Journey to 100: Elementary Teacher Sets Record After Climbing 100 Summits

Fastest Known Time mountain climbing elementary school teacher Journey to 100 Jason Hardrath Elementary school teacher Jason Hardrath

By Mavic Thompson , Parent Herald Apr 22, 11:37 pm

An elementary school teacher records the fastest known time for mountain climbing after climbing 100 summits. According to the regional editors at FastestKnownTime.com, who serve as the official timekeepers, "fastest known time," or FKT for short, is a formal way of keeping track of who is the fastest in terms of going on a trail, through a canyon, or in the case of Teacher Jason, up a mountain.

Jason Hardrath is an elementary school teacher. He teaches health and physical education in a primary school in Bonanza, Oregon. However, he is obsessed with running, climbing mountains, and making FKT records during the summer breaks. He is a celebrity within the FKT world because he has previously done 99 FKTs. For his 100th FKT, he climbed the 100 tallest mountains within the state of Washington as a single FKT, according to an interview with The Epoch Times.

Fastest Known Time

Official timekeepers regularly update the FKT website to show who and how fast the participants are. Thanks to modern technology, a runner doing an FKT can be monitored through a GPS strapped to the wrist and a satellite to keep track of the athlete in real-time. In Hardrath's 100-summit-FKT, he was monitored in various ways. These 100 summits were documented when the Athletic Brewing Company learned about what Hardrath was doing. According to the company, they wanted to follow and film him in his goal of doing 100 mountaintops for his 100th FKT. For 35 climbs, he was outfitted with a GoPro camera, and for the other 65 climbs, he was accompanied by another FKT enthusiast, Nathan Longhurst, who filmed him using a GoPro. A professional film crew joined him for four of the 100 peaks he climbed. His partner, Ashly Winchester, another FTK enthusiast, was Hardrath's logistical support for his 100 climbs. The film was called "Journey to 100" and ran for an hour and a half. It premiered in New York on April 9, 2022.

Second Life

Jason Hardrath is grateful for all the support he has gotten for his athletic pursuits. In 2015, he had an accident when he was thrown out of the window of his car that rolled over and caught the shoulder of the road. He had lost control of the vehicle when he plugged in music during his drive to an important meeting. Some of his unfortunate injuries included a broken shoulder, collapsed lung, broken ribs, contusions, and a damaged ACL and LCL in his right knee.

As an athlete, when he was told by one of his doctors that he would probably let go of running and mountain climbing, his heart truly sank. His love for the outdoors and his spirit of defiance made him even more determined to go back to running and mountain climbing. Despite a long and painful journey to rehabilitation, he was able to take on a big and crucial challenge through his 100th FKT. At present, Hardrath is one of the 1,500 ambassadors of Athletic Brewing Company. He also hopes to inspire his students to persevere and chase their goals.