Andrew got out of his massage chair at 4:10am this morning to begin. The attempt will end when he is sitting in it again. He plans to ride to Cragg's Campground today, hike Pikes peak this afternoon, and camp at Cragg's for the night.

Andrew is cruising so far. He got a big blister yesterday because he wanted to save the tube foam he has for his toes. Today is not too ambitious, only biking to the South Colony Lakes Trailhead. He will climb the crestones tomorrow morning, and then bike to the Huerfano trailhead for the Blanca group which he will begin friday morning.

I met Andrew and the support crew at the base of the South Colony Lakes road a little after 1pm. He rode from Craggs that morning through Cripple Creek, Canon City, Parkdale, Texas Creek, and Westcliffe. Andrew then hiked up the South Colony Lakes road to the trailhead. We set up camp and Andrew relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. It was a relatively easy day for him, but set him up perfectly to start the Crestones first thing in the morning.

He started at 1:40am. It was a beautiful clear night, although a little cold. He summitted Humboldt at +2:02, Kit Carson at +4:55, Challenger at +5:35, Crestone Peak at +9:00, and the Needle at +10:20. Andrew was surprised by the amount of snow and ice in the northwest couloir and traverse to Crestone peak, but the weather held with hardly a cloud. He returned to the trailhead at +12:12 for some lunch, and a change into his biking clothes for the MTB ride down the very technical South Colony Lakes road. Support crew member Marc had just finished riding up the road as Andrew was ready to ride down, so Marc got barely a two minute rest before heading back down again. Andrew then continued on to the Huerfano River trailhead, arriving at 9:24pm.

Andrew has been complaining of a few miscellaneous injuries. It began before the attempt started with an ingrown toenail from an adventure race in New York the week before, then moved on to an IT band problem he felt on a test ride two days before the attempt began. On day 1 he was suffering from pain in the tendon of extensor hallucis longus going to his big toe, and now seems to be suffering literally from his Achilles heel, Achilles tendonitis. The good thing is that the other problems seem to have gone away, except for the tendonitis. Hopefully Andrew can keep it under control long enough to finish. At least it only seems to bother him during and after the biking legs. His hiking times have only been getting better.

He set out from the Lily Lake trailhead at 3:50am, reaching Lindsey at 6:30 am, Blanca at 11:08am, Ellingwood at 12:08pm through lots of snow, to the summit of Little Bear at 3:36pm. Apparently Andrew was only the 4th person to sign the Little Bear register this year. He also told me how he was climbing up with waterfalls running into his face, covering his handholds, only to find a rope left by some other climber and use it to both ascend and descend hand over hand. This is not the kind of thing he should be telling his very pregnant wife! Forgive me if I try not to listen to these types of stories. Andrew made it down to the base of the Lake Como road at 7:25pm, and to a hotel room in Alamosa at 9pm. The weather was as close to perfect as one could hope for. In 2001 when he tried this, he was fighting unbelievable thunderstorms all day, even having to hike Little Bear in lightning.

Andrew left Alamosa just before 4am, with support crew member Bob Haines along for the ride. He made excellent time to Creede, and even up the nasty steep dirt road to get to the West Willow Creek trailhead. I didn't get exact times here, as I left for home this morning. He climbed San Luis in record time (for Andrew) and then biked almost all the way to Lake City before calling it a night.

Andrew climbed Redcloud and Sunshine again in record time, beating his times when he did the 14ers speed record in '99. He then rode to the trailhead for Handies, and again climbed faster than before. He then rode to Silverton, where a friend was putting the team up for the night. He is a little behind schedule of his extremely aggressive plan, as he hoped to make it to Chicago Basin. No worries though, as this was expected.

Andrew has to get to Chicago Basin today to climb Eolus, Windom, and Sunlight, and hopefully at least make it back to Silverton. Andrew will be very happy to get these mountains out of the way, as during his first 14ers speed record attempt, he was unfortunate enough to find a man who had fallen from Eolus and died.

He left at about 2:30am from Silverton, and made it back to Silverton by 10pm, a few hours ahead of schedule. His tendonitis is now bothering both his legs, and hurting him during downhill hiking as well as the biking. It is obviously of great to concern to him, as he was apparently talking in his sleep about it.

Andrew started out at 4am this morning from Silverton, and rode over Ophir pass to Silver Pick. Today he will be climbing Wilson Peak, El Diente, and Mt. Wilson. He will camp at Silver Pick for the night. He is expected in at around 10pm tonight. This will put him back on schedule for the 21 day plan, and making the next four days "relatively" easy. He plans to spend tomorrow night in Ouray, and hopefully get a chance to soak in the hot springs for a while.

