Horsetooth Rock FKT's

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Horsetooth Rock FKT's

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Fastest Known Times (FKT's) for Horsetooth Rock

    Horsetooth Rock is the quintessential peak of Fort Collins. The route to the top is a steady climb with a scrambling finish, so this is a classic hill climb. To time trial this route, start at the gate on the north side of the parking lot at the Horsetooth Mountain Park trailhead. Climb any route you wish (Audra Culver, service road, or Horsetooth Rock Trail). At the rock you have to choose the north or south summit. Both summits are class 3 scrambles, but the scramble up to the south summit is longer and more involved, so given equal times, an FKT to the south summit might be stronger time than an FKT to the north summit. The middle summit is a technical climb, and so far no one has sent me any times.

     To be considered an official FKT, you must stay on official, established trails (no switchback cutting) up until the rock, at which point you may choose any route to the top. Ascent time stops when you reach the highest point (there's a benchmark) of either the north or south summits.  Return via any established trail to the gate. Time spent at the top does count if you are going for the round-trip time.

    Top elevation:                         7255 feet

    Base elevation:                        5760 feet

    Total round-trip distance:     5.131 miles for South Summit, 5.2 miles for North Summit

    Total vertical gain:                 1495 ft

The overall FKT's for each of the summits of Horsetooth Rock are highlighted in green. The fastest times reported by other runners are highlighted in yellow, ranked by time. Please send me your time if you'd like to be listed.

South Summit

Route

Type

FKT holder

Time

Date

Notes

Trip Report
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit round-trip Jonathan Vigh 0:43:36 10/30/07

 Set during FCTR time trial. Ascent in 0:28:13, descent in 0:15:23. Jonathan's descent time broke Jeff McCoy's longstanding descent FKT of "sub 17 minutes" set back in 1981. Jonathan's old PR was 0:47:16.

 
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit round-trip Matt Bedoukian 0:44:40 09/01/05

 Set during FCTR time trial. Ascent in 0:27:26, descent in 0:17:14.

 
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit round-trip Jeff McCoy 0:48:23 ??/??/81

 Source: Bill Wright's Speed Climbing site

  
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit round-trip Todd Rivas 0:48:39 10/20/04

 Ascent in 0:28:36, descent in 0:20:02.

  

Ascent FKT's
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit ascent Matt Bedoukian 0:27:26 09/01/05

 Ascent via Audra Culver service road (?). Ascent rate of 3281 ft/h (55 ft/min).

  
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit ascent Jonathan Vigh 0:28:13 10/30/07

 Ascent via Audra Culver service road. Ascent rate of 3190 ft/h (53 ft/min). Old time of 0:30:02 was set on 09/01/05.

 

Descent FKT's
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit descent Jonathan Vigh 0:15:23 10/30/07

 Descent via Audra Culver service road. Average pace for descent: 6:00 min/mile. Average descent rate: -5850 ft/hr (-98 ft/min). Fastest mile split: 5:25 min/mile. Took 84 sec to get from the top to the base of the South Summit. Old PR was 0:17:14 set on 09/01/05.

  
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit descent Jeff McCoy sub-17 min ??/??/81

 Jeff remembers running down a couple times in sub-17 minutes. He probably took the now overgrown ridge trail on the upper portion of the route, which is probably faster than taking the Horsetooth Rock Trail. This time stood from 1981 until 2007!

  
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit descent Matt Bedoukian 0:17:14 09/01/05

 Descent via Audra Culver service road. Average pace for the descent was 6:44 min/mile. Descent rate was 5222 ft/h (87 ft/min). Jonathan Vigh ran the same descent time today.

  

 

North Summit

Route

Type

FKT holder

Time

Date

Notes

Trip Report

Round-trip FKT's
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit round-trip Matt Bedoukian 0:44:37 09/03/05

 Ascent in 0:27:05, descent in 0:17:32. Ascent via Horsetooth Rock Trail, then service road. Descent via Audra Culver Trail to service road.

 
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit round-trip Jonathan Vigh 0:46:56 09/26/06

 Ascent in 0:30:23, spent 0:00:57 at top, then descended in 0:15:36 (new descent FKT). Ascended and descended via Audra Culver service road (no shortcut). Old PR of 0:50:07 set on 08/13/06.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit round-trip Todd Rivas 0:47:56 09/29/04

 Ascent in 0:29:23, descent in 0:18:33 (see below). Ascent via Horsetooth Rock Trail, descent via Audra Culver service road.

  
Horsetooth Rock, South Summit round-trip Bryan Trammell 0:51:00 09/26/06

 Took the 'Bedoukian' shortcut and other nonstandard routing. Ascent in 0:31:35, descent in 0:19:25. Old PR of 0:55:32 set on 07/12/06.

  

Ascent FKT's
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Matt Bedoukian 0:26:58 04/06/06

 Ascent via unofficial shortcut trail to Audra Culver service road. This time is considered unofficial since it did not follow official trails.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Matt Bedoukian 0:27:05 09/03/05

 Ascent via Horsetooth Rock trail to 4-way junction, then service road, then Horsetooth Rock trail. 

 
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Todd Rivas 0:29:23 09/29/04

 Ascent via Horsetooth Rock trail. Todd said he felt out of shape and that he hopes to reduce his ascent to 28 min in the future.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Dan Turk 0:29:56 10/20/04

 Ascent via Horsetooth Rock Trail. 

 
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Jonathan Vigh 0:30:23 09/26/06

 Ascent via Audra Culver service road. Old PR was 0:31:53 set 08/13/06.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Eric Coppok 0:30:41 06/29/03

 Source: Bill Wright's Speed Climbing site

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Bryan Trammel 0:31:35 09/26/06

 Took the 'Bedoukian' shortcut and other nonstandard routing. Old PR of 0:34:00 set back on 07/12/06.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit ascent Sarah Rawley 0:34:56 10/20/04

 Fastest female time! (previous female ascent FKT was 0:52:18 by Beth Coppock). Ascent via Horsetooth Rock Trail.

 

Descent FKT's
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit descent Jonathan Vigh 0:15:36 09/26/06

 Descent via Audra Culver service road. Old PR was 0:16:58 set on 06/08/06. His average pace for the entire descent was 6:00 min/mile. Ran 2 miles in 11:07. Average descent rate: 96 ft/min.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit descent Matt Bedoukian 0:17:32 09/03/05

 Descent via Audra Culver Trail, then service road. Matt felt that going down the service road the entire way would have been faster.

 
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit descent Todd Rivas 0:18:33 09/29/04

 Descent via Audra Culver service road. Todd said he could have run faster, but he had to stop several times to tie his shoes and clean his sunglasses.

  
Horsetooth Rock, North Summit descent Bryan Trammel 0:19:25 09/26/06

 Old PR of 0:21:32 was set back on 07/12/06.

  

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