Printed Could 30, 2026 12:37AM
Throughout his first day on Wisconsin’s Ice Age Path (IAT), Jamieson Hatt questioned if he had bitten off greater than he might chew. The ultrarunner from Ontario, Canada, staggered underneath the load of a 70-pound backpack. Greater than a thousand miles and 80,000 ft of elevation achieve sat between him and his purpose: the world’s longest unsupported quickest recognized time (FKT). On Could 24, he completed that purpose, ending the 1,1600-mile IAT in simply 30 days, 8 hours, and 59 minutes.
Via-hiking at any velocity is difficult sufficient. There’s publicity to the weather, extended absence of creature comforts, and naturally, the bodily ordeal. However to do it unsupported provides an excessive degree of problem: In response to the principles of Quickest Recognized Time, the main arbiter of path velocity information, hikers who need their unsupported FKT to be acknowledged can’t have exterior assist of any sort. (Like Backpacker, FKT is owned by Outdoors Interactive Media.) Not like self-supported efforts, which enable resupplies and caches, unsupported athletes should carry all their gear and meals from begin to end, except for water from pure sources and public faucets (free water from business sources shouldn’t be permitted). By the principles’ strictest interpretation, family and friends can’t cheer you on from beside the path, and pre-arranged photographers can’t come to doc the journey. Athletes might talk with others over the telephone, however aside from that, they’re on their very own.
Beforehand, the longest recorded unsupported hikes capped out at 800 miles on the Arizona Path, which solely two hikers have accomplished within the type. In 2024, Heather Anderson beat Artwork Brody’s unsupported FKT on the path when she accomplished it in 24 days, carrying all her meals from the beginning.
Hatt was impressed by Brody and Anderson’s efforts, and questioned if he might take it additional. He already holds dozens of FKTs, totally on shorter routes close to his dwelling in Ontario. Beforehand, Hatt’s longest unsupported effort was on the 550-mile Bruce Path, which he accomplished in 12 days final August.
“I didn’t wish to do the Arizona Path as a result of [the desert is] probably not in my wheelhouse. I stay in Ontario, Canada. It’s only a completely different world.” Hatt thought of what path may work for “the following massive distance,” and landed on the IAT, which can be comparatively near dwelling.
“The Ice Age Path was sort of greater than I needed to do, nevertheless it was the following [longest] distance. And the terrain’s sort of much like Ontario, in order that labored out.” He was additionally drawn to its standing as a Nationwide Scenic Path, and a widely known end-to-end route well-known for its excessive degree of problem and pastoral surroundings. There are not any prior unsupported information on the IAT; Collin Britton holds the self-supported FKT at 24 days (utilizing resupplies and different sources obtainable to all hikers). Hatt seems to be the primary hiker to finish the path utterly unsupported.
Getting ready for the Lengthy Haul
“I had the thought for in all probability a few years,” he says. “I believe I simply sort of put it off for a bit as a result of I knew what all goes into it.” However this winter, on the heels of his profitable Bruce Path document, Hatt lastly thought to himself, “you’ve bought to go for this.”
By nature, setting FKTs within the unsupported type is extraordinarily committing; when you begin, there are not any alternatives to swap gear, complement meals, and even fill a water bottle at a roadside Starbucks. Hatt spent months planning his meals and equipment for the IAT.
“The choices you make earlier than [you start the trail] are the selections it’s a must to stick to,” he says. “If I convey this gear, it both has to work or I fail. And the identical factor with the meals. If you happen to don’t have sufficient meals, then you may’t end, and if in case you have an excessive amount of meals, you then in all probability can barely stroll together with your pack initially.”
He carried 30 days value of calorie-dense meals—principally nuts, coconut chocolate bars, cream-filled cookies, nut butter, and meal substitute bars totaling 52 kilos and 123,000 energy—or 1.75 lbs and 4,100 energy per day. He carried two pairs of footwear, not desirous to threat failure or joint issues from packed-out cushioning over 1,160 miles.
Within the months main as much as his hike, Hatt skilled by filling his pack with baggage of rice, rising the load and distance over time.
“The percentages of you ending are so slim,” he says. “You place all this time, cash, effort into this, after which the probabilities that you just’re going to go dwelling disenchanted are fairly massive. I simply felt referred to as to attempt.”
Hatt got here by distance climbing by ultrarunning. After working a number of hundred-mile races, he was on the lookout for methods to problem himself additional—and eyeing longer and longer distances. His first FKT try was a supported effort on Ontario’s Bruce Path, however he didn’t love counting on a crew. He started to give attention to unsupported-style thru-hikes as a substitute.
“It was simply all the time [focused on] discovering the following hardest factor that’s going to problem me extra,” he says.
An Arduous Path
From the second Hatt set off from the IAT’s western terminus on April 24 at 8 a.m., he had doubts about his means to complete. His heavy pack left him aching and exhausted after his first few 30-mile days. So as to carry all of his meals, he used a 100-liter pack that weighed 5 lbs empty. It wasn’t his first selection, nevertheless it was the one pack he might squeeze a month’s value of meals and equipment into.
“It’s like carrying a piano in your again,” he says.
As his pack lightened, Hatt was in a position to push upward of 40 miles per day. Nonetheless, even 4,100 day by day energy constitutes minimal rations on a hike of this dimension, and starvation posed a relentless problem. Hatt misplaced over 20 kilos over the course of the month and infrequently felt weak. He additionally discovered that the IAT’s lengthy roadwalks restricted tenting choices, which means he typically needed to accept fewer miles in a day than he felt able to simply to benefit from a protected place to sleep. With 5 days to go, he began experiencing extreme swelling in his shin, and his tempo and morale took a success. However he pushed by.
Hatt says he was deeply impressed with the IAT’s lengthy stretches of well-maintained path by hardwood forest and glacial remnants. The neighborhood across the path left a mark on him, too.
“The folks of Wisconsin blew me away,” he says. Earlier than his try, Hatt posted on-line searching for details about protected parking and bus choices to shuttle between trailheads. Locals supplied him parking at their properties, spare rooms to crash in as soon as he completed, and even a experience throughout the state to start his hike. A handful of these of us—beforehand strangers—met Hatt on the end, welcoming him with a bathtub of watermelon and much-needed emotional assist.
By nature, unsupported efforts are solitary. Athletes can’t settle for a lot as a chilly soda from a path angel with out compromising the try. However Hatt says simply figuring out the IAT neighborhood was behind him helped buoy him by a number of the more difficult moments on path.
“After I actually needed to give up, I simply was like …‘I must preserve going as a result of these folks helped me out and I don’t wish to simply pull the pin on this factor.’”
Hatt doesn’t suppose he might have hiked a lot additional with out on-trail assist.
“I managed it simply sufficient to barely get to the top,” he says. “It’s superb what you are able to do in case you one way or the other don’t throw within the towel and provides your self an opportunity.”
With this FKT, Hatt beat the earlier longest unsupported hike by practically 500 miles. He doesn’t doubt that somebody will come alongside and push that restrict—he believes that Ohio’s Buckeye Path, at 1,400 miles, is an effective candidate for the following longest unsupported thru-hike. Nonetheless, his document possible gained’t fall any time quickly.
“[I don’t know] how many individuals wish to do this sort of factor, as a result of it’s probably not tremendous interesting,” Hatt says. “I didn’t bathe for 30 days.”
