[Editor’s Note: This article was first published on our sister site, GearJunkie. We’re also sharing it here as athlete Tyler Andrews is combining multiple sports, including running, in his Himalayan speed efforts.]
Image this: You’re operating within the mountains alone with minimal gear and only one liter of water. However this isn’t a day journey into the Colorado Rockies — you’re within the Himalayas ascending Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain on this planet. And also you’re doing it with out supplemental oxygen or climbing companions.
Sound dangerous? Tyler Andrews, a 34-year-old endurance athlete from Massachusetts, could be the primary to agree. The runner has racked up a formidable record of feats on harmful mountains, together with 69 Quickest Recognized Instances (FKTs) to this point, putting him within the ranks of the world’s elite runners.
Final 12 months noticed a number of of Andrews’s most spectacular data but. He set new FKTs on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro and Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua. On each mountains, Andrews pulled forward of previous data set by operating legends like Karl Egloff and Kilian Jornet.
However Andrews informed us he needs to be “the very best on this planet.” That’s why he determined to check his abilities on the largest stage of all: the Himalayas. Final month, on September 19, Andrews hiked up the 26,781-foot Manaslu in 9 hours and 52 minutes, shaving greater than two hours off the earlier document, set by Nepalese climber Pembe Gelje Sherpa final 12 months.
Tyler Andrews signed on with La Sportiva in 2024 as a sponsored athlete. He’s seen right here in Quito, Ecuador. All photographs: Chris Fisher
These mountains have usually been the realm of mountaineers — not path runners. Lots of them require sections of vertical climbing, which is why the running- and hiking-centric web site Quickest Recognized Time has lengthy excluded pace data on these mountains. Himalayan Database tracks them as an alternative.
However now that’s altering, thanks partially to Andrews, who additionally works part-time for the FKT group. For the reason that main route on Manaslu lacks technical climbing, he thinks turning the summit push into an FKT is truthful play. And he believes the coaching he’s making use of to those mountains — like bringing a stationary bike to Manaslu base camp — represents a novel method to Himalayan journey.
We caught up with Andrews to learn how he did it — from diet and equipment to timing and method.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: Congratulations on setting a brand new FKT on Manaslu! You’ve set many data already. Are you able to inform us what this one means to you?
Tyler Andrews: I imply, to start with, it’s my first 8,000-meter [peak] pace document. In order that’s actually particular. However actually, I believe the factor that made it essentially the most particular is that I attempted and failed a 12 months in the past.
And the best way that the massive mountains go is you usually solely get one shot a 12 months. And that sort of sucks, but it surely positively makes it extra particular when issues go rather well. I believe the larger the mountain, the larger the stakes, the larger the stage, the extra necessary the preparation — all that stuff. And to have it go so effectively after what was objectively a reasonably tough 12 months, that simply makes it doubly particular.
Tyler Andrews operating in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: You pulled off this document on what was initially a coaching day for you. Final 12 months, you additionally gunned for the summit on what was presupposed to be a coaching day, and ended up too drained to try the FKT. What did you study and what modified?
Tyler Andrews. Photograph: Chris Fisher
Andrews: 100%, that’s precisely right. Final 12 months, I positively burned just a few too many matches on my summit day first. However there’s so few alternatives to observe these things that you just simply should make errors. The explanation that I did that was as a result of, on nearly each different mountain, I’ve gone to the summit first earlier than trying the FKT. And it’s all the time labored, as much as even 7,000 meters.
However it was means an excessive amount of [on Manaslu]. I completely fried myself final 12 months and had no gasoline on FKT day. So, the plan was not to try this this 12 months. The most important factor I discovered is that there’s no details about these things. Nobody is aware of what they’re speaking about, together with me.
I all the time say coaching is an experiment of 1. And that’s much more true when you will have stuff that’s actually tip of the spear like this. Standard knowledge simply doesn’t work. And so, it’s actually simply experimentation. This time, I positively took a raffle within the different path and it ended up working.
