Thursday, January 20, 2011

Green Mountain Ascents Fastest Known Times

I enjoy seeing how fast I can run up Green Mountain and furthermore, seeing progress on getting faster and stronger.

George Zack has just recently compiled some Fastest Known Times, FKTs, for ascending Green Mountain.
The two popular routes to ascend both routes begin at the Gregory Canyon Parking lot at the "post" for the trail heads going up to Green. The two popular routes are:

-"The Backside" Starting at the Gregory Canyon Trail up to Green Mountain Lodge where you take Greenman Trail, take a right at Ranger Trail to the four way intersection continuing .2 miles to the summit
George Zack's link for FKTs on this route


-"The Frontside" Starting at the trail that crosses a small wooden bridge you head up Amphitheater (Amphi) trail, take Saddle Rock Trail then Greenman Trail to the summit
George Zack's link for FKTs on this route

I personally enjoy taking Gregory Canyon to Greenman Trail all the way up and will post my best time for this route as well.  Many of the Green Veterans find taking Gregory to Greenman trail not worth timing since it is a bit longer and not as steep... Guess I'm still a bit of a "roadie" and enjoy the occasional flat"ER" sections of this route!  I also like being able to push hard up a number of routes to keep things exciting.

I'll post George's links for FKTs on the side column of my page for reference in the future.

Thanks George for listing this information.  I think FKTs can be a fun tool to motivate the hill climber that extra bit to go faster when they would rather slow down.

14 comments:

  1. I am game for posting any of the routes actually ... I expect to add lists for the following:

    Bear via Fern.
    South Boulder via Shadow
    Flagstaff (road)

    I also like the longer Long Canyon route that truly ends up coming around the backside.

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  2. Middle route link. http://georgezack.blogspot.com/2007/01/fkts-green-mountain-boulder-gregory_20.html

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  3. Awesome George!

    I look forward to timing Middle Route, SoBo (I've never run it!) and Long Canyon (fun smooth one!), but I'm really itching to break 32 on the popular front side.

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  4. I also prefer the backside route. Just enjoy the steady, runnable grind more than the constant step ups.

    Don't forget Sanitas!

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  5. Jim,

    Sanitas is right in my back yard (I live in between 6th and 9th on North St). I am really impressed by the 12hr, 24hr and 100M Sanitas warriors... that is pretty crazy, but awesome.

    I'm going to go enjoy a nice sunny, snowy, gradual "middle route" up Green via Panorama-Flag right now!

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  6. Thanks for posting the FKT links. How about one for Green via Bear Canyon if such exists? This seems to be primarily a descent route rather than ascent, but since I live in S. Boulder, it is my most direct way up, so the one I run the most.

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  7. And huge congrats on the birth of your baby boy.

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  8. Jay,

    Thanks for the congrats, it has been an awesome week getting to know Felix!

    Yes, a FKT list up Bear is needed indeed. George Zack http://georgezack.blogspot.com/ has Bear listed as "coming soon" and I'll post it on my site as soon as he gets that going. George has been in the boulder area running for quite some time and is very well networked amongst the boulder crew, so he is the man for getting these FKTs going. I am very new to the community, so I just tell him my times and depend on him to work the lists!

    See you on the trails

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  9. Hey Jason,

    Yeah Bear FKTs would be great, but I actually meant FKTs for Green Mountain, but running up Bear Canyon to Green/Bear to the 4 way junction. Anyway, sounds like that's better directed to GZ.

    Thanks and yeah see you on the trails...as you fly by me. :D

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  10. Hey Jay,

    I have not been clear, sorry. I meant Bear canyon, but yeah, GZs "coming soon" is for Bear Mtn.

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  11. Hey - yeah, I will do a Green via Bear Canyon, although that is not a typical route up as you mention. Drop me a note or a comment on the route (although I guess you start at the trash can at the cottage) and your time and that will get me to create a page for this one.

    That is a good route ... a bit longer, a bit gentler.

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  12. Jason, Gotcha. I see what you meant now. Same page.

    GZ, I don't start from Chautauqua (which I assume is the cottage you mean). I tend to start from NCAR or Bear Canyon Dr. trailhead. But I doubt many others would start there. Given the range of places from which one could start I guess the only consistent place to start the FKT time would be the Mesa/Bear Canyon junction. You could do it via Mesa from Chautauqua. But I never have. If I'm over at Chautauqua, I just do the standard routes.

    So, I'd say the route starts at the sign post at the Bear Canyon/Mesa trail junction, up Bear Canyon to Green/Bear, to the 4 way junction, then summit (touching the big rock? summit marker? don't know what's standard). As for a time, my times have no place on the Interweb. Let's just say "slow" and leave it at that. :) I'm guessing guys like Jason and Tony could do this route well under 30 min. It's .2 miles longer than the "backside" but starts about 450 feet higher.

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  13. How much slower are night ascents on average? Because I just got back from Green/Bear/SoBo at night and green was 45 minutes instead of the usual 41-42. Just curious what some other runners two cents on this were.

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  14. Congratulations to Zack to do that kind of times. It is an inspiration to the pay per head demo commuinty and I hope that he can keep it up.

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