He is losing weight rapidly, as it is nearly impossible for him to eat the calories he is burning. His bike shorts are beginning to look loose around his thighs. I can't even imagine what he is going to look like after another two weeks!

Andrew woke up a little late this morning. He rode from Silver Pick trailhead, through Vanadium, to Telluride, up over Immogene pass to the Yankee Boy Basin trailhead. He climbed Sneffels and made it down to Ouray in time to soak in the hot springs for a while. Determined, however, to not waste time, he continued on up the road to Engineer Pass. He made it about halfway up, where he and Laura camped for the night. Andrew didn't remember how nasty that road is, telling Laura that it was no big deal, but she thought it was pretty scary. Lots of exposure to deal with, and doing half of it at night didn't help.

I spoke to Andrew tonight from Gunnison. He only planned on making it to Lake City, but didn't want to waste time with the "easy" days that were planned. He continued over Engineer Pass this morning to the Capital City turnoff, and rode to the Matterhorn Creek trailhead. He then climbed Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre, and the crew met him at Nellie Creek with his bike. He then rode to Gunnison for a night in a hotel.

He said that he is determined to finish this time. His Achilles has been bothering him, but not too badly. He has just passed the halfway point, with mostly climbing and few long bike rides left. He swore he is not losing that much weight, as he ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's while talking to me.

Aspen on the 4th of July. Laura and I didn't think he would still be on schedule at this point, so we didn't worry too much about getting to the Maroon Lakes trailhead. Anyone that has been up there in summer knows just how crowded it can get, and the fact that they do not let cars in during the day, you must take a bus from Aspen. Provided they don't arrive until dark, they may be ok, but on the 4th of July?

From Gunnison, Andrew planned to ride through Crested Butte and up Pearl Pass, climb Castle and Conundrum (which is not normally recognized as one of the official 14ers due either to its distance from Castle or the vertical drop in the saddle, I can't remember). He will then ride down to the Maroon Lake trailhead to get ready for tomorrow. Andrew has been thinking about doing not just the Bells and pyramid tomorrow, but Snowmass and Capital as well! He said he is being careful.

Andrew started from the Maroon Lakes trailhead at about 5am this morning. He has decided NOT to attempt to do Snowmass and Capital today. He will climb only North Maroon, Maroon, and Pyramid today, where friends Marc, Gayle, and Bob will meet him at Snowmass Lake with gear to camp for the night.

Amazingly, the weather has held out! So far not one day of rain or thunderstorms. I don't think Andrew has ever been this lucky! He is feeling really strong, his tendonitis even seems to be getting better. Only one more day in the Elks before hitting the Saguache, where Andrew plans to "really push." Laura says his appetite is back, and he has been eating really well. He doesn't appear to be losing as much weight as she thought. He is hoping to be fit enough to do an adventure race the weekend after he finishes the fourteeners. Go Andrew!

Andrew's plan for today was to get a very early start from Snowmass Lake, climb Snowmass, do the traverse to Capital and hike out to the Snowmass Creek trailhead. From there he will ride through Aspen, over Independence Pass, and down to Buena Vista. He may try to ride the rest of the way to the Baldwin Gulch trailhead if he has enough time. He is going to try to combine the next two easy days into one.

It took Andrew longer than expected to get down off these mountains. He called at about 12:15pm to say he was on top of Capital after a 2am start from Snowmass Lake. I heard from Laura a little after 9pm saying they had just gotten over Independence Pass, and that Andrew was very tired, and didn't think he'd even make it to Buena Vista. He was apparently falling asleep while riding, and luckily Bob, Mike, and Marc were riding with him and helped to keep him awake. He thinks he got dehydrated today, as it was hot, and seemed too much of an effort to squeeze water through his water bottle with a filter.

He started at 4am this morning from the turnoff on Rt. 82 to Buena Vista. Today will be a long day, and Andrew does not expect to finish until around midnight tonight. He will first climb Antero from Baldwin Gulch, then climb Tabeguache and Shavano from Browns Lake, ride to the Princeton trailhead to climb Princeton, and lastly bike to the Denny Creek trailhead to be ready for another long day tomorrow.

He got in at about 11:30pm, very tired, and didn't feel like riding to Denny Creek. Instead, they spent the night at Cottonwood Hot Springs. It was a very tough day, tougher than expected, with somewhere around 16,000 feet of elevation gain. Still no swelling in his achilles, but he did manage to get a few blisters. Otherwise, Laura said his feet are in amazing shape. He also has pretty bad sunburn on his lips... he didn't think lip balm with SPF30 was necessary, but now he has been asking to make sure it is in his pack.

