Jason Hardrath climbs 14,259-foot Longs Peak in Colorado on his successful Rocky Mountain Grand Slam this past summer. 

Most people look at towering mountain peaks from a distance with a sense of awe. Some climb to their summits, maybe once or several times over a series of years, each climb an expedition.

Not Jason Hardrath. In just under 40 days, he recently summited 122 Rocky Mountain peaks in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.

At 7 a.m. July 24, the 34-year-old Hardrath took his first step up Culebra Peak, a 14,053-foot mountain in Colorado.

At 6:44 a.m. Aug. 3 — 39 days, 23 hours and 44 minutes after that first step — Hardrath completed his run, literally, after summiting Mount Rearguard, at 12,204-feet the highest point in Montana’s Beartooth Mountain Range. Knowing he was running out of time to complete the series of climbs in less than 40 days, and despite badly blistered feet, Hardrath ran the final miles to the finish, where he collapsed and wept.

“I wept at the finish because there was lot of discomfort,” says Hardrath, whose feet had been hurting for days. But there were other reasons for tears. “I was weeping for joy, for success, for bringing a dream into reality.”

The reality is the Rocky Mountain Grand Slam. To smash the previous record of 60 days and nine hours, Hardrath had to average three peaks a day. The journey included accumulating an elevation gain of nearly 319,000 feet and hiking/climbing/running almost 700 miles to break his self-imposed 40-day challenge.

Along with the physical challenges, his reality included a series of unexpected obstacles. Hardrath started on schedule despite being ill, possibly from one of his students at Bonanza Elementary School in Klamath County, where he teaches PE. Thunderstorms forced him to take shelter during one of his many multi-peak days. Logistics became even more complicated when two members of his support team departed. The van that shuttled him broke down. Unusually, he suffered from elevation sickness. As some photos show, the constant on-the-go caused the skin to literally melt off his feet.

“Every time I felt like I was falling into a groove, things happened. It was one thing after another.”

Facing obstacles was part of the challenge.

“The whole point of a setback is to find the way forward,” he explains. “This is exactly what I signed up for … these chosen forms of suffering,” Waxing philosophically, Hardrath believes a person “can find meaning through embracing discomfort.”

Facing challenges is nothing new for Hardrath. Since his youth he has experienced Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. In 2015 while driving from Bonanza to his Klamath Falls home, he lost control of his car, which went off the road. Because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, he was ejected through an open window. Despite severe injuries, Hardrath, who ran, climbed, raced in triathlons as outlets for his ADHD, worked back into shape, culminating by setting a FKT, or Fastest Known Time, in 2021 by climbing Washington’s 100 highest peaks, known as the Bulger List, in 51 days. The List’s previous FKT was 410 days.

“This had been on my list since I was planning for the Bulger,” he says of the Grand Slam, explaining that he ultra-carefully researched and devised a climbing schedule.

He chose to begin in Colorado with its 58 peaks at elevations above 14,000 feet, then shuttled to Wyoming and its 35 13,000-foot summits and end in Montana, which has 27 often technical 12,000-foot peaks. Although Colorado’s summits were the highest, many can be accessed by trails and were chosen to help him acclimate and establish a pattern. The challenge in Wyoming was having to hike 17 miles to reach peaks in the Wind River Range. Montana offered additional challenges because only five miles of trails connect its highest mountaintops.

Although he began planning in 2021, he began intensively detailing and solidified plans for the Rocky Mountain Grand Slam earlier this year.

“I think of them as chess pieces,” Hardrath says of planning the order for summiting the 122 peaks.

Helping to offset unexpected challenges was his partnership with Joshua Perry, who joined Hardrath on about 50 summits and assisted with driving and other critical support functions.

As on previous FKT efforts, Hardrath says he was motivated to serve as an example for his students along with his growing numbers of Facebook and Instagram followers. He believes his hard-earned success is the reason others are inspired to tell him, “This makes me want to do more of things I want to do.” Likewise, he believes it encourages his students to set goals and realize their potential.

His answer to inevitable question, “What’s next?” is foggy.

“I’m still definitely not all back,” Hardrath admits of the lingering after-effects of many sleepless nights and unrelenting days of exertion, noting he lost nearly a pound a day on his quest. Instead of another weeks-long project, he’s considering trying to set FKTs on the tallest volcanoes in South America and Africa; setting another FKT going from the lowest point in the continental U.S. — Death Valley at 282-feet below sea level — to the highest, 14,494-foot Mount Whitney; traversing Iceland on foot; and focusing on multi-sport events that combine running, biking, swimming and climbing.

For now, however, it’s back to school.

“The fun part,” Hardrath says with a grin, “will be sharing it with my students.”