American ultrarunner Tyler Andrews has achieved another FKT (Fastest Known Time) on Ecuador’s Cotopaxi (5,893m), breaking the previous speed record set by Karl Egloff, his rival in the quest to climb Everest faster than anyone before.
Andrews suggested Egloff might want to try to recapture the speed record, but the Ecuadorian is not taking the bait.
Andrews, 35, climbed from base to summit in 61 minutes and 50 seconds on January 26. The entire return trip took him 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 49 seconds. For the American, this was a great way to start the year and a significant event, since Cotopaxi was the first high-altitude peak he had summited, almost 20 years earlier. In 2021, it was also his first competitive FKT.
The peak is also significant for Karl Egloff, 44, Andrews’s rival in the quest for an Everest FKT without bottled oxygen. Both plan to return to Everest this spring.
Waited for the volcano to quiet down
Andrews told ExplorersWeb that the Cotopaxi ascent was a good fitness test before Everest, as well as a project that had been on his mind since Egloff completed the return trip in 1 hour and 27 minutes in 2022, breaking the previous record time.
“Cotopaxi, an active volcano, started erupting shortly afterward, so this was my first chance…since then,” Tyler explained.
“I’ve had the joy of going back and forth on this one with Karl Egloff, who set the bar so high, and now, well, it’s your move,” the American wrote on social media. Andrews thinks his record could be improved if there is snow cover all the way down the mountain.
Cotopaxi is the second-highest peak of Ecuador after Chimborazo. Photo: Wikipedia
“I probably lost two to three minutes putting on and taking off crampons at 5,300m, at the snow line,” said Andrews.
He suggests it might even be possible to break an hour for the return trip.
Egloff’s plans
Karl Egloff told ExplorersWeb that he was not aware of Andrew’s recent performance, as he is focused on his own Everest training program. Egloff will climb from the Nepal side of the mountain.
Karl Egloff runs down from the summit of Cotopaxi last month. Photo: Nico Miranda
Egloff, an Ecuadorian national but currently based in Switzerland, traveled home at the beginning of January and spent a month there. His goal, however, was not to do FKTs but to complete a training cycle based on cumulative fatigue.
“That is, climbing nevados [high mountains], descending and climbing again, so I can keep a high heart rate to [duplicate] the fatigue of many hours at high altitude,” he explained.
Egloff trained with his good friend, Nico Miranda, with whom he achieved the Makalu FKT in 2022. The pair even climbed Cotopaxi, but then descended south from the summit and ran neighboring Tungurahua (5,018 m). They covered more than 3,600m vertical in a single day.
No travel before Everest
“Ecuador was great for me to acclimatize to altitude,” Egloff explained. “Currently, I dedicate every other day to hypoxic training and exercising on a stationary bike.”
Soon, he will start sleeping in a hypoxic tent while training his cold-weather endurance in the Alps.
“I have no plans to travel out of Switzerland before going to Nepal,” he added. “I want to spend time with my family before I go away for six weeks.”
Like last year, both runners will attempt the Everest FKT without supplementary oxygen and aim for a return trip — Base Camp-summit-Base Camp. However, they will be on different sides of the mountain: Egloff will try from Nepal, as he did last year, while Andrews will run up the North Side from Tibet.
