The passion is just so many things. Being out in nature and challenging myself is a huge part of it. You know some people like to move slow and
like just soak in the views For me, in order to have a full experience in nature, there's this element of like pushing myself to my own best, against whatever the obstacle or
challenge is that that part of nature presents. Part of the experience is going through the process of both training and being ready for that and experiencing that and coming out the other end. I'd like to say you can only teach what you
become. You can only teach what you learn, and so I do what I do, in part, because it
gives me permission to tell my students, "Hey I'm just some kid from some small town, and I'm out chasing really big things that are in line with what I care about in the
world." And so if I can do it you can do it. I don't know why I started collecting them. Would have been would have been early high school. I just started hanging the numbers on the wall
in my room, and, then, when I became a teacher it sort of made sense to hang them up in a place
where it might start a conversation with a student about life and decisions and racing and running and fitness and health. Sitting out on that step out there, I remember one time that he was just maybe two, he took off and he ran down the sidewalk and he tripped and he fell and he hit his head and the cement leaves those little waffle marks... No big deal, he gets up, we hold him He cries a little bit, pretty soon "okay I'm fine." He gets up, goes out, he runs down there again. He does the same thing. Did it three times before I finally realized that he's probably not going to stop that. He was very energetic. They teasingly called him, the energizer bunny," at school. And, yes, lots of energy and impulsive and challenging to parent. Jason was ADHD, and the good thing was mom's heart
was out for him and she was always doing something to make it where it would work. My dad had trouble dealing with me because he kind of grew up in a hard childhood and so he had a lot of difficulty
dealing with a kid that couldn't you know remember and listen and follow directions easily. And, so, he
would often like take my brother places and leave And, so, he would often like take my brother places and leave me behind. You know a lot of a lot of families do
that, but you know as a little kid it was really tough to like decode and interpret that. He just as
a child was left to his own devices in some ways and I think that he did have to entertain himself
a lot, and he did have to work through a lot of feelings. And, you know he got in trouble a lot
just because he's so he's just into everything you know he can't stop moving. So I think there's this
motivation through movement to get acknowledgement that played into why I would choose a goal like
to break a six minute mile in middle school. I sort of realized maybe it was possible I was
running maybe somewhere around 6:20 at the time so you know now i can look back and be like that's
a pretty decent amount of time to take off that's no easy mark, and then it came to the final
pe mile of the year. I remember going out hard and running with these few people and they're
kind of like falling off one after the other and I can remember that moment as I stepped
across the line the teacher read off 5:57. I just flopped into the grass and pain everywhere
but also just like so satisfied with what I'd just done then from there it just sort of
solidified this like goal setting mindset. And, I just kept pursuing the next
goal you know okay I want to run in high school I want to run on varsity
in high school I want to go to state I think when he sees kids who are having
trouble he sees a bit of himself in that, and he knows athletics exploration moving your
body how big of a difference that can make. All right see the big white goal down there with my
stuff yeah wanna meet me there. Let's go Kingston! And go ahead and lay down flat on the ground go
ahead and put a hand on your heart. Is it beating fast or slow? What does that mean? We're
getting stronger. We're getting stronger. So, then what is the big old
nickel the ultimate goal hint um yeah, I want to be the
first person to get 100 FKTs. So, an FKT, or Fastest Known Time, is essentially
the fastest time established on a route. There is a website that is the governing source of
all these FKTs if you feel that a route is worthy. If an FKT or if it's inspiring then you can submit
that to be approved for an FKT route. Or, otherwise, there's already hundreds of routes on there
that have been approved that people have been chasing after for years- especially some of the
more classic routes. The website is run by Peter and Buzz who've ran it for years. They're the ones
who ultimately approve your route or your FKT. Wow, Peter and I met many moons ago. Was it at
Leadville? And, then I think it was the year, 2000, we went for the John Muir trail record together. So,
we kind of put the multi-day trail racing thing on the map. We didn't really care about terminology
until I actually created a little website to keep track and the website had to be called something,
so I called it "Fastest Known Time." With racing you race something and then you have to wait until the
next year to do it again, and it has to be on that day, under those certain conditions. Whereas an FKT
is a lot different you can do it any time of the year, under whatever conditions are most favorable,
and when you're feeling the most fit. There are roots from a one mile all the way to the Pacific
Crest Trail which is 2,800 miles. You have to have some sort of sense of adventure to want to go out
and just do this whether it's you know something that's 10 miles or something that's a thousand
miles one of the best things is like knowing that you are the fastest person that's ever covered
that trail that feels pretty good i think by nature fastest known time means that you wanted to
