In August 2024, I did the "LA Freeway", a 38-mile ridge traverse from Longs Peak in RMNP to the Arapaho Peaks in the Indian Peaks (LA=Longs-Arapaho). Wanting to maximize my chances of success, I chose to bring bivy gear and spend one night out halfway along the traverse. Due to late summer conditions and plan to bivy, I stashed a couple of gallons of water on the route in advance. The entire adventure took me 39 hours and 45 minutes, breaking the previous self-supported female FKT by several hours. Doing something like this solo and executing with success was a special experience.

My sister Jenny is also really into long traverses in the mountains. It must run in our blood. So I sent her my trip report. Then I got a text from Jenny: "Looks amazing! I could fly down in early September and we could do it in a single push, fast and light!!!!!!" My first reaction was like "Do I really want to head back up there? I just got off that LA Freeway without getting killed or caught!" But then I got to thinking about doing it in a single push with a psyched partner who was also my sister who I hadn't seen in a year and setting a new bar for how fast it can be done by a female team, and the idea grew on me. I texted back: "Let's do it!". Our plan became to break 24 hours.

We were also joined by my friend Linn Kelley, who had done the LA Freeway at the same time as I had, but was also interested to go for it again in a single push.

Overall, we had a successful single push LA Freeway, and set the new female (supported) FKT of 29:51, just over 8 hours faster than the previous female supported FKT and about 10 hours faster than my previous self-supported FKT done as a solo overnight. It was also quite fun to be up there with Jenny and Linn. However, despite the overarching positive experience of the adventure, I finished quite unsatisfied with my physical performance and our overall time (directly related to the physical performance). I pinpointed several things that we could have done differently to better our time and increase our enjoyment of the experience. These things are discussed late on this page.

Highlights or otherwise memorable experiences along the way include:

• Getting halfway up the Cables Route (5.4) on Longs Peak only to find the latter half coated in thick ice. While debating the value of our lives vs burning a couple of hours by retreating and going up another route (the NW Couloir (4th) or Keyhole Route (3rd)), we heard a party arriving at the eyebolt at the top of the iced up corner, preparing to rappel. It turned out to be Dom, an Estes Park local guide who I had met once or twice before. Chagrined and feeling like a gumbie in trouble but inspired by the idea of saving either our lives or a couple of hours of time, I asked if it would be okay if we tied into his rope to safely make the exit moves from the ice-encrusted 5.4 crux. He was happy to do so, so the three of us gumbies got safely to the top of the Cables Route and continued on our merry way. Thanks Dom!
• Seeing sunset while on the ascent of Peak 12277. I love seeing sunset from high up in the mountains.
• Taking a 1.5 hour break from 3:30-5am on the ridge between Shoshoni and the Chessmen, encased in a gold foil mylar emergency blanket. I was a bit too cold to ever fall asleep, but Jenny caught a few winks.
• Seeing sunrise on the ascent of Navajo Peak. My body instantly felt rejuvenated and like it was okay to be moving again.
• Switching my cell phone off airplane mode for the first time and getting a text message from my dad (in British Columbia) shortly thereafter: "You're on Deshawa already?!". I guess my phone is set to discoverable and he had just coincidentally checked. From then on he followed our progress by tracking my phone.
• Encountering my friend Will and his friend Anna at the summit of North Arapaho Peak, and mournfully declining his offer of a Snickers bar because I wanted to keep the "supported" nature of our FKT just due to the rope assist on the icy Cables Route; but then there were Will and Anna waiting for us at the Fourth of July trailhead so they could find out our final time and give us the Snickers bar. It was the best Snickers bar I've ever tasted.

The following page gives a trip report for my second time doing the LA Freeway, just three weeks after my first time on it. Thanks Jenny and Linn for always keeping the spirits high and being such fun gals to spend 30 hours with!

Link to first time on the LA Freeway, August 2024. Just three weeks before my second LA Freeway I went solo and did it with a planned bivy. Female self-supported FKT.

The trip report for my first LA Freeway has some additional notes about scoping out the LA Freeway, the crux sections, and more.

The LA Freeway was first done over two days in 2002 by Buzz Burrell. Per the fastestknowntime.com, as of just before Jenny, Linn, and my LA Freeway in September 2024, the current record is a remarkable 13 hours 20 minutes by Anton Krupicka in August 2024 (just a week before our LA Freeway, actually), unsupported. The fastest supported female time is 38 hours 8 minutes set by Hailey Moore and Kate Hale in August 2022; the fastest self-supported female time was my own time of 39 hours and 45 minutes, set on a solo overnight push in August 2024. A complete list of FKT record holders just after we did the LA Freeway in September 2024 is given in the image below.

We wanted to set a new bar for the female FKT. Which we did! Our final time was 29 hours and 51 minutes.