He left this morning at about 6:15am to bike to Denny Creek for Yale. He will then continue on to do Columbia, Harvard, Oxford, Belford, and Missouri before coming down to Clohesy Lake. He said not to expect him before 11pm, but don't be surprised if it is 2 or 4 in the morning.

I will be leaving early tomorrow morning to met up with them somewhere near Winfield. I'll be back for a little while on Friday night with more information.

He actually finished at 11:30pm, in pretty good time.

He rode to the South Winfield trailhead to do Huron this morning. Even though Andrew and I had scouted out this route after he got lost on it during the 1999 attempt, apparently we only scouted up to the point where he actually got lost, and therefore he got lost again. He passed me at 10:30am in Winfield, as he was riding to the North Winfield trailhead for La Plata. We then met him at the Lake Creek trailhead on route 82. He then rode 4 miles down the road to a trailhead that I cannot remember the name of now, to hike Elbert. We then drove around to the South Halfmoon trailhead to leave him his mountain bike. As we were ascending a rather nasty 4WD road from the South Halfmoon trailhead, Laura and I met another car coming down the road. This car refused to back up the 30 feet necessary for it to pull off the road to make room for us to pass, and instead charged at us, only to brake one foot in front of our bumper. He was an inexperienced driver, with no courtesy. We then backed all the way down the road to allow him passage. We were a little annoyed to say the least! We then camped at the North Halfmoon trailhead to get ready for Massive. Andrew was very disappointed that he wouldn't be able to get Massive in on this day, as he thought it would put him behind. He arrived at the trailhead at 9:45pm.

He woke up at 2:45am, and left to climb Massive at 3:30am. He got back to the trailhead at 7:30 (I think), ate some breakfast and got ready to do the ride to Holy Cross. He rode from North Halfmoon, through Leadville, and continued on 24N almost to Minturn, to the turnoff to the Halfmoon trailhead. The dirt road up to the trailhead was in extremely good shape, and Andrew would later enjoy mountain biking down it. He started hiking Holy Cross from the trailhead at 1:30pm, and returned shortly before 7pm. Without including Massive in this day, Andrew had expected to ride to Leadville, but wasn't sure if he could now ride all the way there. Amazingly, he made it to Leadville and a hotel, just before 10pm... an astonishing ride considering what he had already done that day, and that he had to go over two passes. Andrew got to shower and clean himself up a bit, to get ready for the home stretch.

Both Andrew's physical and mental state are amazing. He is in great spirits, and does not look like he has lost much weight at all. His feet are truly amazing. With only a couple of blisters, he has taken the time to really take care of his feet. He is planning to push really hard over the next couple days to get to the end. With only 10 mountains left, he is hoping for a sub-20-day finish. He is truly motivated, and I really think he can do it!

He left this morning from Leadville at 4:45am, up to the Iowa Gulch trailhead for Sherman. He will hike out on the other side from the Fourmile Creek trailhead, and ride to the Kite Lake trailhead for Lincoln, Democrat, and Bross. He will then ride to the Quandary trailhead to hike Quandary. His original plan was to ride only into Breckenridge, but as this is relatively close and all down hill, he does plan to ride as far as he can towards Horseshoe Basin, where he will begin Grays and Torreys tomorrow.

Andrew started to climb Grays and Torreys at about 7am this morning. They should only take about 3 hours, and then it should take him approximately 3 hours to ride from Stevens Gulch to the top of Guanella Pass, 2 more hours to hike Bierstadt and another 2 hours or so to traverse to Evans. Buzz and I will meet him at the top of Evans, where Buzz plans to ride with him to the Longs trailhead, provided he can keep Andrew awake. It may be a little frustrating for Andrew on that ride, as he has to ride past the turnoff to our house, and will only be 6 downhill miles from home.

Andrew made it to the top of Mt. Evans at about 6:30pm, where he and Buzz began the descent on their road bikes. They rode through Idaho Springs and Blackhawk and up the Peak to Peak highway. At just before 2am, they made it just a couple of miles short of the Longs trailhead, where Andrew planned to sleep for about 3 hours before beginning to climb his last mountain.

I don't know much of anything yet, as I have been sleeping in this morning. I doubt Andrew will climb Longs any faster than 7 hours, and then it will probably take him another 2 hours from the trailhead, with a stop to eat to get home. My guess right now, is about 4pm.

Andrew sat down in his massage chair at 2:50:37pm. He looks great, is in great spirits, and is very happy to be home.

Final time is 19 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes, and 37 seconds!

Andrew will update with more information after he has had a chance to relax and get some sleep. We will hopefully be posting all his heart rate monitor data that will include times and elevations in the near future.