{"id":4633,"date":"2018-08-30T06:27:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T13:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christofteuscher.com\/aagaa\/?p=4633"},"modified":"2022-10-04T12:07:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T19:07:05","slug":"news-eagles-33-wallowa-mountains-fkt-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christofteuscher.com\/aagaa\/news-eagles-33-wallowa-mountains-fkt-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"NEWS: Eagle’s 33 – Wallowa Mountains FKT Attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n UPDATE 2. Managed to get it done finally: REPORT: Eagle’s 33 Peak Bagging Challenge Finally Completed<\/a><\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\n
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\r\n UPDATE 1 \u2014 Epic fail: it took me 51:42:39 to summit 14 peaks before I ran out of time, food, and ideas. Clearly, my initial 33 peak plan was deeply flawed. Perhaps that means it’s a real challenge. It was the craziest, longest, slowest, and most difficult peak bagging off-trail line I’ve ever cooked up. Some pics<\/a>.<\/span>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\n

T<\/span>here are exactly 33 peaks over 9,000ft (2743m) with at least 300ft (91m) of prominence in the Eagle Cap Wilderness<\/a>, which is located in Oregon’s amazing\u00a0Wallowa Mountains<\/a>. On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, I will start for a solo and unsupported<\/a> attempt to summit all 33 peaks in a single push. I’m baptizing this challenge “Eagle’s 33.”<\/p>\n

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\r\n 33 is the sum of the first positive factorials, a normal human spine has 33 vertebrae, 33 is when water begins to boil on\u00a0Newton’s scale<\/a>, IL-33 is a protein encoded by the IL33 gene that is thought to cause the itching associated with\u00a0dermatitis,\u00a0and a day has 33-(3×3)=24 hours. So 33 is an important number, in other words.\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\n

[pullquote]I’ll carry mayo gels<\/a> for up to 90 hours. That’s more than I’ve ever carried on any run.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

According to my amateurish mapping efforts, possible routes will be at least 150mi long with at least 60,000 feet of elevation gain if I’m able to follow somewhat ideal lines. With more realistic lines, things could be a lot longer. For comparison, the famous\u00a0Nolan’s 14<\/a>\u00a0challenge involves 14 peaks only (but admittedly all over 14,000ft) and typical routes are under 100 miles with about 45,000 feet of elevation gain. The Bob Graham Round<\/a> in the\u00a0English\u00a0Lake District has 42 peaks and the distance is somewhere around 70mi with about 30,000ft of gain.<\/p>\n

With only a few trails that I can effectively use and no obvious route to link up the 33 peaks, the challenge will mostly involve dead slow cross-country travel. Some peaks are a walk-up, but many involve class 3 scrambling\/type 2 or 3 fun<\/a>. There will be a bit of everything. Moving at night may be impossible because it will be difficult to spot appropriate ascend\/descend lines.<\/p>\n

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This overview map shows the location of the 33 peaks (blue circles) as well as the Eagle Cap Wilderness boundary (red). The red line is NOT<\/em> my route. My route is not actually pictured because, well, I don’t know it. Click to enlarge or use the\u00a0interactive map<\/a>\u00a0that is embedded below.<\/p><\/div>\n