compare how you did to someone else. We're choosing to make it competitive. It's making everyone better,
and it's rearranging what we think is possible. Jason's done some stout routes. For example, we're
near infinity going over the summit Rainier, twice by yourself. You use the first person to bring
attention to things like that, and, then someone else comes along later and goes faster. Fair
enough, and that's how the games play. It offers athletes with a number of different skill
sets opportunities to go be the best at something. Ultimately, like FKT attempts are always
super glamorous. Running's hard- like even when running feels easy, it's still hard. Often
you're by yourself the weather can easily kind of derail your plan. Lots of hallucinations,
my hallucinations and I are great friends. I mean all it takes is like one gender reveal
party gone wrong and boom the forest is on fire. And, then not to mention like blister hot spots on
your feet things like that can start to compound. When you're out there by yourself you like really
have to commit know what you're up against, and know the challenges that you might encounter. And,
even if things don't go right, if like weather isn't right or conditions aren't
exactly what you thought you just have to go for it. I don't think you ever finish
one the same as you started one. Like you always learn something about yourself or you learn
that you can push just a little bit harder or you learn that you can work through these mental
challenges or whatever it may be. And Jason's not the fastest just pure runner by any stretch but he
has a lot of skills that many many runners don't. In 2015, I got in a rollover accident in my car and
couldn't run anymore. You know one of the first things a doctor said to me after the accident
it was like, "Oh yeah you're gonna have to let that part of your life go probably." You know that
was kind of a low moment, but also a moment where that spirit of uh defiance kind of popped
out like you don't know me, you just wait. Over the course of this like I'm doing the rehab
to get this ability to run back to rebuild my body. And the running started to come back, so I
just kept building these skills. And, then I was like well okay, I can now climb technical
peaks. Let's start climbing technical peaks and running in between them. I didn't even
know what FKTs were until three years ago, but does this feel like a reasonable way
to spend a few years of my life? Absolutely. And, then I kept making progress with this
KT 75 and 85. And pretty soon people started asking what are you going to do for 100.
And, I hadn't really thought about because I'm just out doing stuff I love, right?
I'm just a kid playing on playgrounds, and then it was like well maybe I should do
something kind of cool for number 100. Jason is at number 99 right now. Now, he's going for the
Bulgers which is an odd term for the highest 100 summits in Washington state. He could have
done all kinds of different things for his 100th FKT, but a little bit of poetic justice, he's
going for the 100 highest summits for his 100th FKT. The current FKT on the voltage 100 is about
410 days. What he's doing is not something you can just get off the couch and you know I'm gonna
follow the trail at the top of this you gotta know how to use crampons and ice axe and not
fall into a crevasse and die. You know it's not the bold move, it's not to dive across the finish line.
It's every single day for 50 days don't mess up. This is going to be quite likely it may be the
hardest thing. When push comes to shove, and it's all added up, the hardest thing I've ever done. All
I know is I'm excited. I'm stoked. I'm ready to be climbing my first mountain
doing the thing I want to do. Thank you. I need to get my bag organized. I started this silly process of I'm
going to do 100 FKTs, and I've called it silly from the very beginning, but if you
can find the meaning and the most silly thing, then it really wasn't silly and
it really wasn't meaningless. Oh my goodness just gonna go climb some
mountains life is gonna be so simple for a while. With my mind that's like bouncing all
over the place when I'm out pushing hard it's clear and clean and quiet and there's like
one objective. All right windy peek up ahead. Cathedral poking into the clouds. Nathan
Longhurst. Amphitheater. Rimmel. Beautiful views! Windy Peak: Bulger number one.
On the top of Bulger number two. The builder number three. We are socked in this will be fun that is
Bulger number four. It's been a long day. Stuff didn't quite go according to plan. There's that,
you know, ability to sustain yourself for a long period of time in a really rugged place, and that
requires there's like a pretty robust sense of self to be able to sit with yourself and kind of
wrestle with yourself. There she is Mount Stewart I am on top of Mount Stewart. On the summit
of Sherpa. All of that, next. This is Argonaut. On Coal Chuck, right now. All right yeah,
we're on the Summit of Dragon Tail. 19 hours and 12 minutes and not even back to
the car yet. You know like I think that that quality exists in each of us, but we often just
are silencing that in layers of fear and anxiety, and reasons start piling up why you can't. It
takes a lot of brewing to get to why you can. Oh man this thing's so much
bigger it's like not even it's order of magnitude difference, but it's
like I knew that's what I was signing up for like merging the process of doing like a long
trail with all the logistics that go into mountains and skills that go into
mountains and rock climbing. And, then, just like the physicality of
like big multi-day ultra type efforts. Yeah, definitely, definitely big. It's like the story of the
monarch butterfly migration. These butterflies come from Morelia in
Mexico, and take three generations to get to Canada every year. And, once they make it there,
they produce the fourth generation which is a much stronger butterfly, and that butterfly gets
to fly all the way back to Mexico in one flight does that apply to athletes? I think so.
