The original version of this story was published on iRunFar.
What’s the next big trip you’ve got planned with your significant other? A week in Paris? A cruise through the Caribbean?
Or how about 12-plus days of hardcore hiking to establish a new record in the Colorado Rockies?
That last option was the choice of Andrea Sansone and Andrew Hamilton, an athletic power couple who have created a new type of record in a state that thrives on the extremes of outdoor sports. The duo managed to hike up all 58 of Colorado mountains over 14,000 feet (known as 14ers) in just 12 days, 6 hours, and 43 minutes.
While many athletes have tackled the feat alone, this is the first co-ed, supported effort to tackle all 58 mountains.
“It’s been emotional not only for Andrew and I, but our crew too, trying to step back into reality after the adrenaline high of the mountains the last 2 weeks,” Sansone wrote on Instagram. “It’s been really hard trying to figure out how to roll back into life but we are slowly getting there!”
Dealing With Danger — Together
Both Sansone and Hamilton are known individually for their many efforts in the Colorado mountains. That includes Sansone’s women’s supported FKT on the Nolan’s 14 route and Hamilton’s men’s supported FKT on the Colorado 14ers.
To date, this is the first co-ed, supported effort for the Colorado 14ers. For comparison, Hamilton’s men’s supported FKT is 9 days, 21 hours, and 51 minutes, and Danelle Ballengee has the women’s supported FKT in 14 days, 14 hours, and 49 minutes.
Regardless, trying to climb all the state’s highest mountains in a single push is massively difficult. Aside from the high chance of failure, there are the natural dangers like taking a fall or getting hit by a sudden storm. The latter risk is exactly what happened to the pair as they navigated the mountains of the Sawatch Range. When starting up Mount Columbia, a sudden storm hit them, raining down both hail and lightning.
Despite the terrifying situation, the couple found comfort in one another, Sansone wrote.
“Bolts of lightning surrounded us, hail storm after hail storm, wave blasts of who knows what it was flowed through the air hitting our bodies as if a high speed train just flew by our faces,” she wrote on Instagram. “We hunkered down, and huddled together, a couple times, laughing in disbelief about the situation we were in. But we were calm. We were happy to be with each other, experiencing some of the most intimate moments together.”
A Massive Endeavor
This co-ed supported FKT on the 14ers is a feat of endurance, skill, and logistics. The 58 peaks are scattered throughout the state. They range from easy walk-ups to technical scrambling. There’s no set route for completing the peaks. But a person has to climb and descend at least 3,000 feet to the summit for it to count.
There are then hundreds of miles of driving between the peaks to negotiate. The roads range from good highways to difficult four-wheel-drive roads.
Sansone and Hamilton’s deep experience with the Colorado 14ers allowed them to tag the summits as efficiently as possible. Often, they used some of the more direct routes between summits to save time and elevation.
Obstacles From the Start
The pair started the effort on July 3 at 4 a.m. local time, with the original goal of beating Hamilton’s 2015 men’s supported FKT. But issues plagued them from the start. They soon fell behind their aggressive goal splits.
The day prior to the effort, the Durango-Silverton train, which they were using to reduce the approach distances to the four Chicago Basin 14ers in the San Juan Mountains, was stopped by mudslides. Undeterred, they walked the extra miles instead of rescheduling the effort. By the time they tagged the peaks and returned, the train was running again. They could get a ride back to civilization.
Storms, knee issues, rockfall, and a variety of other issues slowed the pair down. By Day 3, they realized they wouldn’t be able to hit their target time.
“The whole thing in terms of our original speed estimates kind of fell apart at the end of Day 3,” Hamilton said. “And then the next day, I think after being cold for several hours, our legs just never really came back.”
Sleep deprivation also took its toll on the couple. That was especially true during the first half of the effort, which was filled with the more technical peaks.
“It ends up being really front-loaded with all of the really hard ranges,” Hamilton said. “And so by the time you’re on Day 4 or 5, you’re kind of brain-fried. You’re on no sleep. We’re very confident climbers, but on no sleep, you just kind of forget who you are in climbing and being comfortable with your climbing skills.”
It Feels Like Anything Can Go Wrong
To the pair, it felt like nearly anything that could go wrong went wrong.
“We make a joke, because we just kept getting slammed with one thing after another,” Hamilton said. “It’s like first the sleep deprivation, and then it’s your lungs and your wheezing, and then it’s your injuries. And it’s like, okay, what are we going to get hit with next? It’s really hard to find joy while you’re doing it and enjoy it because you just keep getting slammed in the face with all of these obstacles.”
Both agree that it was their crew and community that kept them going. For starters, they had an off-highway vehicle driver who’d been up all of the 14ers previously. They’d been able to shuttle them up some of the four-wheel-drive approach roads much faster than a truck could.
There were also Sansone’s sisters, who provided much support and encouragement, as well as a friend who helped run everyone’s errands so that the rest of the crew could focus on helping Sansone and Hamilton reach their goal.
“Just out there being the most amazing endurance mountaineers ever, never giving up on each other and coming out an even stronger power couple than they were going [sic] in to this,” sister Nic Sansone wrote on Instagram. “I’m so proud of you both and the best mountain crew there ever was!”
‘You Don’t Have to Quit’
The Colorado 14ers hiking and climbing community also showed up for the couple.
“I didn’t realize how much I needed the support from the community around me, the encouragement, the text messages, the voice memos, the 14ers.com forum,” Samsone said. “It was all the most positive experience, and I had a really big low on Day 3 or 4 in the Crestones, and Andrew and I got on the forum, and we just started reading people’s comments, and we started crying.”
Over the course of 12-plus days, the pair and their crew continued to climb peak after peak. Sansone said they wanted to quit several times.
“There was one time when we were on Mount Massive and our videographer opened the door [to their van], and I looked at him straight in the camera and I said, we’re done,” she said.
Needless to say — they weren’t done, as Hamilton explained.
“And so Riley [Hanlon] handed me the video camera, and he’s like, ‘Well, when you get to the point where you’re going to call it, just make a little video for me.’ And at that point, we just kept hiking, and we just never took that step where we couldn’t take one more.”
A few days after finishing the effort on Longs Peak, accompanied by many friends, the couple says they are still far from processing the entire effort.
“It was an incredible experience,” Sansone said. “And when we want to just go through day by day, and there are so many emotions with every single day. The biggest takeaway is that we didn’t quit, and that was the one thing: No matter how hard it gets, you don’t have to quit.”
