All before breakfast.

Most people need two days to climb the mountain. Gelu, the first man to climb Mount Everest in less than 11 hours, plans to tackle Rainier in four.

If Gelu, a 39-year-old employee of Seattle’s Alpine Ascents International, even comes close to his goal, it will be a fitting chapter in Rainier’s summer of speed.

Prior to this summer, it’s widely believed that only one man, Chad Kellogg of Seattle, had made a round-trip summit in less than five hours. This summer, two local mountain guides say they have accomplished the feat.

On Aug. 5, six days before his first medical school classes at the University of Washington, 29-year-old Liam O’Sullivan set the standard with a self-timed trip of four hours, 46 minutes, 29 seconds. His time was three minutes, six seconds faster than the unofficial record fellow International Mountain Guides climber Justin Merle, 29, set July 9.

“I think Liam and Justin were sitting around talking about it one day and they set out to do it,” said George Dunn, IMG’s co-director. “They are both very fast, and I think they inspired other guides to try.”

O’SULLIVAN’S RECORD

Typically as summer progresses, crevasses open on the upper mountain, making the standard Disappointment Cleaver climbing route longer as it wraps around the glacial cracks.

But this summer, perhaps thanks in part to epic winter and spring snowfalls, the route has remained quite direct as it rises to the summit.

Merle and O’Sullivan recognized these conditions as perfect for a speed attempt. The time to beat was Kellogg’s 4:59:01. Merle shaved almost 10 minutes off the record.

Then came O’Sullivan’s turn.

All O’Sullivan carried with him was a nylon shell, pants, a headlamp, five packets of energy goo, ski poles and 2 liters of energy drink.

He blitzed up the mountain in 3:11:22 – about 16 minutes faster than Merle. But when he reached Disappointment Cleaver on the descent, his legs started cramping. It took 19 minutes to descend the cleaver, while Merle needed only 10.

After his climb, O’Sullivan radioed his friend to tell him he’d stolen his record.

“He said, ‘Three minutes?’” O’Sullivan said. “‘I’m going to try and take it back next year.’”

O’Sullivan credits Merle’s July run for inspiring other guides.

AAI’s Michael Horst made an attempt Aug. 5. He needed five hours, 15 minutes.

“Those guys and Chad (Kellogg) got me excited about trying it,” Horst said. “Everybody likes to test themselves, and it’s fun to see so many people doing that this summer.”

A LONG TRADITION

In the 1980s, Craig Van Hoy, Jason Edwards and John Smolich spent their days off racing up Mount Rainier.

They still hold the speed records on most of Rainier’s routes, including a 21-hour trip up and down Liberty Ridge.

“I think it’s great that 20-something years later, the young guides are still doing the same thing on their days off,” said Van Hoy, 50, who still guides on Rainier.

The guide route through Camp Muir is the most popular for traditional climbers as well as speed attempts, because it’s considered the safest.

Local climbing legends Lou and Jim Whittaker made the first known speed ascent, in 1959. Jim Whittaker says he and his twin used traditional climbing gear and made the trip in about seven hours.

In 1981, after talking to the Whittakers, Van Hoy lowered the record to five hours, 25 minutes.

“I always thought with the right gear somebody could do it in less than five hours,” Van Hoy said.

That finally happened in 2004 when Kellogg, a Seattle carpenter and former climbing ranger, timed himself at 4:49:01.

To maximize his speed, Kellogg carried just two unwrapped energy bars, two packets of energy syrup, and ski poles, one of which was fashioned into an ice axe. Instead of crampons, he wore track spikes.

Since Merle and O’Sullivan broke his record, Kellogg, 37, now says he plans to try to reclaim the record next summer.

“It’s fun,” said Kellogg who also holds the unofficial speed record on Mount McKinley. “It’s personal and it’s a friendly competition because the people all know each other.”

HONOR SYSTEM

The men who run up Rainier say they don’t do it for records. They do it to challenge themselves.

They are mountaineers first, speed climbers second, Kellogg said.

There are no Guinness World Record officials waiting for them on the summit with stopwatches. It’s the honor system.

“That’s the way it should be,” Kellogg said.

That’s not enough for some.

When Kellogg broke the five-hour barrier in 2004, his accomplishment was questioned in some Internet climbing chat rooms.

“I want to see him hire timers,” said Dan Howitt, a Portland man who says he paid $750 to hire timers for a speed attempt in 2004.

Howitt said he needed five hours, two minutes to reach the summit. He contends a five-hour round trip is impossible, and he has attacked Kellogg’s claims.

The mainstream climbing community has widely dismissed Howitt’s attacks.

O’Sullivan, who tracked his climb on a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch, says he doesn’t care if people question his time.

“There is a certain purity to it,” O’Sullivan said.

Gelu said he does not plan to hire timers for today’s attempt.

“I don’t think anybody will be awake at that hour,” he joked.

ABOUT LHAKPA GELU

Gelu hatched his plan for climbing Rainier as a way to raise money for schools in his homeland, Nepal.

He is considered one of the strongest and fastest climbers in the world. In 2003 he climbed to 29,035-foot Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak, in 10:56:46.

“He’s a mutant,” Kellogg said.

O’Sullivan fully expects Gelu, whose Everest record has since been broken, to shatter the record if weather permits.

Weather.com is forecasting mostly clear skies and temperatures in the 60s between 5 and 9 a.m.

Craig Hill: 253-597-8497 thenewstribune.com

Check out The Adventure Guys blog throughout the day to see how quickly Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa climbs Mount Rainier this morning. blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure

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