Hal Koerner on the John Muir Trail FKT with Mike Wolfe

In August 2013 Hal Koerner and Mike Wolfe ran the John Muir Trail — roughly 220 miles from Yosemite Valley to the summit of Mount Whitney, over a string of high Sierra passes — and set a supported fastest known time on it. This episode was recorded shortly after they finished.

What it actually involves

FKT attempts on the JMT are not races. They are logistics problems with running attached. The trail spends most of its length above 8,000 feet, crosses a series of passes over 11,000, and is a long way from anywhere a crew can drive to. Resupply happens at a handful of points, most of them requiring somebody to hike in.

The crew on this attempt was, by Koerner’s own description, improvised. The episode is at its best on the failure modes: the missed connection — a boat crossing that was supposed to save them time and instead cost it — the food that arrived in the wrong place, the pack animals belonging to somebody with a very different schedule, and the many hundreds of backpackers on the trail in August, all of whom were curious about what two obviously suffering men were doing moving that fast with that little kit.

Two ultrarunners, one trail

Koerner had two Western States wins and a Hardrock title by this point; Wolfe was one of the strongest mountain runners in the country. Both were used to racing, which is a different skill from covering ground continuously for days with somebody else’s pacing to accommodate. The interview covers how they handled the low patches, which arrived at different times for each of them, as they always do.

Fatherhood

Koerner mentions, almost in passing, that he was about a month away from becoming a father. It gives the episode an unexpected shape — a very long, very hard effort undertaken right at the boundary of a life change.

Why it matters

Until now the John Muir Trail has been something a small number of people had done quietly, with times that circulated by word of mouth. Two runners of this profile going at it seriously, and talking about it afterwards, turns it into a recognised objective — which means somebody will be back for it.