On Saturday, July 5, 2025, France’s François D’Haene set a massive new men’s supported fastest known time (FKT) on Colorado’s Nolan’s 14 route. His time of 35 hours, 33 minutes, and 41 seconds beats the previous FKT set by David Hedges in 2023 of 39 hours, 6 minutes, and 40 seconds by around 3.5 hours and breaks the 36-hour barrier on the revered line.
The Nolan’s 14 route, conceived and first attempted in 1998, connects 14 of the 14,000-foot (4,200-meter) peaks in Colorado’s Sawatch Range over the course of about 95 miles (153 kilometers), depending on the chosen, partially off-trail route. It has about 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) of climbing, with an average elevation of about 12,000 feet (3,600 meters). D’Haene traversed the route south to north, starting at the Blank’s Cabin Trailhead at 7 a.m. on Friday, July 4, and finishing at the Fish Hatchery Trailhead outside of Leadville at about 6:30 p.m. the next day.
François D’Haene on his way to setting a men’s supported Nolan’s 14 fastest known time in July 2025. Photo: Simon Dugué
Much to the chagrin of Nolan’s 14 fans who wanted to obsessively follow his progress, D’Haene chose to travel without public live tracking but had pacers and a full support crew meeting him at various points along the route for resupply. Although D’Haene announced his intention of completing the route on Instagram last month, posted several videos on his YouTube channel, and published a lot of his training on the route on his Strava account, once his team announced his start via social media on Friday morning, fans had to wait until after he finished for details.
D’Haene is no stranger to 100-mile efforts in the mountains with big elevation gain. He won the Hardrock 100 in 2021 with a new course record and followed that effort up with a win at UTMB, his fourth win at the event. The following year, in 2022, he placed second at Hardrock behind Kilian Jornet. In 2017, D’Haene set a new supported FKT on the 211-mile (340 kilometers) John Muir Trail in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California with a time of 2 days, 19 hours, and 26 minutes.
François D’Haene and his crew at the Blank’s Cabin Trailhead, before starting his fastest known time attempt on the Nolan’s 14 route. Photo: Simon Dugué
The day after he finished, with his recovery just starting, he quipped humorously, “There were scree slopes ‘perfectly’ arranged (or not), forests of well-aligned fir trees (or almost), and rivers to jump (or cross up to your thighs). We invent the trail step by step, following the contours of the land, shortness of breath, and route choices, day and night! That’s Nolan’s 14.”
D’Haene also explained how he learned about the Nolan’s line, “Many years ago, I heard about it from [previous record holders] Anna Frost, Iker Karrera, and others. I went there last year and practiced some on the route. This year, I came back and practiced on all the route. I love races but I also love FKTs, and for me Nolan’s was a great place for an FKT.”
D’Haene said they encountered a bit of challenging weather, describing, “The weather on Friday started crazy, we were a little worried with the forecast. We had small thunderstorms and even a little snow. Then after that it was ok. But during the night, it was cold.”
D’Haene also touched on the challenges of being on the route for such a long period of time, “The summits of Columbia and Harvard are very technical, and we took them in the night. It would have maybe been better to do them in the day, but, well. Then, when sunrise came on the second day, there were just three summits left, [La Plata Peak, Mount Elbert, and Mount Massive,] but they are all very big and took all the day to finish.”
“I am so happy, but, wow, it was crazy!” were D’Haene’s final thoughts.
François D’Haene’s Nolan’s 14 FKT Details and Splits
iRunFar is able to share some approximate splits on D’Haene’s effort, via his private live tracker, to help quantify his effort. He’s also now published a full GPX file on his Strava account.
After departing the Blank’s Cabin Trailhead at 7 a.m. on Friday, July 4, his splits show that it didn’t take long for D’Haene to start opening up a gap on the previous FKT. At the top of Mount Shavano, the first peak in the series, about 4 miles and 90 minutes in, he was already 10 minutes ahead of Hedges’ time. By the time D’Haene reached the Avalanche Trailhead between Mount Princeton and Mount Yale, the fourth and fifth peaks in the line and around 31 miles (50 kilometers), he was 9 hours in and about 50 minutes up on the FKT splits. By late in the evening Friday, as D’Haene reached the top of Mount Columbia, peak six of the route, D’Haene had built a more than 3.5-hour buffer on record pace.
François D’Haene and a pacer climb Mount Yale on the Nolan’s 14 line. Photo: Simon Dugué
At sunrise on Saturday morning, the second day, with 11 peaks completed, D’Haene descended off of Huron Peak and reached the mining ghost town of Winfield around 6:30 a.m. with just under 24 hours on the clock, about three hours faster than Hedges’ FKT split. While he had given up a little time on the splits in the night, he was still clearly moving well.
François D’Haene and a pacer descend Mount Huron on the second morning of his Nolan’s 14 FKT attempt. Photo: Simon Dugué
With three mountains left, La Plata Peak, Colorado’s high point, Mount Elbert, and Mount Massive, D’Haene never faltered, continuing to maintain and then increase that roughly three-hour gap on Hedges’ FKT splits. D’Haene reached the Mount Elbert summit at about 1:20 p.m., with 30 hours and 20 minutes on the clock, as compared to Hedges’ approximately 33:30 elapsed. And he tagged the final summit at about 33:45 elapsed, as compared to Hedges’ approximately 37:20, before arriving to the finish point at the Fish Hatchery Trailhead in 35:33:41.
François D’Haene relaxes with a beer after successfully setting the men’s supported Nolan’s 14 fastest known time in July 2025. Photo: Simon Dugué
François D’Haene’s Nolan’s 14 FKT Approximate Splits
- Mount Shavano – 1:30 (hours:minutes elapsed)
- Tabeguache Peak – 2:00
- Mount Antero – 3:45
- Mount Princeton – 6:55
- Avalanche Trailhead – 9:00
- Mount Yale – 11:10
- Mount Columbia – 13:50
- Mount Harvard – 15:25
- Mount Oxford – 17:45
- Mount Belford – 18:15
- Missouri Mountain – 19:25
- Huron Peak – 22:00
- Winfield ghost town – 23:30
- La Plata Peak – 25:40
- Mount Elbert – 30:20
- Mount Massive – 33:45
- Fish Hatchery Trailhead – 35:33:41
François D’Haene descends through the alpine during his Nolan’s 14 FKT attempt. Photo: Simon Dugué
