When 32-year-old ultra runner Michelino Sunseri collapsed in exhaustion in the Lupine Meadows parking lot on the morning of Sept. 2, he thought he had just achieved an impossible dream.
Sunseri had raced to the top of the iconic Grand Teton, slapped the pinnacle, then flown back down the chimneys, ledges, boulder fields and miles of trail in an attempt to break the fastest known time, or FKT, of a trailhead-to-summit-and-back attempt. Sunseri accomplished this feat — all 13.2 miles and 7,064 feet of elevation gain — in an astonishing two hours, 50 minutes and 50 seconds.
By doing so, he toppled by more than two minutes a record that had stood for 12 years. Or so he thought.
During his effort, Sunseri cut at least one switchback to avoid a crowded trail. The practice is forbidden in Grand Teton National Park. When word of the transgression reached national park rangers and Fastest Known Time, the organization that keeps these speed records, Sunseri’s feat was disqualified.
“Based on our conversation with the NPS and in accordance with our own guidelines, we have decided to reject Sunseri’s submission,” Allison Mercer, Fastest Known Time director, told WyoFile in a Wednesday email. “We discussed it extensively” before reaching the decision, she added.
The decision strips Sunseri of an official record he devoted years of meticulous work and planning toward. While he claims the area in question wasn’t clearly marked as closed, he has also vowed to return to the peak next summer for a fresh attempt on the officially accepted route.
In the rarefied air of high-mountain athletics, the incident has spurred debate about what constitutes appropriate behavior for mountain users and the leeway taken for the sake of reaching nearly unattainable goals.
The attempt
Sunseri, an ultra runner and North Face athlete, first set eyes on the jagged 13,775-foot crown of the Teton Range in 2020, he said, and was immediately struck with a desire to try to set a speed record on it. At the time, he was on a road trip with his then-girlfriend and looking for a new home.
That first compulsion is little embarrassing now, he admits. He didn’t know squat about the mountain’s moods or technical terrain. He called a running friend to float the idea. His buddy quickly disabused him of the fantasy.
“He’s like, ‘No, dude. You don’t just like, show up to the Tetons and go put down an FKT effort on the Grand … that’s not how it works,” Sunseri said.
Michelino Sunseri collapses in exhaustion and joy after believing he’d broken the speed record on the iconic Grand Teton on Sept. 2, 2024 with a blistering roundtrip time of two hours, 50 minutes and 50 seconds. (Connor Burkesmith/@connorburkesmith)
Sunseri heeded his advice to instead try the nearly 40-mile Teton Crest Trail for his first local speed record attempt. On Oct. 5, 2020, he completed that route in six hours, 21 minutes, 40 seconds, notching the FKT.
During that crest run, Sunseri also decided to move to the Tetons. He remembers the moment clearly, soon after he topped Hurricane Pass and confronted a glorious vista of peaks, basins, alpine lakes and drainages. “I was like, ‘this is where I want to be,’” he said.
He moved to Driggs, Idaho, within weeks, finding work bartending during the winters to help finance his running. By that time Sunseri had set speed records and posted top-10 finishes in such grueling events as the Pike’s Peak Marathon, the Speedgoat 50 and the Mt. Ashland Hill Climb.
Once settled in the shadow of the Tetons, Sunseri resolved to take advantage of the proximity, he said, and “go all in on this mountain range.” He studied the routes and records of the mountains, he said, began exploring them and set a goal to break some FKTs.
He hadn’t forgotten the Grand Teton. But when he first climbed it in August 2021, the effort took more than seven hours. “I thought to myself, ‘Man, there is no way I can run it in two hours and 53 minutes. That is insane!’”
The two hours, 53 minutes was a reference to the fastest known time. Andy Anderson, a national park climbing ranger known for speed mountaineering, had set that record in August 2012. Anderson had shaved one minute off the record set just 10 days prior by famous Spanish long-distance athlete Killian Jornet. When Jornet reset the record, he became the first to log a sub-three-hour effort and took the mantle from ultra-running pioneer Bryce Thatcher, who had held it since 1983.
The idea of whittling the endeavor to under two hours and 53 minutes was inconceivable at first to Sunseri. Along with its sheer mileage and elevation gain, the route is littered with boulders, ledges and chimneys. Extensive route-finding and technical scrambling requires extreme care.
A visitor takes in the Teton Range at Glacier View turnout in Grand Teton National Park. (NPS/CJ Adams)
Time on the mountain and the onset of what he now recognizes as obsession changed his mind. Sunseri studied other runner’s attempts, memorized the rocks on the fastest route up and innovated hand and foot placements that could shave off time. He stayed up late watching videos of the route, and climbed the peak again and again, taking practice laps on specific sections. His goal started to seem less distant.
