Type 4 Fun!

The Pemi Loop is a classic endeavor in the White Mountains. Traditionally, it begins at the Lincoln Woods trail head and travels about 30 miles and traverses 9,500 feet.

The current FKT belongs to Jordan Fields which he accomplished 5 years ago in under 5 and half hours. A few have come close since then, including holder of some serious FKTs including the legendary Bob Graham Round, the White Mountains 100, and the White Mountains Hut to Hut Traverse, Jack Kuenzle, who was about 10 minutes shy just a couple of months later.

I decided to attempt the loop on August 2nd. This was a concession plan. Late last year I got the idea of completing the Hut to Hut Traverse and set about planning to complete it within a 24 hour period sometime this year. You can read about some of those preliminary details here.

I was pretty stoked about the idea. However, a rough end to last year and a rough start this year lead to a disheartening string of poor performances. I began to question whether or not I could accomplish this traverse in the same year that I intend to complete the Salomon Ultra Pirineu 100k – another profoundly ambitious adventure for me.

Cut to, having a campsite reserved for the weekend and no more actual plan to use it. Then it hit me, this was an opportunity to check off a different bucket list item and provide some much needed training ahead of Spain. With about a week of planning, I put together a route, gathered the nutrition and gear I would need, and decided to go for the Pemi Loop.

I’m glad I did it, but I am more glad that it’s over.

My intent was to complete it in daylight. I would start early in the morning, but not too early, and I would finish by sundown. I brought a headlamp and spare battery just in case, but I felt confident I wouldn’t need either. Afterall, I had raced around the Swiss Alps in a little over 12 hours, certainly I could cover a similar distance and vertical gain with less urgency in 13 to 14 hours!

My first mistake was starting from camp. Choosing that start and finish location meant climbing up the Old Bridle Path to Little Haystack.

In inauspicious start to be sure! But surely, once to Little Haystack I would head counter clockwise towards the river. I arrived at the top and consumed my first UCAN Edge gel (19g carbs). My first nutrition since breakfast, as planned – a packet of Kodiak Cakes Peak Oatmeal (40g carbs – 6g fiber, 9g sugar).

This route would eventually give me some runnable downhill sections where I would presumably make up some time lost by this initial climb.

Unfortunately, the descent off of Flume was not as expeditious as I would have liked. On the way down, I drank 500ml of my thus far preferred carbohydrate beverage Heed 2.0 (29g of carb – 2g sugar) and a GU Roctane gel (21g carbs, 6g sugar). I started doing the math and realized I had taken nearly 5 hours to go a third of the way. I had to throw away any thought of completing this traverse by sundown, definitely bringing the mood down as well. Trying to run would only increase the chances of injury and recovery time so I hiked and ate lunch during the rest of the only flat section of the traverse (typically, where people start the Pemi Loop).

Lunch consisted of an Epic Chicken and Sriracha sausage (3g carbs) and a date bar that I can’t remember the name of… oops. I also used this time to refill my 500ml bottle with a another serving of Heed 2.0.

Once the climbing started again, it became abundantly clear that this was a stupid idea and was going to deviate so far from the plan. My next planned stop was the Galehead Hut which would put me at around 23 miles. With considerable despair, it took nearly 7 more hours and one more GU Roctane plus a Muir Energy gel (12g carbs – 7g sugar, 3g fiber) to get there. The descent from South Twin being arguably the hardest part – which did not bode well for the rest of the traverse.

My knees, typically somewhat robust, absolutely hated every second of this of descent as indicated by the abysmally slow pace seen above. This wasn’t the lowest moment, but I really struggled with anger and frustration here. Frustration directed at myself, and anger directed at the trail. The sign at the top of South Twin points to the Galehead hut as being 0.3 miles away, upon reading I rejoiced. After about half mile, there was another sign saying the Galehead Hut was about .25 miles away.

Frankly, I was pretty livid. On the way I finished the bottle of Heed 2.0 so that I could refill the bottle with a 3rd serving.

