Lone Peak FKT - Sibling rivalry

Andy and I have been competing against each other for as long as I can remember.  Ever since our dad took us into the White Mountains of New Hampshire (1988?) we've been racing each other to the tops of peaks.  He beat me to our first summit, Mt. Lafayette.  I was only 6 at the time but for some reason I still remember the loss. Fast forward to high school and we were able to compete against each other for a couple years on the track.  We both ran the 400m and I got the win in our first race. For me, it was a proud moment. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that throughout the remainder of our high school careers he never let it happen again.  Since then, the competitions have just kept coming. I would like to think that having this little rivalry has made us both try a little harder. 

Recently, in that the same spirt of competition we've been racing to the tops of local peaks.  Since both of our schedules have been busy, many of these competitions have occurred in the time trial format.  A few weeks ago he went 1:51 to the summit of Lone Peak and put out a challenge to go give it a go.    

Summit ridge earlier this year

Saturday, Matt and I carpooled over to the Jacob's Ladder Trailhead, warmed up for a few minutes and headed out.  Route finding over the first few miles is relatively straight forward as all of the multiple trails end up funneling to the main, steep, tree lined trail.  From the top of the steepness, it's less clear.  Cairns are scattered all over.  I think I took a pretty good line until, in my haste, I lost the trail near the east side of the cirque.  Thinking the trail was just over a small series of ledges I started 4th classing it.  This quickly turned into 4th class +, and eventually looked like legit 5th class.  At this point, it seemed smarter to down-climb and find easier ground.  A quick down-climb followed by a little easy 4th class section popped me out right on track.  From there it was a few minutes to the summit ending with a total time of 1:40:50.  Matt also got a little lost but rolled onto the summit shortly after me.

Although I don't think 1:40 will be too hard to beat, I'm happy with the effort.  It certainly counted as one of my "workout" days for the week.  If nothing else, it will make my brother suffer again when he tries to go faster...

Summit time

Matt and I after our TT