When he met with his North Face athlete manager in January, he told her he was ready to get serious about the Grand FKT. He moved his trailer to Togwotee Pass at the beginning of the summer so his body could fully adjust to the altitude. He quit his bartending gig. He did not sign up for other races. He focused on the Grand.
The decision
Notching an FKT is often a group effort — other people are needed to ensure the route is clear of traffic, check conditions and document the attempt with pictures and video. As the summer progressed, Sunseri said, his team narrowed in on an ideal fitness and weather window between Aug. 25 and Sept. 3.
But on Aug. 26, it snowed in the high peaks. “I was a little worried,” Sunseri said. “I thought my window had closed and that it wasn’t going to be able to happen.”
Warm weather followed, melting out the snow. He and his team stayed glued to the weather report until, finally, a climb looked possible on Sept. 2. It was Labor Day, not ideal for the prospect of uncrowded trails, but Sunseri felt like it might be his final chance.
At 7:45 a.m. that morning, clad only in a pair of running shorts and technical running shoes, Sunseri strapped on a fanny pack carrying a water flask, donned sunglasses, set his watch and took off running from the Lupine Meadows parking lot.
He cruised up to Garnet Canyon, shot to the Lower Saddle, scrambled through the rocks and fixed lines to the Upper Saddle and pushed through the technical portions to the top. But when he tapped the pinnacle, he was several minutes behind Anderson’s pace. Self doubt started to creep in, he said.
As he turned around and began to sprint down, with a friend cheering him on near the summit, a burst of energy welled up. Something switched on, and he booked it, “not even running, like, surfing down it,” he said.
Michelino Sunseri traveled light on his disqualified speed climb of the Grand Teton on Sept. 2, 2024. (Connor Burkesmith/@connorburkesmith)
“I flew down towards the catwalk, making questionable choices and being absolutely reckless,” Sunseri wrote in a log on the physical-activity-timing website Strava. “I was jumping down sections that if I made one mistake or caught one toe, death was surely imminent. I didn’t really care at this point. I wanted this thing so bad, this was literally the only option.”
When he saw a member of his team on the mountain shortly after, Sunseri wrote, “I yelled out ‘1:52:20, we’re cutting the switchbacks!’”
It appears he had also done so on the way up, as he wrote: “Running up the very last uphill of the route, I made the decision to cut the last switchback and avoid the Congo line [sic] of hikers that would be heading up Lupine Meadows Trailhead. If I had to make this choice again, I would 100% make the exact same choice.”
In the end, when he blew back into the trailhead, he fell to his knees in joy. Friends had gathered to witness, and celebrated his accomplishment with beers and bonhomie. Sunseri felt relief, he said. “It just felt so peaceful.”
The North Face marked the occasion with an Instagram post lauding his “impossible dream—come true.” It had nearly 9,000 likes as of Thursday.
The fallout
In the days following Sunseri’s astonishing feat, the FKT page did not refresh the Grand Teton route with his name at the top. Controversy had begun to bubble in the Tetons.
The National Park Service’s hiking etiquette rules state: “Stay on the trail. Don’t step off unless you absolutely must when yielding. Always practice Leave No Trace principles.”
A practical application of Principal 2, “Travel & Camp on Durable Surfaces,” is to “not shortcut trail switchbacks.”
Grand Teton National Park rangers got in touch with FKT after concerns emerged, Public Affairs Officer Emily Davis said.
“He clearly violated a signed closure by shortcutting that switchback on his descent,” she said, referencing the route he posted on Strava. “There are signs up there, and it’s a violation of park service regulations in both the Superintendent’s Compendium and Code of Federal Regulations.”
Michelino Sunseri posted his route to the Grand Teton and back on Strava. (screengrab)
Shortcutting trails, she said, “causes erosion and significant resource damage. It’s also much safer to stay on the marked, established trail.”
A week after his climb, FKT still hadn’t put his name and time up on the Grand Teton page, but had updated it with a new note in bold font. “The National Park Service has emphasized that cutting switchbacks on this route is a violation of the park service regulation 36 CFR 2.1(b) … Any future attempts to cut switchbacks will result in complete rejection, and the NPS intends to pursue criminal charges against athletes who engage in this behavior.” The Jackson Hole News & Guide broke the story Wednesday when it reported the record had been officially rejected.