(In case you are wondering what "supported" vs. "self-supported" vs. "unsupported" means, detail can be found here or in the image below. Since Jenny, Linn, and I had no water stashes or external help, our LA Freeway bid was "unsupported". [This changed to "supported" when we got a safety rope assist on the Cables Route on Longs Peak, which was coated with a thick layer of ice.])

Here's what I did differently this time around:

1. This time I had two partners: my sister Jenny and my friend Linn! Jenny is even more seasoned than me at big traverses, and much more dialed into the ultralight style. Linn had done the LA Freeway at the same time as I had a few weeks previous, also with a planned bivy.
2. This time it was a single push, rather than with a planned bivy. Not bivying would reduce the overall time by at least 7.5 hours (the time I spent bivying on my first go), and the lighter pack would reduce the overall time by even more.
3. At the recommendation of my sister, I purchased a Black Diamond Women's Distance 15 running pack, lightweight Black Diamond Distance Carbon Z Trekking Poles, and two 500mL Hydrapak soft flasks. All of us had starting pack weights of 18 lbs (this includes a gallon—or 9 lbs—of water).
4. We started at 8am this time (rather than 2am like my first LA Freeway). Although I would vote for either a midnight(ish) start or 4pm(ish) start to time the darkness for less complicated sections of the route, the fact that we started at 8am ended up being fortunate when we—very much chagrined—took a rope assist on the very iced-up Cables Route.
5. We did not stash water this time. From my previous experience, I was pretty sure we could find water just after Ouzel (about 38% of the way through) and at the tarn just before Arikaree (about 80% of the way through). With our plan of a single push, it did not seem necessary to stash at Buchanan Pass (about 50% of the way through) or Pawnee Pass (about 68% of the way through). Not stashing also meant our FKT would be considered unsupported. (However, we ended up being supported due to our rope assist on the iced-up Cables Route.)
6. Brought all energy bars and chocolate. On my previous LA Freeway, I had eaten all dozen of my Cliff bars on the first day, leaving me with just meat sticks for the second day, when all I wanted was more bars (yep, I am one of those people who actually really likes energy bars). So this time 6000 calories of bars and chocolate. (However, after discussing with Jenny post-LA-Freeway, I think while this fueling system works fine for a 2-day push on the LA Freeway, it is not ideal for a single push. I discuss this elsewhere on this page.
7. Did not bring a rain jacket. Although typically it is just a general good idea to bring rain protection, the forecast was calling for 0% chance all day and night Friday, so it seemed like unnecessary weight. Instead I focused on bringing a breathable layer, a wind layer, and an insulating layer. Indeed, it never rained and not taking the rain jacket was a good weight-saving call.

Here's what I did the same this time around:

1. Wore TX4 Retros. I love these shoes and there's enough scrambling and rough terrain that I wouldn't want a thinner/lighter trail running shoe.
2. Brought my Sony RX100 camera. This is the heavier of my point-and-shoot options, but takes much better photos. And taking photos is one of the joys of a trip like this for me.
3. Used LMNT electrolyte mix in my water. This stuff is great.
4. Brought a phone and external charger. There is a pretty consistent cell signal all along the route. So the phone is nice for safety. I also enjoyed a few hours listening to music.
5. Brought trekking poles. These are great for the initial approach to Longs, the long sections of easier ridge, and the final hike down to the Fourth of July Trailhead.
6. Did the section between Algonquin and Paiute in the dark. This complicated 3rd class cost me about 1.5 hours on my first LA Freeway, mostly because I ended up doing it in the dark. Unfortunately, because of our timing, we ended up doing it in the dark again on my second LA Freeway. Although we did in the end stay on route, we again lost about 1.5 hours. Next time I would aim to do this section in the daylight.

On my first LA Freeway, done as a 2-day push, I had brought bars and meat sticks. I had eaten all dozen of my bars the first day, and on the second day could barely choke down my meat sticks. All told, I ate 3700 calories in two days. This did not nearly match my energy expenditure, but even so I felt great and my energy was high the entire time. I am used to doing fasted exercise and fasted ascents of Longs Peak, so my body is used to doing low-stress endurance stuff with little energy input.

So on this single-push effort on the LA Freeway, I brought 6000 calories of bars and chocolate. I ate it all and got some bonus bars from Linn's surpluss stores. But, unlike my previous LA Freeway where I had felt great the entire time, this time about 12 hours in I began to feel tired and sluggish. I continued to pound down the bars and chocolate, but it didn't seem to help. Strangely enough, towards the end I just gave up on eating and started to feel much better.

