at Pine Creek in
the dark and tried to hitchhike back up to Winfield, since
Gordon had busted the antenna off his radio in a fall.
Our attempts to fashion an antenna out of his headlamp
battery cable on Harvard's summit were unsuccessful. For
some reason, no one would stop in the dark to pick two
scruffy guys dressed in tights (Gordon) and a clown suit
(me in my homemade windpants-of-many-colors). Jim Nolan
drove by us muttering "kayaker scum", but luckily recognized
my clown suit and came back to give us a ride to Winfield.
Gordon and I assumed that Fred must have dropped out by
now, but discovered that he was still in the run, about
8 hours behind us on Columbia's summit (#6) and accompanied
by Jon MacManus for safety (given the weather conditions,
I think it would have been suicide to travel alone - every
descent was one slippery misstep from a leg-breaking fall).
He was planning to continue through the second night. I
don't know how far he got, as there was no word yet from him
(via radio) at Winfield the next morning when I left for home.
I assume he got farther than Gordon and I, but probably not
farther than Winfield in 60 hours. Winfield would have been
eleven summits. I'm sure Fred will let us know via email as
soon as he gets access.
To sum it up: It was an exciting, breathtakingly beautiful
adventure, but much slower than we had expected, in part due
to the poor weather. In better weather, and with some
logistical glitches fixed, I think it is feasible to do all
14 summits in 60 hours. I hope we'll get the chance to try
again. Fred put an incredible amount of work into this run,
arranging a pre-run dinner, renting a cabin, enlisting lots
of volunteers, and supplying beautiful "Nolans 14" shirts - all
without charging any sort of entry fee. He deserves a loud
and long round of applause, both for this and for apparently
"winning" this run.
Fred, Gordon, and I shot several dozen pictures during the
run. Mine are being developed now, and I hope to post some
of them in a couple weeks. I'll let you know when they're up.
- Blake
Note: I later learned that Fred made it to the top of Harvard
about 12 hours after Gordon and I, and called it quits.
>Just wondering if there were any Nolan's 14 survivors?
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