Nolan's 14 — Colorado's Most Infamous Unsupported Route

Not a Race. Something Harder.

Nolan’s 14 is not a race. There is no entry fee, no registration, no course markings, no aid stations, and no finish line banner. It is a route — a linkup of 14 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in the Sawatch Range — with an informal completion standard of under 60 hours.

Since Jim Nolan first proposed the route in the 1990s, fewer than 100 people have completed it. Most attempts fail. Many never start the second day.

The route covers approximately 90-100 miles depending on the exact line chosen, with roughly 44,000 feet of elevation gain — more vertical than Hardrock, over terrain that is entirely off-trail for significant sections. The average altitude throughout is above 12,000 feet.

The Route

Nolan’s 14 traverses the Sawatch Range from Mount Shavano in the south to Mount Massive in the north — or in reverse. The 14 peaks in order (south to north):

Mount Shavano (14,229 ft), Tabeguache Peak (14,155 ft), Mount Antero (14,276 ft), Mount White (14,286 ft), Mount Princeton (14,204 ft), Mount Yale (14,196 ft), Mount Columbia (14,073 ft), Mount Harvard (14,420 ft), Mount Oxford (14,153 ft), Mount Belford (14,197 ft), Missouri Mountain (14,067 ft), Huron Peak (14,003 ft), Mount Iowa (14,019 ft — sometimes excluded), La Plata Peak (14,336 ft), Mount Elbert (14,433 ft — highest in Colorado), Mount Massive (14,421 ft).

Between each summit, the route drops into valleys, crosses roads, and climbs back up — mostly on loose talus, tundra, and off-trail mountain terrain. There is no single correct line. Successful completions have used different variations of the connecting sections.

The 60-Hour Standard

The informal completion standard is 60 hours. This is not a hard rule imposed by any organization — it is a community consensus that emerged from the route’s history. Completions outside 60 hours are typically noted as “unofficial” by the community.

Completing Nolan’s 14 in 60 hours requires covering roughly 90 miles and 44,000 vertical feet at altitude, with no sleep, on terrain that is often unmarked, in Colorado summer weather that can produce afternoon thunderstorms on 14,000-foot exposed ridges daily.

Completions

As of the mid-2020s, the total completion count remains below 100. Notable completions include efforts by Kilian Jornet, Anton Krupicka, Anna Frost, and a small number of American mountain runners who have made the Sawatch their specific training ground.

Speed records for the route have been pushed progressively lower. The sub-24 hour completion of Nolan’s 14 — covering the equivalent of a 90-mile mountain ultra in under 24 hours at altitude — is considered one of the most extreme endurance benchmarks in North American mountain running.

Why It Matters

Nolan’s 14 represents the far edge of what organized ultra racing doesn’t cover. It is self-supported, unsupported, self-navigated, and self-accountable. There is no race director, no medical team, no crew access protocol. Runners carry what they need, navigate what they can’t see, and deal with whatever the mountain produces.

For runners who have completed Western States, Hardrock, and UTMB, Nolan’s 14 is the challenge that sits beyond the race calendar — something that requires not just endurance but mountain competence, navigation skill, and the willingness to operate completely alone in one of Colorado’s most remote alpine environments.

It is not for most ultrarunners. It is for the ones who have already run everything else.

~90-100 miles | ~44,000 ft gain | Summer window only | Sawatch Range, CO | 60-hour unsupported standard | Not a race