I consider myself a pretty ad-hoc endurance athlete. I have the fitness for it, but don't really know what I am doing. I think this single push LA Freeway was one of the first times I have actually pushed my body to discomfort. And being pushed like this, it required a different fueling strategy. After talking with Jenny post LA-Freeway, she pointed out that bars were NOT actually the best fuel, and that part of the exhaustion I was feeling was a result of this. Jenny knows this stuff, so I think she is right. Here's what she has to say: "I think it’s so important to understand what your body needs, and I’m 100% sure [your fueling] is why you felt low energy. Your clif bars have 27g of carbs and 10g of sugar per serving size (230 calories). The gels I was taking carry 56g of carbs and 23g of sugar per 236-calorie serving size. That’s over double the fuel than what you’re getting. Four squares of Dove dark chocolate with almonds (170 calories) has 17g of carbs and 14g of sugar, while a handful of nerds gummy clusters (100 calories) has 25g of carbs and 21g of sugar. When you do the math, again over double the fuel. Both the gels and the gummies go down easier too. But there’s a reason why there’s no runner out there running a demanding race on bars. Energy in = energy out."

I guess I will have to start experimenting to find some gels and energy shots that I like. Or that I can at least choke down to assist doing a sub 24-hour LA Freeway.

While wandering around the Chessmen in the dark physically feeling like crap, I began to scheme about LA Freeway 3. I was frustrated with the harder-than-necessary route-finding in the dark and disappointed with how my body was performing. I was well aware (and impressed) that Jenny could have easily broken the 24 hour mark with her pace and energy (although without us to help her route-find, she realistically probably couldn't have completed the route any faster than we actually did). I believe I can do the LA Freeway in 24 hours in my current physical state and with minimal extra effort, if I make a few changes:

1. Do a midnight-to-midnight push. This would serve the dual purpose of avoiding the drain of a full night out and doing the more route-findy sections (like Algonquin to Paiute and The Chessmen) in the daylight.
2. Go in July, when the days are longer, nights are warmer, and there is plenty of water on route. This would allow carrying 2L between water sources rather than a full gallon, and also packing slightly fewer layers. Also, there would be less likely to be ice on the Cables Route on Longs Peak.
3. Bring more high-carb ingestibles, such as gels and energy shots, that are optimized for sustained high-output performance. I would also bring bars, which I actually like and seem more like food than gels and shots, plus have a bit of protein, which is needed for a 24-hour push. I like the pattern of eating a bar on the descent from each peak, so I would bring 24 250-300 calorie "doses".
4. Not try to push it as hard at the beginning. I normally don't suffer from this problem, but on our September 2024 LA Freeway, we started out too fast (achieving my fastest ever ascent time on Longs Peak, despite getting stalled by ice on the Cables Route for at least 15 minutes) and both Linn and I began to experience exhaustion once night hit halfway through the traverse (Jenny, her body more accustomed with long pushes continuing through the night and eating more gels and shots too, was doing just fine).

In the late 1950s Carl Pfiffner spoke passionately about traversing from the Arapaho Peaks to Longs Peak along the Continental Divide. The first person to complete Pfiffner’s original idea of linking the Arapahos to Longs along the Coninental Divide was Buzz Burrell, who did this giant project on July 8-9, 2002. Burrell stuck strictly to the Divide, only dropping down to bivy and collect water, and he summitted every significant and named peak. To distinguish the project from Roach’s “Pfiffner Traverse”, Burrell called his route the “LA Freeway”—a reference to Guy Clark's song "L.A. Freeway" ("If I can just get off this L.A. freeway without getting killed or caught....") Oddly, the LA Freeway languished in obscurity until a recent, sudden uptick of interest.
Reference.

The lyrics of Guy Clark's song "L.A. Freeway" are given below.

Pack up all the dishes
Make a note of all good wishes
Say goodbye to the landlord for me
All you know he always bored me

And throw out all those L.A. papers
The moldy box of Vanilla Wafers
Adios to all this concrete
Gonna get me some dirt road back streets

Now here's to you old Skinny Dennis
The only one I think I will miss
I can hear those bass notes ringin'
As sweet and low like a gift your bringin'

So play it for me one more time now
You got to give it all you can now
Well I believe every word you're sayin'
Just to keep it on keepin' on, keep on playin'

Well I can just get off of this L.A. freeway
Without getting killed or caught
Down the road in a cloud of smoke
To some land that, baby, we ain't bought
If I can just get off this L.A. freeway

Leave the key card in the mailbox
Leave the key in that old front lock
They can find it likely as not
There must be somethin' we have forgot

Oh, Susanna don't you cry babe
Love's a gift and truly handmade
We got somethin' to believe in
Texas is callin', baby, it's time we were leavin'

Well I can just get off of this L.A. freeway
Without getting killed or caught
Down the road in a cloud of smoke
To some land that, baby, we ain't bought

If I can just get off this L.A. freeway
Without getting killed or caught
They can never gonna to catch me
Put down the rod to somewhere we found it

I can just get off of this L.A. freeway
Hey Texas is callin', callin' me home

This is a gallery of all of the overlays in the Photos section below, given in order of the peak along the LA Freeway.