Tyler Andrews trekking by way of close to South Face of Lhotse.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: I learn your FKT gear record out of your interview on the La Sportiva web site. You identified it’s extremely harmful to ascend an 8,000-meter peak with solely that gear. Did you will have a contingency plan if one thing went mistaken? In that case, what was it?
Andrews: It’s a very fascinating query. I believe lots of people have this concept that, “Oh, since you’re entering into minimal gear, it’s actually harmful.” I really assume the best way that I’m shifting the mountain is safer than the common particular person.
Let me clarify: I spend a lot much less time in harmful locations. Whether or not it’s above 8,000 meters, whether or not it’s under big seracs, or on avalanche terrain — I’m capable of transfer a lot faster. You realize, final 12 months, when Chris [Fisher, an athlete and photographer] and I had been going by way of the Khumbu Icefall … we went by way of it in two hours. And it takes some folks on our expedition 10 hours.
So we’ve 80% much less publicity on essentially the most harmful a part of the mountain. Clearly, it’s a raffle, and I acknowledge that. It’s a tradeoff. I don’t have large boots. I don’t have an enormous jacket. However we’re additionally speaking about Manaslu.
There’s 700 folks on the mountain or one thing, and I had Dawa Steven Sherpa, our expedition chief, on radio. He’s received folks on the mountain. So there’s a little little bit of a mountain ethic. Should you do have that massive disaster, folks care for one another.
Tyler Andrews on Manaslu.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: How did you deal with diet on this enterprise? What did you eat and the way usually?
Andrews: I’ve all the time tried to method actually massive mountain stuff equally to how I’ve achieved ultrarunning. So I’m not approaching it as a mountain man. I’m approaching it as an ultrarunner. You realize, if I’m going to do a 10- to 12-hour extremely, I do know precisely what number of grams of carbohydrate I must eat, what I must deliver, how a lot liquid I would like. So I’m making an attempt to eat 300 to 400 energy an hour.
The one actual situation I had with diet was the water scenario. I left with one liter of water from base camp, and that was all I had all the best way to the summit for 10 hours. In order that was fairly tough. And, once more, that was largely as a result of we had our tent at Camp 3, and my plan was to go up there after which perhaps stroll one other hour after which come down.
So after I left Camp 3, I used to be like, ‘Meh, I may boil some snow and take some water, however I’m solely going up an hour after which down a half hour.’
I assumed I’d be again quickly. After which, you already know, I ended up going. It was six hours above Camp 3, simply up after which down. So, yeah, that was fairly tough, actually. The [lack of] hydration was brutal.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: Are you able to describe your psychological battle upon reaching what mountaineers name the Dying Zone? What helps you deal with the large issue of ascending that altitude with out oxygen?
Andrews: I actually assume {that a} great a part of the work above 7,000, perhaps 7,500 meters, is all above the shoulders. It’s actually totally different from another sort of athletic factor I’ve ever needed to do. There’s nobody piece that feels significantly onerous or dangerous. It’s simply the best way that manifests for me as a sensation. It’s this actually great need to show round.
I’m identical to, “God, I don’t need to do that,” you already know? And I’ve all the time been a very massive fan of breaking issues up into smaller items on the psychological facet. I suppose that is my different superpower that I inform folks: I’m extremely good at mendacity to myself. Self-deception is considered one of my best strengths.
So I’ll say, “Oh, you already know what, I’m going to go 50 extra meters, after which I’m simply going to show round and go down.” And then you definitely say, “Cool, okay … Now I’m going to do it once more.” And the reality is, you’re simply getting your self by way of that rep. And it’s precisely the identical up there.
Look intently and you may simply make out Tyler Andrews operating close to Manaslu.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: The place and the way does run coaching/cardio growth issue into prep for outings like this, together with all the opposite variables you’re making an attempt to coach for?
