This article was originally published in the December 2024/January 2025 issue of UltraRunning Magazine. Subscribe today for similar features on ultra training, racing and more.
On September 2, Michelino Sunseri made an all-out attempt at setting the fastest known time (FKT) on the iconic Grand Teton in Wyoming. This is one of most stunning mountains in North America and has been a competitive FKT since 1939. Michelino roared into the Lupine Meadows Trailhead in 2 hours, 50 minutes and 50 seconds, which was a respectable 2 minutes under the previous best of 2:53:02 set 12 years prior. He had done it.
Except he hadn’t. It turns out that he cut more than one switchback on the route and fastestknowntime.com rejected the FKT.
This made national news and provoked a remarkable amount of discussion among mountain athletes. Kelly Halpin, a Jackson, Wyoming, local with numerous high-profile FKTs to her name, wrote, “I spoke with Michelino before his attempt and discussed all the reasons for him not to cut the switchbacks. He told me he wouldn’t cut, so naturally I was really disappointed when I met him at the finish, and he apologized to me for cutting. A lot of drama here. It’s also a hard discussion because different places have different rules, and front country is different than wilderness which is different than high-traffic areas and national parks.”
She later added, “Love this discussion.”
Why is this an important discussion? Because we care. At a time when media seems to report nothing but numbers—times and distance—it turns out that athletes themselves really care about style and ethics. Let’s find out more about this situation so we can all learn.
First, we should clarify: Michelino is a good person as well as a good runner. This is not the circumstance to feel better about oneself by criticizing someone else. He made a great run, but in shortening the route by over a half mile, he made a mistake which was revealed by his Strava feed. If anyone reading this has never made a mistake, they should either think back a little harder or start their own religion.
The Grand Teton FKT has a very interesting history that informs this ethics discussion. Legends such as Jock Glidden and Bryce Thatcher have gone all-out for fast times, but the modern era kicked off when Kilian Jornet set a stout FKT in 2012 of 2:54:01, while acknowledging he cut many switchbacks. In his mind this was fine because that was, and mostly still is the acceptable style in the Alps. But not in the US. His FKT was subsequently flagged on fastestknowntime.com. Andy Anderson, a ranger stationed at the Longs Peak Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park, was irked by this transgression. So, a mere 10 days later, he threw down a faster time of 2:53:02, which has stood for 12 years.
Does that mean it is not acceptable for a runner to go off-trail? As Kelly noted above, it depends.
Another iconic mountain in the Rockies, Colorado’s Longs Peak, has an official trail plus a shorter, unofficial trail that is unmarked and hard to find. However, its location has been shared among faster runners. Locals deem it ethically “in-bounds,” because this unofficial path started not as a social trail, but as the main trail, and is still used by rangers on rescues due to its efficiency. And 14 days before Andy set his on-trail FKT on the Grand, he also set the FKT on Longs, breaking the FKT set way back in 1978 by Chris Reveley—who also happened to be the Longs Peak ranger at that time—and both used the unofficial trail.
Conversely, down in nearby Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, it is considered bad form to go off-trail, whether going for a record or not, because, with four million users per year, the dry landscape would suffer immediate degradation. A climber/runner wrote on a local discussion group: “To me, the question has always been, are you using an established alternate route (i.e., Longs) or are you just ignoring legal restrictions and trail regulations because they are not convenient? If the latter, I think that obviously affects the legitimacy of the FKT and puts out a sense of entitlement that the rules don’t apply to you because one is running an FKT effort. I think the ethic of holding to best practices and regulations is an important one.”
Lastly, the Grand Teton is in a national park. Due to the high visitor use, and frankly, a much higher budget than most public land, the National Park Service has rules and can enforce them. One can park their car almost anywhere on public land, crawl into the backseat and get a good night sleep for an early start at a trailhead, but try that anywhere in any national park and there will be a ranger shining a flashlight in your eyes at 1 a.m. You will be making a forced exit with much less sleep than intended.
What’s the bottom line?
If you’re in a national park, whether the rule is no dogs or stay on the trail, you must do just that. And if you’re in a race or going for an FKT and the trail itself is the course, cutting a switchback means you haven’t done the full course, which is grounds for disqualification.
HERE ARE SOME HELPFUL TIPS:
Learn and adopt the local customs. You are not a special case.
Respect the natural environment, understanding that switchback cutting creates social trails leading to erosion, and then learn to regulate yourself because that’s the person you want to be.
When in the backcountry, which may have few designated trails, pick a line that is on a more durable rather than fragile surface and practice LNT (Leave No Trace) principles.
Be grateful you have these choices to make, because we are blessed with extensive public lands, from urban parks to wilderness.
Consider volunteering or donating for trail maintenance, and every other November, always vote for the environment.
It’s good to have open discussions on these issues because active participants should not only be aware of the legal standards, but should also be co-developing the ethical standards that provide a foundation for the rules created.
Editor’s Note:
On October 21, the Grand Teton National Park announced that in addition to a citation, they would pursue charges against Michelino Sunseri.
“It was a very public violation of NPS regulations, shared in such a public way by this influencer and sponsored athlete in association with his effort to achieve the fastest known time goal,” public information officer Emily Davis told the National Parks Traveler.
A citation for cutting a switchback in GTNP is $5,000. Sunseri is scheduled to appear in court to discuss his charges on November 19.