I took a long rest at the hut, refilled both my water bottle and my bladder, ate the last of my solid food (another Epic bar and date bar similar to lunch) and considered how to proceed. The plan had been to close the loop and head down Old Bridle the same way I came up. However, I knew there was another way down that seemed to be maybe shorter and marginally less steep. Critically though, it meant another chance to rest at the Greenleaf Hut. While only being about 3 miles from camp, it was 3 miles that could end up taking about 3 hours based on how things have been working out so far.

It was time for the headlamp as I approached Mt. Garfield. A pretty tough and scrambly ascent that after approximately 26 miles and 14 hours had sapped just about all the energy I had. As I was descending, I kept having the following thought;

“How many times have I heard about ill-prepared hikers needing to be escorted off the mountain because they were freezing or hungry, or injured? What do I do if I can’t make it to Greenleaf?”

Closing in on the Lafayette approach, I made a decision to rest have another Muir Energy gel and try to get some sleep. I busted out my rain jacket and my emergency mylar blanket, found some mossy earth to lay down on and closed my eyes. I think I dozed off a couple of times briefly, but I started to get cold lying still. The mylar was great at trapping in heat, but that means it’s also great as trapping in condensation. Every small gust of wind was telling me how wet I was getting so it became clear the way to stay warm was to keep moving as much as I didn’t really want to.

Ascending Mt. Lafayette in the middle of the night is an absolutely trip. The exposure subjects you not only to the wind but to a gorgeous night sky with very little light pollution (though you can see the lights of the nearby towns). It was a clear night with a yellowish crescent moon. There was an absurdity to the situation that gave me a bit of a push to keep going. While still very slow, I made it up Lafayette without much trouble. It was the descent to Greenleaf that proved the greater challenge, as has been the theme thus far.

I stopped at the hut for a long while. Even laying down on a bench to catch a few more Zzz. While there I finished the last of my Heed 2.0, had a Noka smoothie pouch (21g carbs – 5g fiber, 12g sugar) and refilled my bladder once more.

It was now 5 am, nearly 24 hours after I had started this journey and with only about 3 downhill miles to go.

In the end, the journey took exactly twice as long as planned, including about 6 hours more moving time than planned. Pretty much the only thing that went right was the weather and my nutrition.

Throughout the entire journey, I never ran out of water and I still had gels unconsumed when I got to camp.

All in all I drank around 6 liters of plain water, and 1.5 liters of Heed 2.0.

Including breakfast, I ate around 330 grams of total carbs (includes the Heed 2.0), around 15g of which was fiber and approximately a third of the total being sugar (added or not) :

1 packet of Kodiak Cakes Peak oatmeal

4 UCAN Edge gels

2 GU Roctane gels

2 Muir Energy Gels

1 Noka smoothie pouch

2 Epic bars

2 date bars – I can’t recall the brand

And to my pleasant surprise, my body handled it all pretty well. I did not experience any gastrointestinal issues and my blood sugar remained largely stable and without any excursions out of range (with the exception of breakfast which caused a large excursion)

The next day was a bit more chaotic as I focused on recovery including sandwiches and protein smoothies, and snacks throughout the day and then later started to have some beers.

At the end of the day, it was not a disaster. I completed the loop in a manner of speaking, it was not the traditional loop by any sense but I started at Lafayette Place and I finished at Lafayette place. In the end, I traversed a little over 33 miles and over 11,000 ft.

https://www.strava.com/activities/15325917216

https://www.strava.com/activities/15334859348

https://www.strava.com/activities/15334859037

Along the way I encountered several other people on their own epic journey, and everyone I spoke to was awed and encouraging of my own endeavor. I’m very proud of myself for preserving and managing to stay largely positive in the face of a crumbling plan. There were some scary moments for sure but I came out healthy and strong and ready for the next adventure.

This year that means tackling the 100k at Ultra Pirineu in Baga, Spain on October 4th! Training has been really iffy, but hopefully this effort will help me get the most out of the next couple of months.