Former Navy Seal Climbs and Skis Down Mt. Shasta in ‘Fastest Known Time’
Former Navy Seal Jack Kuenzle from Roxbury, Connecticut, achieved a brand-new Fastest Known Time (FKT) for skiing up and down Mount Shasta. His time was nothing short of remarkable.
Beginning his ascent at Bunny Flats, located at an elevation of 6,880 feet, the 27-year old extreme athlete faced a challenging climb of 7,602 feet over the course of two and a half hours to reach Mount Shasta’s summit at 14,162 feet. He managed to complete the ascent in just two hours and four minutes, followed by a lightning-fast descent on the same route, taking only 26 minutes.
Read the full description of the FKT from Kuenzle:
“Shasta RT FKT. Call it 2:30:48. I couldn’t get my watch to stop. Such a great route. Conditions are so annoying here but so suitable for a skimo record. Wasn’t able to recce prior above 7400 ft, since I summited in Feb. Super firm conditions and then a lot of postholing to Red Banks headwall. Good news is there is now a bootpack ?. Misery is all rock also. Didn’t help. Was able to sneak around east face on descent and then run across the rocks. Still beat my up time from last Feb/the ski ascent record from Bunny by 60 seconds or so.
Didn’t really pay much attention to the splits going into this, so interesting that I PR’d the booter section over last year, despite postholing, and split the initial skinning about the same. I think it’s because the worst post holing was below the segment because I had to start booting so low. Last time I was like a demon from base of spring to Helen and then burned up. I had way more in the tank and paced much better this year, but got fucked by the conditions when the time came. Did the most technical edge skinning on steep windboard of my life below Helen. Then came very very close to turning around above Helen. Wind was ripping and it was so firm. Had to transition to booting much lower and then entered the postholing shit show for 2500 ft. Plus yesterday I hauled 50 pounds of race gear and camping gear up from mcbride 2500 ft to at the base of the gulch. Right after I arrived they opened the road. So annoying. And then my skins, which I had stuffed in my underwear, became incredibly glued to my skin and I literally almost tore my dick off trying to remove them.
Thank you to Chris Carr and Jason Koster for the photos! And thanks to them and Nick Meyers for helping with weather and conditions beta!”
Kuenzle’s remarkable performance on Mount Shasta demonstrates his exceptional skiing prowess and endurance, setting a new benchmark for future adventurers to challenge. Congrats Jack!
