NEWS: 3rd Eagle’s 33 Peak Bagging FKT Attempt

Update: On Wed, Aug 12, 2020, I wrapped up my entire Eagle’s 33 Challenge route in 110h 17min (4d 14h 17min), a lot slower than my spreadsheets predicted. The execution wasn’t 100% perfect either, with a rather bittersweet ending: I ate my last CLIF Bar 8h before I reached the car and due to imperfect homework and a lack of appropriate climbing gear, I was unable to fully traverse the last 300 horizontal feet of the ridge to the very last (33rd) summit (Needle Point, 9,018ft). Stay tuned for a detailed report and movie in the near or far future.

The Eagle’s 33 Challenge consists of summiting all 33 peaks over 9,000ft (2743m) with at least 300ft (91m) of prominence in Oregon’s Eagle Cap Wilderness (aka Wallowa Mountains) in a single push. And did I mention that there’s no trail for this?

Bird’s-eye perspective of the area with the 33 peaks over 9,000ft. For a complete list of the peaks, see Eagle’s 33 Challenge. In my 1^st attempt (2018), I managed to climb 14, in my 2^nd (2019), 31 peaks.

Although I was very certain after my 2^nd attempt in 2019 that I would never ever attempt this challenge again (see movie), I will make a 3^rd solo and self-supported attempt at this challenge on Sat, Aug 8, 2020. The start is exactly a year after my 2^nd attempt. I’m not sure what kind of omen that is.

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures.”
― Ian Fleming

The 1^st attempt in 2018 did not go well (14 peaks in 51h42min), and neither did the 2^nd attempt in 2019. In 2019, it took me 85h46min to climb 31 peaks (93.8mi, 50,784ft of EG). Clearly, more homework (and also better weather) was needed.

[pullquote]While I might be a little wiser now, I’m also a year older and weaker.[/pullquote]

I heard the call clear and loudly: more time was thus spent to further optimize the route and to climb peaks individually. My tentative new route for this 3^rd attempt is slightly over 100 miles long (probably a lot longer in reality) with about 53,000 feet of elevation gain. Nothing too crazy. While I might be a little wiser now, I’m also a year older and weaker.

For comparison: Nolan’s 14 routes are generally shorter than 100 miles and add up to about 44,000ft of elevation gain; the famous Bob Graham Round in the English Lake District has 42 peaks and the distance is somewhere around 70mi with about 30,000ft of gain. Also, compared to the Nolan’s 14 or the Sangre de Cristo Traverse, there is no obvious and easy way to link up all 33 Eagle Cap Wilderness peaks.

For your entertainment, here’s the movie of the 2^nd attempt:

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.”

— Confucius

Dotwatching

You can track me at https://bit.ly/Eagles33III.

The planned start is on Sat, Aug 8, 2020, at 3am PST. I will start from the East Eagle Trailhead. The red markers on the map indicate the 33 peaks that I will attempt to summit. My planned route is not shown.

For fullscreen, go to https://bit.ly/Eagles33III