On Saturday, July 5, 2025, France’s François d’Haene set an enormous new males’s supported quickest identified time (FKT) on Colorado’s Nolan’s 14 route. His time of 35 hours, 33 minutes, and 41 seconds beats the earlier FKT set by David Hedges in 2023 of 39 hours, 6 minutes, and 40 seconds by round 3.5 hours and breaks the 36-hour barrier on the revered line.
The Nolan’s 14 route, conceived and first tried in 1998, connects 14 of the 14,000-foot (4,200-meter) peaks in Colorado’s Sawatch Vary over the course of about 95 miles (153 kilometers), relying on the chosen, partially off-trail route. It has about 45,000 toes (13,700 meters) of climbing, with a median elevation of about 12,000 toes (3,600 meters). D’Haene traversed the route south to north, beginning on the Clean’s Cabin Trailhead at 7 a.m. on Friday, July 4, and ending on the Fish Hatchery Trailhead outdoors of Leadville at about 6:30 p.m. the subsequent day.
François D’Haene on his technique to setting a males’s supported Nolan’s 14 quickest identified time in July 2025. Picture: Simon Dugué
A lot to the chagrin of Nolan’s 14 followers who wished to obsessively comply with his progress, D’Haene selected to journey with out public stay monitoring however had pacers and a full help crew assembly him at numerous factors alongside the route for resupply. Though D’Haene introduced his intention of finishing the route on Instagram final month, posted a number of movies on his YouTube channel, and revealed a number of his coaching on the route on his Strava account, as soon as his workforce introduced his begin through social media on Friday morning, followers needed to wait till after he completed for particulars.
D’Haene isn’t any stranger to 100-mile efforts within the mountains with large elevation achieve. He received the Laborious rock 100 in 2021 with a brand new course document and adopted that effort up with a win at Utmbahis fourth win on the occasion. The next yr, in 2022, he positioned second at Hardrock behind Kilian Jornet. In 2017, D’Haene set a brand new supported FKT on the 211-mile (340 kilometers) John Muir Path within the Sierra Nevada mountains of California with a time of two days, 19 hours, and 26 minutes.
François D’Haene and his crew on the Clean’s Cabin Trailhead, earlier than beginning his quickest identified time try on the Nolan’s 14 route. Picture: Simon Dugué
The day after he completed, together with his restoration simply beginning, he quipped humorously, “There have been scree slopes ‘completely’ organized (or not), forests of well-aligned fir bushes (or nearly), and rivers to leap (or cross as much as your thighs). We invent the path step-by-step, following the contours of the land, shortness of breath, and route selections, day and night time! That’s Nolan’s 14.”
D’Haene additionally defined how he realized in regards to the Nolan’s line, “A few years in the past, I heard about it from (earlier document holders) Anna Frost, Iker professionand others. I went there final yr and practiced some on the route. This yr, I got here again and practiced on all of the route. I really like races however I additionally love FKTs, and for me Nolan’s was an incredible place for an FKT.”
D’Haene stated they encountered a little bit of difficult climate, describing, “The climate on Friday began loopy, we have been slightly nervous with the forecast. We had small thunderstorms and even slightly snow. Then after that it was okay. However in the course of the night time, it was chilly.”
D’Haene additionally touched on the challenges of being on the route for such a protracted time frame, “The summits of Columbia and Harvard are very technical, and we took them within the night time. It will have possibly been higher to do them within the day, however, effectively. Then, when dawn got here on the second day, there have been simply three summits left, (La Plata Peak, Mount Elbert, and Mount Huge,) however they’re all very large and took all of the day to complete.”
“I’m so glad, however, wow, it was loopy!” have been D’Haene’s closing ideas.
François D’Haene’s Nolan’s 14 FKT Particulars and Splits
iRunFar is ready to share some approximate splits on D’Haene’s effort, through his non-public stay tracker, to assist quantify his effort. He’s additionally now revealed a full GPX file on his Strava account.
After departing the Clean’s Cabin Trailhead at 7 a.m. on Friday, July 4, his splits present that it didn’t take lengthy for D’Haene to start out opening up a niche on the earlier FKT. On the prime of Mount Shavano, the primary peak within the collection, about 4 miles and 90 minutes in, he was already 10 minutes forward of Hedges’ time. By the point D’Haene reached the Avalanche Trailhead between Mount Princeton and Mount Yale, the fourth and fifth peaks within the line and round 31 miles (50 kilometers), he was 9 hours in and about 50 minutes up on the FKT splits. By late within the night Friday, as D’Haene reached the highest of Mount Columbia, peak six of the route, D’Haene had constructed a greater than 3.5-hour buffer on document tempo.
François D’Haene and a pacer climb Mount Yale on the Nolan’s 14 line. Picture: Simon Dugué
At dawn on Saturday morning, the second day, with 11 peaks accomplished, D’Haene descended off of Huron Peak and reached the mining ghost city of Winfield round 6:30 a.m. with slightly below 24 hours on the clock, about three hours quicker than Hedges’ FKT break up. Whereas he had given up slightly time on the splits within the night time, he was nonetheless clearly shifting effectively.
François D’Haene and a pacer descend Mount Huron on the second morning of his Nolan’s 14 FKT try. Picture: Simon Dugué
With three mountains left, La Plata Peak, Colorado’s excessive level, Mount Elbert, and Mount Huge, D’Haene by no means faltered, persevering with to keep up after which enhance that roughly three-hour hole on Hedges’ FKT splits. D’Haene reached the Mount Elbert summit at about 1:20 p.m., with 30 hours and 20 minutes on the clock, as in comparison with Hedges’ roughly 33:30 elapsed. And he tagged the ultimate summit at about 33:45 elapsed, as in comparison with Hedges’ roughly 37:20, earlier than arriving to the end level on the Fish Hatchery Trailhead in 35:33:41.
François D’Haene relaxes with a beer after efficiently setting the lads’s supported Nolan’s 14 quickest identified time in July 2025. Picture: Simon Dugué
François D’Haene’s Nolan’s 14 FKT Approximate Splits
- Mount Shavano – 1:30 (hours:minutes elapsed)
- Tabeguache Peak – 2:00
- Mount Antero – 3:45
- Mount Princeton – 6:55
- Avalanche Trailhead – 9:00
- Mount Yale – 11:10
- Mount Columbia – 13:50
- Mount Harvard – 15:25
- Mount Oxford – 17:45
- Mount Belford – 18:15
- Missouri Mountain – 19:25
- Huron Peak – 22:00
- Winfield ghost city – 23:30
- Pay Peak – 25:40
- Mount Elbert – 30:20
- Mount Huge – 33:45
- Fish Hatchery Trailhead – 35:33:41
François D’Haene descends by way of the alpine throughout his Nolan’s 14 FKT try. Picture: Simon Dugué