Andrews: That is the factor that surprises folks most about me as an athlete, after I meet folks on an 8,000-meter mountain. I’m approaching this mainly the identical as if I had been coaching for a path race. Clearly, actually massive mountains, you want a talent set, proper? So there’s all the time a stability of talent and health, proper? So, like operating on a treadmill is 100% health and 0% talent.
I’m approaching this as a runner. And so the routes which can be most fun to me are those the place health is an enormous share. A part of the explanation that you just’re seeing this document is as a result of folks method it extra as a talent than a health problem.
And for me, it’s like 90% of the route is strolling uphill. There’s a motive that Manaslu is [considered] a newbie’s mountain. A number of it’s strolling uphill. That’s mainly a take a look at of your engine. I understand how to get my engine actually, actually massive and match.
That is most likely essentially the most outrageous factor that I’ve ever achieved, however I really introduced a stationary bike as much as Base Camp at 4,900 meters above sea stage.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: You introduced a stationary bike to Manaslu Base Camp?! How did you employ that on your coaching?
Andrews: The explanation for that’s that is my third 8,000-meter expedition. I knew from the final couple of years of coaching that staying energetic is absolutely necessary for my health. And so I might exit each single day within the morning and go as much as Camp 1 or one thing, about 1,000 meters up, come down, relaxation, and have lunch.
After which I do a few hours on the stationary bike within the afternoon. And it was about coaching quantity, but additionally about depth. So once more, it goes again to simply this concept that nobody is aware of what they’re doing, together with me. It was an experiment, and it appeared to work fairly effectively. However most individuals are like, “You introduced a motorbike to camp? That doesn’t make sense.”
However I used to be actually simply approaching it like an uphill race.
A portrait of Tyler Andrews.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: How do you view your accomplishment within the context of Reinhold Messner? He proved that ascending these mountains with out supplementary oxygen was doable 52 years in the past. Now we’ve athletes such as you setting FKTs on these mountains — additionally with out supplementary oxygen. What do you consider your house within the mountain’s historical past?
Andrews: When Reinhold Messner was making an attempt to climb Everest with out oxygen, folks had been like, “Yeah, he’s gonna’ die. He simply can’t do this.” And, you already know, I believe he’s another person who simply sort of bucked typical knowledge and was like, “Hey, I’m gonna determine this out.”
I’m not making an attempt to cheat dying. However when folks inform me athletically that one thing I need to do is just not doable, which I’ve heard numerous instances, that simply will get me actually fired up. I might guess that Messner most likely had somewhat little bit of that, too. So it’s an honor to be fascinated by him and me in the identical sentence.
GearJunkie/iRunFar: What do you hope to attain by making use of these operating methods to the world’s highest mountains?
Andrews: Hopefully, [Chris Fisher and I] are heading as much as the Khumbu Valley/Mount Everest area. In order that’s actually thrilling, and we’ve a complete bunch of targets there. It’s essentially the most stunning, spectacular place on earth. No matter we find yourself doing, it’s going to be nice.
I used to be not an athletic child in any respect. However then I completely fell in love with coaching at excessive altitude. I had achieved numerous mountain climbing and mountaineering in my day, however I actually didn’t consider it as one thing I needed to do competitively for a really very long time, till I used to be most likely 30.
It’s been a journey, a mixture of my love of self-discovery and pushing myself, coupled with this unbelievably aggressive internal drive.
A few of that’s being aggressive towards myself, and a few of it’s that I need to be the very best on this planet. And I’m not embarrassed to say that. I need to go to essentially the most aggressive routes, the largest mountains, the largest phases, and the best strain. That’s thrilling for me.
[Editor’s Note: Since this interview took place, Andrews has already set another record in the Himalayas. He and Chris Fisher ran from Lukla to Mera Peak (6,476 meters) and back to Lukla in under 44 hours. This required a 51-mile run in addition to the summit.]
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