LA Freeway FKT: Anton Krupicka

On August 31st I set a new Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the LA Freeway of 13h20m48s, improving upon Kyle Richardson’s 2018 time of 16h28m53s. The LA Freeway is a 34 mile/18,400’ traverse on the Continental Divide that connects Longs Peak and the Arapahoe Peaks—the highest points in Rocky Mountain National Park and the Indian Peaks Wilderness, respectively—and tops 24 peaks along the way.

It’s a route that presents unique challenges, blurring the lines between ultra running and rock climbing. Between Longs and South Arapaho the route dips below 12,000’ only once, intersects no roads and only crosses two trails. As one might expect of such off-trail travel, the footing is technical almost the entire way—I rolled my ankles three times—with copious amounts of 3rd and 4th Class terrain, and, if you take the most direct lines, up to perhaps two handfuls of 5th Class pitches of serious scrambling.

The Walkmen are probably my favorite band. I’m not too precious about such things. In 2006 they released their third studio album One Hundred Miles Off. OHMO is by no means my favorite album of theirs—indeed, it’s probably something like fourth or fifth on my list—but I find it highly listenable, hardly skipping a track, and it contains some absolute, stone-cold BANGERS. Matt Barrick’s frenetic drums on “Emma, Get Me A Lemon”, Pete Bauer’s brooding organ on “All Hands and the Cook”, Paul Maroon’s buzz-saw guitar on “Lost in Boston”, the general punk mayhem of “Tenley Town”…frontman Hamilton Leithauser will rip your face off with any of these songs if you’re not paying attention.

But then I read a profile of the band once where they were, in my view, almost maliciously harsh in their estimation of the quality of this album. They basically said they thought the album sucked. To be fair, One Hundred Miles Off came on the heels of their canonical and widely beloved sophomore release, Bows + Arrows, so maybe their personal expectations for OHMO were a bit high. Either way, reading that they did not like this album made me feel like a fool, as a devout fan, for enjoying it. It made me feel bad. I was almost a little angry with them for making me feel this way. I kinda wished they’d kept their opinion of it to themselves.

Whenever I am asked questions about gear, I am reminded of the way I felt when I read that The Walkmen don’t like their third album. In general, people seem to really like talking about gear. Everyone always wants to know: what shoes? What pack? Nutrition? Hydration? And I get it, truly—I’ve asked others these exact questions myself—but, I want to shout, the gear is not the point! The lived experience is the point, and the preparation and mindset in the weeks, months and years leading up to completing an objective like the LA Freeway can’t be purchased or marketed.

That may sound disingenuous to some, but I can’t emphasize this enough: the material goods are largely trivial. As humans, I think we (myself included) focus on them because it’s so much  easier to fork over some (albeit, usually hard-earned) money than it is to continually commit to a mindset and lifestyle that serves a particular goal.

Having said all that, I do put plenty of thought into what I use. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, I didn’t like the way I felt when I found out The Walkmen don’t like some of their work that I like, and I don’t want to make others feel that way. It’s not fair and it’s not generous. So here’s what I used to accomplish the FKT on the LA Freeway.

SHOES:
Being the primary contact point between you and the terrain, shoes are the most important choice, especially on complex, off-trail footing. Much like the demands that the LAF places on an individual’s skill set and fitness, the demands it places on footwear are multi-varied. It requires a shoe that is comfortable all day, but that also feels confidence-inspiring and secure on 5th Class alpine granite. You have to be able to run in the shoe, but also have it be effective on miles of scree and talus. It almost goes without saying, sticky rubber is a must. I have friends who have chosen approach shoes for the LAF. This is a great option, especially if you know you’re going to be primarily hiking. I did a lot of running, so an approach shoe was a non-starter for me.

I spent all summer evenly splitting my alpine runs between the Mutant and the Prodigio, getting my feet accustomed to each, and trying to decide which model felt like the most appropriate tool for the job.

For the LAF, I ended up choosing the La Sportiva Prodigio. This relatively newer model has been a revelation of comfort, versatility and performance. Even so, I waffled back and forth between them and my trusty Mutants, actually bringing both models to the trailhead with me on the morning of my attempt. Ultimately, I went with the Prodigio because of the ultra-distance length of the Freeway. The Prodigio outsole is so sticky out of the box that I was comfortable wearing a brand-new pair—zero miles—for LAF and knew they’d be great in terms of comfort and performance.

