Friend of the podcast Jason Hardrath returns! Jason is a mountain runner and athlete based out of Oregon. This summer he became the fastest to complete the Rocky Mountains Slam, a route comprised of the 58 Colorado 14ers, 36 Wyoming 13ers, and 27 Montana 12ers. In this episode we loosely talk about Jason's effort, but we talk a ton about the ethos of mountain running, the risks and rewards of the sport, and much much more. Follow Jason on Instagram @jasonhardrath or online at...

Will Robinson is a peak bagger and thru-hiker from Vermont. He has completed various large projects including a White Mountains Direttissima, single season winter hike of the Northeast 115, single season hike of the Colorado 14ers, and a thru-hike of the Long Trail. Most recently, Will became the first known person to complete a thru-hike of the 115 4,000 foot mountains in the Northeast. We discuss all the juicy and bloody details of his standard setting thru-hike - I hope you all...

You read it right, I'm the guest on my own podcast. Two weeks ago, I finished setting the unsupported FKT for the Long Trail in 4 days, 11 hours, 34 minutes, taking over 12 hours off Stringbean's self-supported time and 36 hours off Jeff Garmire's unsupported time. As of the recording this podcast, that is the second fastest overall time on the Long Trail, regardless of support category. This week, guest co-hosts Jordan Fields and Jack Kuenzle interview me about the effort. This isn't a play...

On June 23rd 2023, certified-crazy-person and wise statesman Bill Tidd completed the New Hampshire 48 in a record  setting and mind blowing 3 days, 5 hours, 3 minutes. He improved on the record by almost 4 hours. This was an enormous effort that was a decade in the making. We cover a ton of ground in this podcast, but there's a lot we didn't get to. If you leave this episode wanting more, go check out his full trip report on BillTidd.com. You can also follow Bill on Strava! Use code...

Over the past couple of weeks, I spent 12 days thru-hiking the Vermont Long Trail. During this episode I recorded snippets from different days of the hike, sometimes talking to myself and sometimes talking to Grace "Webs" Palmer. This thru-hike and episode were a ton of fun, and I hope you enjoy listening along! Follow the podcast on Instagram @fromthebackcountry Use code fromthebackcountry for 15% off both Infinit Nutrition and Hyperlite Mountain Gear on their respective websites!

Xander Keiter is an ultra-runner, Mainer, and 2nd year law student at Columbia Law School. Starting on June 19th, Xander set the record for the fastest run of Maine's 100 Mile Wilderness, throwing down a time of 24 hours, 35 minutes, 6 seconds -  taking 4.5 hours off of the previous record. Listen along as we unpack the buildup and epic culmination to an effort that has been on Xander's mind every day for the last three years. Follow Xander on Instagram @xkeiter2 and on Strava. (he asked me...

Joffrey Peters is a trail runner and software engineer who lives in the Upper Valley in New Hampshire. He holds or has held many of the most competitive local FKTs in the area, including the Smarts Traverse, Moose Mountain Traverse, Cardigan Mountain State Park Loop, and many more. Perhaps most notably, Joffrey holds the men's unsupported records on the Dartmouth 50, Dartmouth 50 out-and-back, and the Hundred Mile Wilderness. In this episode we discuss his athletic journey, we dig into some...

Nik Hase is a distance athlete, general connoisseur of outdoor adventures, and third year medical student at Tufts University. Nik and I know each other going way back to middle school, and I credit Nik and his dad Eric for much of my current love for the outdoors. Nik has completed athletic events such as the Lake Placid Ironman and a run of the 100 Mile Wilderness (with me and Xander Keiter, see episode 1). Today, we talk about the basics of metabolism and nutrition for outdoor athletics...

Jack Kuenzle is a famous petting zoo and OnlyFans star who occasionally also runs mountains. In just the last year, Jack has set speed records on the White Mountains 100, Ramsay Round, Bob Graham Round (earning #1 FKT of the year), Mt Shasta, and most recently Mt Rainier. In this episode we focus on this most recent mind-boggling effort in which Jack climbed over 9,000 feet to the summit of Rainier and skied back to his car in 3 hours and 4 minutes. We also fit this effort into the larger...

Chris Fisher is an endurance athlete based out of Colorado. Chris has a bunch of huge efforts to his name, including 16 FKTs and 400,000 feet of vertical in one month back in October of 2021. Most recently, Chris became the 2nd known person to hike all of Colorado's 14,000 foot mountains in a single winter, shaving a full 12 days off the previous record in the process. Find Chris on Instagram @chrisjfish

Mac and Jacob are a couple of rad mountain athletes and friends of mine dating back to my days in the Northeastern University outing club. They both throw down big missions on the regular, but most recently they both participated in Last Skier Standing. LSS is a race hosted by Ski The Whites at Black Mountain in Maine where skiers skin up and ski down the same mountain once per hour until there is only one person left skiing. Jacob and Mac totally balled out. Mac came in close second for...

Rue McKenrick is a professional backpacker, triple crowner, conservationist, and originator of the American Perimeter Trail (APT). He is the executive director of the American Perimeter Trail Conference, and he recently completed the first scout and official hike of the APT. Discover more about the APT at www.americanperimetertrail.org or on your favorite social media platform. Find Rue on Instagram @ruemckenrick. Donate to TruStrength Tomorrow and add to my upcoming suffer fest below!!...

