On July 15, 2024, Andrea Sansone and Andrew Hamilton established a co-ed supported fastest known time (FKT) on the Colorado 14ers. They summited the 58 Colorado peaks over 14,000 feet in elevation in 12 days, 6 hours, and 43 minutes.
The duo is known for their many efforts in the Colorado mountains, including Sansone’s women’s supported FKT on the Nolan’s 14 route and Hamilton’s men’s supported FKT on the Colorado 14ers, amongst many other impressive efforts.
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.
Andrew Hamilton and Andrea Sansone established a new co-ed supported fastest known time (FKT) on the Colorado 14ers in July, 2024. All photos courtesy of Andrew Hamilton and Andrea Sansone.
This co-ed supported FKT on the 14ers is a feat of endurance, skill, and logistics, as the 58 peaks are scattered throughout the state and 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 in between the peaks to negotiate, ranging 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 using some of the more direct routes between summits to save time and elevation.
Descending off of Mount Harvard under a stormy sunset.
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, and 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, and they could get a ride back to civilization.
Storms, knee issues, rockfall, and a variety of other issues slowed the pair down, and by Day 3, they realized they wouldn’t be able to hit their target time. Hamilton says, “The whole thing in terms of our original speed estimates kind of fell apart at the end of Day 3. We actually had great weather, but then as we were doing this thing called the Gash Ridge from Blanca [Peak] to [Mount] Lindsey, it’s like you’re kind of down-climbing the stuff, and my memory is so bad. I had told [Sansone], oh, it’s just one hard down climb, and then it’s a piece of cake. Well, it wasn’t a piece of cake. It’s actually really hard. And then the next day, I think after being cold for several hours, our legs just never really came back.”
Andrew Hamilton descends Gash Ridge off of Blanca Peak.
Sleep deprivation also took its toll, especially during the first half of the effort, which was filled with the more technical peaks. Hamilton says, “It ends up being really front-loaded with all of the really hard ranges. 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.”
To the pair, it felt like nearly anything that could go wrong went wrong. To describe it, Hamilton says, “We make a joke, because we just kept getting slammed with one thing after another. 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. From having a 0ff-highway vehicle driver who’d been up all of the 14ers previously and was able to shuttle them up some of the four-wheel-drive approach roads much faster than a truck could, to Sansone’s sisters coming out to provide endless support and encouragement, to a friend who was willing to run everyone’s errands so that the rest of the crew could focus on the effort, it was truly a team effort.
The crew sends the pair off on their third-to-last peak, Mount Bierstadt.
The large Colorado 14ers hiking and climbing community also showed up for the pair. Sansone says, “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. I mean, it was all the most positive experience, and I had a really big low on Day 3 or 4 in the Creststones, and Andrew and I got on the forum, and we just started reading people’s comments, and we started crying. And I mean, just the fact of people sat there believing in us saying, you can do it.”
Over the course 12-plus days, the pair and their crew continued to climb peak after peak. Sansone says they wanted to quit several times. She says, “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.”
Hamilton then says,” 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.”
Andrew Hamilton and Andrea Sansone stand on the summit of Longs Peak, the last of their peaks.
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. Sansone says, “It was an incredible experience. And when we want to just go through day by day, and there are so many emotions with every single day. I think 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.”
Andrew Hamilton and Andrea Sansone (front) with most of their crew after establishing a co-ed supported FKT on the Colorado 14ers.
Call for Comments
- Did you follow this FKT effort as Andrea Sansone and Andrew Hamilton made their way around Colorado?
- Do you have a favorite Colorado 14er?