Alternatively, for me, the Mutant requires a significant break-in period where the lugs wear down a little and the shoe molds to my foot for complete confidence on talus and technical rock. But by the time that wear-in period is complete, the midsole starts feeling a little too thin for such a long outing, in my opinion. For me, Mutants are top of class for, say, a sub-5hr effort with technical footing and scrambling and significant off-trail travel. (Having said that, a buddy of mine has won the Leadville 100—a decidedly un-technical, longer-than-5hr effort—in the Mutants.) 

I knew the LAF was going to take me longer than just a few hours, so I wore the Prodigio. The downside of the Prodigio is that its upper is less robust—softer and lighter—making it not as ideal on scree and snow. The only time I regretted my shoe choice, however, was on the very last downhill, which is steep tundra, and the lower profile lugs of the Prodigio constantly slipped out on the grass. I’ve ripped down that same descent in Mutants, but this minor trade-off was worth it for me. I’d wear the Prodigio again.

I wore a brand-new pair of Prodigio’s for maximum midsole life. I also slipped an extra generic footbed into the shoe. For my foot, this snugs up the fit nicely, reducing volume in the toe-box, which I find helpful for technical scrambling and off-camber footing.

For the same reason, I did not wear socks. Socks make my feet slip around inside a shoe, reducing confidence and agility in my footwork. Conversely, my bare feet inside of my shoes don’t move at all. I went sockless for much of my summer running, so potential hotspots were identified ahead of time, and I preemptively taped these with Leuko Tape. Generic athletic tape is worthless in this regard. It doesn’t stick. Leuko Tape—if applied carefully to freshly clean and dry feet—is like a second skin and will stay on for days. Finally, I wore gaiters. If dirt or small stones get in my shoes while I’m wearing socks, it’s not a big deal. It’s a huge deal if I’m not wearing socks. Gaiters work great. They can be a little warm, but in the alpine that's rarely an issue. If the LAF were a simple trail run with little-to-no off-trail travel, I wouldn’t have worn the gaiters.

NUTRITION & HYDRATION:
I like to keep this as simple as possible. An important point for me in my LAF run was that it be unsupported. With such a remote route, outside support gets very complicated. Having resupplies at the two trail crossings would mean either arduously hiking in caches of food and water in the days leading up to the attempt or asking friends to do so on the day of. Both options are unattractive to me. Going unsupported when possible is the cleanest, simplest option, in my opinion.

But that means there has to be water on the route, and that meant carrying all of my food from the start. Fortunately, after the driest May-July on record, Colorado’s Front Range finally started receiving afternoon monsoonal rains in August. I did a recon run on a portion of the route on my birthday, August 2nd, and gave up on being able to do the LAF this year. The usual springs and pools on the Divide had all dried up. But then, on August 27th—just four days before my attempt—I did another long recon run on the Divide and a couple crucial water resupplies had been replenished by the month’s worth of rains. Hallelujah! I took the next three days easy and went for it.

In general, I hate wearing packs or vests. My go-to method of carrying supplies—phone, gels, water filter, jacket—is in the Raide Research belt. With the length of this route, though, I planned on 5000 cal for, hopefully, 15-16 hours of effort. Likewise, even with the replenished water sources, it’s still long distances between refills, so I carried three 650ml flasks. Add in a headlamp, jacket, and a Garmin InReach and I required a vest.

I used a simple 4L race vest that I’ve had for years. I had my phone, one flask, and as many gels as I could fit in my belt, and I put everything else in the vest. I filled water three times—Ouzel Peak, Mt Toll and Arikaree Peak—and at the first two stops I chugged two flasks of water (1.3L) before filling all three and continuing. At the Mt Toll refill ~9hr in, I also reshuffled all of my food, putting trash in the inaccessible main compartment of the vest and moving all of my remaining food to pockets in the vest and belt that were accessible on the go.

CLOTHING:
This was very simple. I wore a pair of La Sportiva’s Freccia Shorts, carried their lightest weight T-shirt in case my pack chafed (it didn’t and I never put the shirt on), and stowed a prototype ultralight rain shell from La Sportiva. Of course, I was taking some chances by going so light, but I had spent dozens of days in the alpine this summer with this exact system—having weathered many rain and hail storms up high—and had confidence it would be enough.

And that was it. When going so minimally, every material good matters, but none of that stuff will stick with me in the memories I take forward from this effort. Be deliberate with gear, but don’t lose sight of the truly important aspects of your pursuits.