I think there are athletes out there. That are like breaking new ground and
sometimes you don't realize it or see it and maybe 100 years down the
road it'll make more sense. I'm lucky because I think I started
from a framework of having to like truly find my my own way and my own passion
for why i was doing what i was doing. Yeah, it kind of comes from inside him. It's
just really likes to accomplish things. If your kids found out or know about you doing
it's like what is what do you want their take away to be? I want them to be inspired that
if this crazy gym teacher that they have can go out and climb 100 mountains
because he loves climbing mountains, then they can do whatever it is
they love to to the same degree. There it is - Dorado Needle. This was one of the big,
hard ones on my list because of that summit crux. All right, getting ready for the
Chilliwacks, you can see the spread here. Trying to get calories organized because
we gotta catch the boat in the morning. Yeah because the Canadian border is closed, and
that's where the main access to these Washington bulgers are for the Chilliwacks. It turns this into
a full-blown expedition with no contact no cell reception, no resupply. nNormally, if the Canadian
border was open, it would be a pretty casual trail walk to get in from the trailhead there. But,
yeah, instead: Epic bushwhack in epic bushwhack out. What'd we just do? Oh, we just did the, we just
got through the silver silver creek bushwhack. We've got the head wall up ahead. How was it? It was really hard. There were a ton
of mosquitoes but that's not why I'm - it's just - This was such a big crux to this whole project,
and now look at this we're in the Chilliwacks. It's about 5:30 in the morning, we're
gonna go climb some mountains today. We have traversed from Rum,
and we are on top of Custer. We are on the tallest peak of the Chilliwacks,
right now. That's Pickard - this is peak number 90. Peak number 90 out of 100. Peak number 90.
Yes look at this some mountain blueberries. We have bushwhacked down from the
Chilliwacks, and we've made it to a trail. Are you having fun? Yeah that tired
beat up type 2 kind of fun, probably. We were on shucks in this morning. Boop there's the top. Do you want anything from here? There we go. I think you're such a dirt. A little bit of worry just about the like
traversing over to little Tahoma, but also like this thing's actually coming together. It's been a lot. When he got out
of the Chilliwacks was really when, when it was like, "wow this is real." Like
you know all of the hard stuff is done. Here we are clipped in at what was the crux
even now it's like this is the last hard push. We're doing it Himalaya style. Up to the summit of Mount Rainier. I am suffering. It's hard to say you know like what exactly he does during his low points because
he's so good at managing them himself. It's always a struggle to keep the
balance of others thoughts of you and expectations of you in balance with your
own passion, with your own experience, with your own desires, your own inner voice that's
telling you what you should and shouldn't do. Here we are driving to Mount Adams - Peak number
99. Peak number 99. Look at this, normally this is all snow when this would be climbed, and here is
the summit marker. I'm now getting pelted by hail. And, just the idea of coming down this final
descent and just like no no no conservation, let loose, open it up, empty the
tanks, feel like a runner again, um, race the clock, just pound into the finish line,
you know breathing hard knees aching body on the edge of exploding across the finish line, and
done. Like that that's the moment that that I've been kind of like looking forward to. It, so, it's
like that's that's kind of what today is about. All right here we go last one. When he was a sophomore in high school he came to
me and sat down and he said, "Dad I need to talk to you," and he looked like he was real concerned. He
said, "You love football," and I go, "Yeah" "and I know you love football and so I've been trying to do
football, but, dad, I'd like to run cross-country." And I go, "Well why don't you?" How was
it? Excellent, faster than expected. He thought oh you don't care? Yeah, well I care, but I want I care about is that
you find who you are and what you need to do he could just about do anything
that he sets his mind to and i think if you spend time with him
you probably already know that I am really proud that Jason is my son and
that I had an opportunity to be his father. Here he comes. Yeah yeah let's go climb some mountains. And they said it was impossible.
He found a way to get it done. He did it. He won't stop. That's
the beautiful thing about him. 100 peaks. Right now I genuinely feel like
I want to go play or do something. Once I get comfortable that'll change. Maybe, I don't know the little kid in me has always
been a fighter like the like can't go to bed. You know kind of little kid, "No gotta play more,
gotta, gotta think more, gotta create more, gotta goof off more, ah!" So it's like now this thing
it's like no, we can't be done, we've gotta go. There's something we can go do, I can feel that
that's the only reason I can think that I've you know was able to do a project like this. Is
that that's in there: The insatiable little kid.
