NEWS: Eagle's 33 - Wallowa Mountains FKT Attempt

UPDATE 2. Managed to get it done finally: REPORT: Eagle’s 33 Peak Bagging Challenge Finally Completed

UPDATE 1 — Epic fail: it took me 51:42:39 to summit 14 peaks before I ran out of time, food, and ideas. Clearly, my initial 33 peak plan was deeply flawed. Perhaps that means it’s a real challenge. It was the craziest, longest, slowest, and most difficult peak bagging off-trail line I’ve ever cooked up. Some pics.

There are exactly 33 peaks over 9,000ft (2743m) with at least 300ft (91m) of prominence in the Eagle Cap Wilderness, which is located in Oregon’s amazing Wallowa Mountains. On Sat, Sep 1, 2018, I will start for a solo and unsupported attempt to summit all 33 peaks in a single push. I’m baptizing this challenge “Eagle’s 33.”

33 is the sum of the first positive factorials, a normal human spine has 33 vertebrae, 33 is when water begins to boil on Newton’s scale, IL-33 is a protein encoded by the IL33 gene that is thought to cause the itching associated with dermatitis, and a day has 33-(3×3)=24 hours. So 33 is an important number, in other words.

[pullquote]I’ll carry mayo gels for up to 90 hours. That’s more than I’ve ever carried on any run.[/pullquote]

According to my amateurish mapping efforts, possible routes will be at least 150mi long with at least 60,000 feet of elevation gain if I’m able to follow somewhat ideal lines. With more realistic lines, things could be a lot longer. For comparison, the famous Nolan’s 14 challenge involves 14 peaks only (but admittedly all over 14,000ft) and typical routes are under 100 miles with about 45,000 feet of elevation gain. The Bob Graham Round in the English Lake District has 42 peaks and the distance is somewhere around 70mi with about 30,000ft of gain.

With only a few trails that I can effectively use and no obvious route to link up the 33 peaks, the challenge will mostly involve dead slow cross-country travel. Some peaks are a walk-up, but many involve class 3 scrambling/type 2 or 3 fun. There will be a bit of everything. Moving at night may be impossible because it will be difficult to spot appropriate ascend/descend lines.

This overview map shows the location of the 33 peaks (blue circles) as well as the Eagle Cap Wilderness boundary (red). The red line is NOT my route. My route is not actually pictured because, well, I don’t know it. Click to enlarge or use the interactive map that is embedded below.

Somewhere after passing over Polaris pass, looking into Imnaha valley, I think.

Peaks

I’ve used Andrew Kirmse’s topographic prominence data to determine the 33 peaks. Andrew, a former Google Earth engineer, computed the prominence of every mountain in the world down to 100 feet. I’ve used the 300 feet rule (P300) because it is a common prominence cutoff. The table below lists all 33 peaks over 9,000ft with at least 300ft of prominence that are all inside the Eagle Cap Wilderness boundary. Note that, compared to this SummitPost list, my list has 4 additional peaks (marked with “CT” in the table below and named by me) that meet the above criteria. Also, there are more than 33 peaks over 9,000ft in the wilderness area, however, the prominence of those not listed below is less than 300ft. An example is the 9,179ft Sawtooth Peak, which has a prominence of 159ft only.

[table width=”640″ colwidth=”60|60|70|70|150″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Latitude,Longitude,Elevation [ft],Prominence [ft],Peak
45.245,-117.2929,9838,6386,Sacajawea Peak
45.2278,-117.2992,9832,337,Matterhorn
45.2597,-117.2654,9781,893,Hurwall Divide
45.203,-117.175,9702,2101,Aneroid Mountain
45.1894,-117.2203,9675,1253,Petes Point
45.3043,-117.3448,9673,1974,Twin Peaks
45.2862,-117.2632,9628,808,Chief Joseph Mountain
45.2796,-117.3412,9621,487,Hurricane Divide north
45.1637,-117.3014,9575,1221,Eagle Cap
45.0648,-117.2458,9572,2004,Red Mountain
45.1373,-117.2462,9518,889,Cusick Mountain
45.2405,-117.2734,9508,418,Hurwal Divide south
45.1551,-117.2935,9499,327,Glacier Peak
45.2262,-117.1715,9460,650,Hidden Peak
45.1634,-117.226,9417,559,Sentinel Peak
45.1776,-117.2236,9395,473,Polaris Point
45.219,-117.3293,9388,852,Hurricane Divide south
45.2368,-117.1771,9384,408,East Peak
45.2169,-117.2713,9317,383,Peak (S of Ice Lk)
45.2138,-117.3241,9287,309,Hurricane Divide even more south (CT)
45.2223,-117.3968,9233,1855,Elkhorn Mountain
45.2221,-117.2627,9215,519,Craig Mountain
45.1888,-117.3888,9180,863,Glacier Mountain
45.2165,-117.2123,9179,527,Mount Bonneville (W Fk/E Fk Wallowa divide)
45.1445,-117.2302,9171,342,Peak (Mid Fk Imnaha)
45.2187,-117.135,9137,546,Peak (McCully\, CT)
45.2031,-117.1505,9130,332,Mount Melissa (McCully/ Little Sheep divide)
45.1851,-117.1888,9105,614,Dollar Ridge (Eric’s Peak)
45.3376,-117.3667,9095,513,Traverse Ridge
45.0654,-117.2894,9093,1255,Krag Peak
45.2047,-117.1382,9023,329,Mount Melissa Due (CT)
45.1715,-117.2802,9019,481,Pocket Peak (CT)
45.1274,-117.3522,9018,1467,Needle Point
[/table]

Oregon’s oldest tree, a limber pine, is supposedly on Cusick Mountain. Read the interesting story here and here. The tree could be up to 2,000 years old. Can’t wait to see it myself.

They’ve got mountains!

Infrequently Asked Questions (IFAQ)

What line will you pick to connect the peaks? That’s a great question.
Is the Wallowa Matterhorn similar to the Swiss Matterhorn? Not even remotely.
Did you climb both? Indeed.
Do you wear your contacts at night? Yes.
Why is there no pine or apple in pineapple? Because.
Why this? Because wildfires prevented the other challenges on my list.
Is extreme athleticism your midlife crisis? I have passed my midlife before I even started running.
What’s a runner’s favorite Hungarian dish? Gu-lash.
What will you eat? Mostly this.
Why are there only 15 peaks in your logo? Because I’m a bad designer.

Tracking

You can track me in the embedded map below or go to: http://bit.ly/Eagles33

The planned start is on Sat, Sep 1, 2018, possibly in the very early morning hours. I will start/finish at the East Eagle Trailhead. The blue markers on the map indicate the peaks I will attempt to summit. My planned route is not pictured.

Dollar Lake and Petes Point.