The rules
Kelly Halpin grew up in Jackson and is also a professional mountain runner with a pile of FKTs. In recent months, she’s been vocal in her advocacy of trail etiquette.
Not cutting switchbacks, she said, is “like outdoor etiquette 101.”
Halpin reached out to FKT in the spring to ask them about updating their guidelines to include that rule, particularly if it is stressed by local etiquette, she said. “Regionally, here in Grand Teton National Park, it is a big no-no.” She had also posted about the topic on social media, she said, and talked to fellow athletes, including Sunseri.
“It’s important as someone who’s representing a brand, and also someone who’s representing the local running community, to stay on the trails,” she said. “You have to set a good example.”
As a fellow ultra runner, Halpin was in the Lupine Meadows parking lot that day to support Sunseri. She was disappointed to find out he had cut a switchback, she said. “I was like, ‘noooooo.’”
The thing is, she said, “I fully believe he can get the record in a clean, aesthetic way.”
Morning light on the Grand Teton. (NPS/CJ Adams)
In a statement following his disqualification, Sunseri said he intends to do just that. He also defended his actions, noting he followed previous FKT routes that the organization accepted.
“As an outdoor athlete, it is my utmost responsibility to respectfully follow the rules of traveling over terrain that is accepted and legal in order to protect the environment in which I am visiting. In this case, the trail I traveled on — which is marked on several maps — was not clearly signed as a closed trail,” he said. “I look forward to next summer, when I hope to again attempt The Grand Teton FKT, on the officially accepted section of this trail.”
The opinions
The incident has fueled a lot of talk about mountain ethics, said David Gonzales, a writer and filmmaker best known for inventing the Jackson-based triathlon known as the Picnic.
The claim that it was OK for Sunseri to take shortcuts just because people have done so in the past, Gonzales said, is strange. He is also surprised The North Face hasn’t taken down its Instagram post or clarified it in light of the FKT rejection.
“I just find it really puzzling that this guy would double down on saying that he did it when he obviously didn’t,” Gonzales said. “He’s obviously, like, an incredible athlete. And so, why don’t you just just do it again? It’ll be an even better story.”
As a former owner of Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, accomplished mountaineer Andy Carlson has spent countless hours on Grand Teton, though in a much different fashion. A standard format for guiding the mountain, he said, is to hike clients up to a saddle, camp overnight, then summit the following morning using ropes and climbing gear for the technical sections before descending to the valley. He doesn’t recall ever monitoring the time it took.
“In one sense, it’s kind of minor,” he said of switchback cutting. “But on the other, it’s the National Park, and there are a gazillion people, and it’s a bad example.”
A ranger in Grand Teton National Park. (NPS/Bonney)
Renny Jackson is a former climbing ranger who worked in Grand Teton National Park for 34 years. Managing proper trail use is a big task for park employees, he said.
“The Park Service has their hands full with trying to keep people on official trails where they are designated,” he said, noting that the lower four miles of the Lupine Meadows trail have been in existence for nearly a century. In fact, the 72-year-old climbed the Grand Teton the same week of the record attempt, and saw park crews working to restore a damaged section of the landscape.
If anything, Jackson said, the FKT incident “might give some advertisement with the frustration I’m sure the Park Service feels. They are constantly fighting a battle of trying to repair these things as they occur.”
The record holder
A dozen years after his record-breaking effort, Andy Anderson found himself pulled back in the conversation buzzing around the Grand Teton speed record in the last two weeks.
Anderson, who lives in Lake Tahoe near where Sunseri grew up, has known the younger runner for a long time. He advised Sunseri during his training and rooted for him, and was one of the first people Sunseri called after he finished. Anderson is floored at his accomplishment, he said. “He’s been working so hard on it for so long, and it’s really cool to see him get that time.”
Anderson declined to comment on the etiquette debate. Even after Sunseri told him about the rejection, he said, that doesn’t change the fact of what he did. “Michelino is an amazing athlete and a great guy, and I’m super happy for him to get that time.”
Michelino Sunseri tags the top of the Grand Teton midway through his fastest-ever roundtrip climb of the iconic peak on Sept. 2, 2024. (Connor Burkesmith/@connorburkesmith)
Anderson suspects that with more practice, Sunseri can do it even faster.
Fellow runner Halpin, who is also confident Sunseri can do it again, noted that for all the fanfare over the athlete, the place also matters.
“I think it’s important … in a national park where we get to run on these maintained trails, to follow the rules of the park,” she said. “It’s a really cool thing to go fast. It’s just very important to also be a good steward.”
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