Hey everyone! I'm super slammed with finals this week, and I didn't have time to schedule a guest for this week. Instead, I hopped on with one of my best friends and fellow trail runner Xander Keiter to answer your questions! You all submitted a ton of awesome questions, which made this a super fun episode. Let me know if you like this style of content. Find Xander on Instagram @xkeiter2 and find the podcast on Instagram @fromthebackcountry

Phoebe Seltzer is a mountain guide and athlete based out of the White Mountains. She has a lot of hardcore efforts to her name, including multiple wins of the Otto Rhode race, a winter skimo race up the Mount Washington auto road. In 2022, she came within 7 miles of creating a new stout women's record of the Cohos Trail (part two coming 2023?). Also, she has a couple insane FKTs in the northern Presidentials, one of which has over 670 feet of vertical gain per mile (I re-did the math on that...

Jason Hardrath is back on the podcast! Jason a mountain runner and athlete based out of Oregon. You might know him as the first person to reach 100 FKTs, but that only scratches the surface of his contributions to the sport. In this episode we discuss some of Jason's past and future projects including volcanic infinity loops and the Rocky Mountains Slam. We also dive in to my daydreams about the Calendar Year Triple Crown. Find Jason on instagram @jasonhardrath or online at jasonhardrath.com

Jordan Fields is a nordic skier and mountain runner based out of the Upper Valley. He's best known in the trail running world for being the only person to hold the Hut Traverse, Pemi Loop, and Presidential Traverse records at the same time. He's also an accomplished nordic skier and a graduate student in the Department of Earth Science at Dartmouth. Jordan and I spend a lot of time in this episode discussing the philosophy of training and racing and how training/racing with joy can bring...

Kyle O'Grady is a backpacker and content creator. He hiked the Appalachian Trail in 2018 and hiked most of the Pacific Crest Trail in 2022 before his hike was derailed by wildfires. He also runs a popular backpacking podcast and Youtube channel. In this conversation we talk a lot about his differing experiences on the AT and PCT, as well as his continuing journey into backpacking content creation. Find Kyle on Instagram @kylehateshiking, on youtube at Kyle Hates Hiking, and on podcast...

Philip Carcia is a distance athlete, hiker, backpacker, and content creator from the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Listen to this second part of our conversation post the completion of his single season hike of the White Mountains Guidebook. This is the final episode in a 4-part series along with episodes #11, #12, and #31. If you haven't heard those episodes, I'd highly recommend you listen to those first! #11 and #12 are pre-hike, and #31 and #32 are post-hike. Find Philip on IG...

Philip Carcia is a distance athlete, hiker, backpacker, and content creator from the White Mountains of New Hampshire. From June 21st through September 19th, Philip hiked every trail in the official White Mountains Guide. He is the first person to accomplish this feat in a single calendar season, and he's the fastest person to complete the guide by over 100 days. Join me and Philip for this awesome two-part in-person conversation we had in the tiny house behind the Notch Hostel. This first...

The supported FKT of the New Hampshire 48 was an incredibly special project that we now have the privilege of watching back and experiencing with all of you. We’re excited to share the trailer for “The 48”, a film about our effort on the New Hampshire 4000 Footers by Happy Bones Productions. Find the trailer on our Instagrams (@_will.peterson & @xkeiter2) or on Youtube at the link below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RxxmyAziTo&t=8s

Dan Curts is a professional runner based out of the Upper Valley in New Hampshire. In this episode we discuss Dan's amazing running journey - all the way from being an All-American and champion 5K runner in the Big 12, to most recently switching to trail running and competing at world class trail running events. This year was just the beginning of trail running for Dan, look for really big things to come in the next few years. Find Dan on Instagram @dancurts, @northwoodsathletics, and online...

The Pod is back baby, and Xander and I are here to talk about absolutely nothing for an hour on Thanksgiving. Sorry for the hiatus, I hope to have a solid bi-weekly schedule going forward!

Jason Hardrath is a mountain runner and athlete based out of Oregon. You might know him as the first person to reach 100 FKTs, but that only scratches the surface of his contributions to the sport. Jason has been a pioneer in molding the FKT community, creating new and exciting routes, and driving the sport in a direction that adds to its long term potential and legitimacy. Find Jason on instagram @jasonhardrath or online at jasonhardrath.com

Jesse Wall is the founder of Trustrength Athletics, an innovative athletics performance facility and community that specializes in sports performance training for athletes of all ages and competitive levels. Jesse is also an accomplished athlete across multiple disciplines, everything from Strongman competitions to gnarly trail ultras. Notably, Jesse is one of only a handful of people to finish an Open Winter White Mountains Hut Traverse. Find Jesse on Instagram @TruStrengthAthletics and...

Bubba's Backyard Ultramarathon is a last person standing race that is run each October by Run The Whites. The concept is simple: finish a 3.5 mile trail-loop once per hour, and be at the start line at the beginning of the next hour. The last person to complete a lap is the winner. Last year I ran for 30 hours at Bubba's (105 miles) before dropping out with an injury. This year...well, you'll see. This episode includes five parts: my thoughts before bubbas, my thoughts during the race at lap...