San Gorgonia Mountain FKT

The FKT (fastest known time) is a pretty cool concept. Find a mountain, or trail, or route, or whatever and have an ongoing competition to see how fast it can be completed and who can do it. Some popular FKTs might be the Grand Canyon Rim 2 Rim 2 Rim, Zion Traverse, and even the PCT. Locally, we have San Gorgonio Mountain to play on and going car to car in a push is a pretty doable day for most folks. I've lowered my time over the years from the first 13 hour trip down to sub 4 hours.
FKT's are not really a definitive answer to the question they are trying to answer, as not everybody plays the game and therfore somebody could easily have the fastest time without anybody else knowing. The world also has liars, and cheats...
According to local lore, adventure racing and mountain climbing pros Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren had set the fastest time car to car on San G at 3hr and 34min back in the day. They used South Fork trail up to Dry Lake and then climbed the north gully to the summit and then back down the same way. Fast!
After a fun run/hike with my buddy Shane to the top (see previous post) I was feeling good and figured I give the FKT an attempt before winter set in for good.
I got to the trail head just before sunrise and started the climb to the top. I passed a couple guys within the first mile or so and then saw nobody the rest of the day. It was absolutely gorgeous out. Temps were right around freezing and because I left so early I was in the shade all morning. I had a great run to the top and hit the summit right around 2hr 10min. A quick check of the gps and I realized I might be able to do sub 3:30 but I would have to run sub 8 minute miles for the most part on the way down.
I was feeling good and running pretty fast for the first few miles and then my toe caught a rock and I took a nasty tumble to the ground. I was dazed for a minute. Running down a steep mountain at 7 min miles and then suddenly coming to a abrupt halt in a tangled messs on the ground is a bit disoreinting. I assesed myself and realized nothing was to badly hurt except maybe my wrist and that isn't needed for running so I started to hobble and then got back into a full out run. My wrist/thumb hurt but it was movable and I was still moving so all good. I definitely felt the fall and I couldn't tell if I was still holding pace or not as my body started to tighten up. Before too long I was passing the cabin and heading into the last mile and then one wrong step and down I went again. This time I hyper extended my knee. Not good. I just laid in the dirt for a few seconds pondering the idea that my day was done before I just said hell with it and got up and started running. Adrenaline is crazy.
I ran the rest of the way to the car feeling pretty well beat up. Stopped the clock and checked the time. 3hr 27min! It was a pretty good ending to a fun trip up the mountain! Not sure if this is really the FKT or not, but I will put it out there as a challenge. Strava has me at 3:21 but it doesn't include the few minutes I spent on top or the time spent in the dirt after the two falls...

San Gorgonio via Dollar Lake

 At 11,503' San Gorgonio Mountain is the highest mountain in Southern California. It is essentially in the backyard of my home in Big Bear Lake and since I have been in Big Bear I've made it to the top maybe 10 times. This last time was pretty sweet. We hit snow on the way up pretty early on, well below the cabin which is maybe a mile in and from there it was pretty slow going. Lots of fun and a tough day as moving up through the fresh snow was just relentless work. Well worth it for the 30 minutes we spent on top with nobody around. 4 hours to the top and then another 2 or so back to the car for a solid 6 plus hour day.

 

 

I really enjoyed getting up to the top and back in these conditions. It was pretty special. I ran with my buddy Shane who is a 100 mile ultra guy and just coming off a rough go at the Kodiak 100 where he had to drop at mile 83 due to chaffing. Ouch. We put in a few fast miles on the way down and I was loving it. Really made me want to go back and try to run summit to car in as fast a time as I can. Current FKT is 3hr34min, at least to my knowledge, set by Paul Romero and Karen Lundgren utilizing the north gully. I'm thinking sub 3hr30min is definitely doable on the Dollar Lake trail.