Another mountain, another challenge: Baker City native Jason Hardrath turned a severe injury into motivation

Published 1:42 pm Wednesday, June 1, 2022

BAKER CITY — Jason Hardrath is no stranger to challenges, especially those that push him to his physical limits.

Hardrath, 33, grew up in Baker City. He started running in middle school, ran competitively for Corban University in Salem, and celebrated his college graduation by bicycling from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean in 50 days.

Then he started running marathons, progressing to triathlons, which include swimming, running and bicycling segments.

But then came 2015 and a car accident. He tore up a knee, broke his shoulder, broke ribs, collapsed one lung and damaged internal organs.

His doctor told Hardrath he’d probably never run again.

“He said, ‘yeah, you’re probably going to let that part of your life go.’ ”

Hardrath was 25.

“I remember my spirit sinking at first,” he said.

Then came the spark, and his determination, and this thought:

“You don’t know me. You just wait and watch.”

From physical therapy to mountain peaks

His recovery wasn’t easy — he had physical therapy, and worked on his own to improve his range of motion.

“Finding every which way to keep moving forward,” he said.

Running didn’t work, but he could walk. And then he started hiking.

“I can’t run, but what can I do? I guess I’m a hiker now,” he said.

Part of Hardrath’s story is about having ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“I still don’t sit still well,” he said.

He said his mom, Kathy, researched as much as she could about ADHD when he was a child.

“Her support was huge to my resilience,” he said. “She hunted to find every bit she could learn to understand this crazy little kid she had.”

With ADHD, Hardrath said he can experience extremes: ranging from being completely unfocused (when he has to fill out paperwork, for instance), or hyper focused on a task.

It was that latter approach that surfaced when he started hiking.

“Hills led to small mountains. Small mountains led to big mountains,” he said.

Next came technical climbs, so he joined a climbing gym to learn this new skill.

He struggled at first.

“It was a lesson in being brave enough to suck at something new,” he said with a laugh. “11-year-olds were better than me.”

But he persisted to learn rope skills and climbing movements, and gain upper body strength.

“That was a long, hard process,” he said.

Eventually he returned to running, but he moved at a slower pace than during his triathlon days.

But as he ran trails, and hiked mountains and scaled peaks, he started thinking bigger.

“Let’s see if I can climb one or two in a day,” he said.

Then Hardrath discovered something called FKTs — Fastest Known Times.

Essentially, these are a log of routes and the person who recorded the fastest known time to reach a peak.

Suddenly he had a new challenge.

The way he orients his life, he said, is “by pursuing challenges, growth, the next big goal.”

Chasing FKTs, he said, helped him “reclaim personal power and independence.”

“Physical pursuits is how I expressed myself,” Hardrath said.

So he started “bagging” peaks and finding routes to top multiple mountains in one day.

“I did five peaks in a day — can I do seven?” he remembers thinking. “Nothing but me, and nature, and the clock.”

He set a goal: to log 100 FKTs.

Some were to best another hiker’s record; others were new routes he submitted with his time.

“I love that every bit as much — that element of exploration,” he said.

Hardrath had recorded about 50 FKTs when he discovered the Washington Bulger List — the top 100 peaks in Washington. The FKT to complete the list was 410 days, recorded in 2018.

“In my head, I thought ‘that record will get demolished.’ At the very least, it should be 100 peaks in 100 days,” he said.

Hardrath, who teaches P.E. in the Bonanza, Oregon, near Klamath Falls, didn’t have that much time — he only had 70 days at the most, during his summer vacation.

“No one had ever done it in a single season,” he said.

He wanted to do it in 50 days.

“They’re big, but also remote,” he said. “It was a wild logistical challenge, as well as a physical challenge.”

A connection

As he logged FKTs, Hardrath was invited to participate in several podcasts. One of those episodes caught the notice of the founder of Athletic Brewing Co.

They exchanged messages, and Hardrath learned that the company wanted to support his journey.

Soon Hardrath had help with gas money.

“That really helps, on a teacher’s salary, to make these adventures happen,” he said.

He shared sharing detailed trip logs, and soon the idea emerged to document his journey to logging 100 FKTs.

That footage, gathered leading up to his 100th FKT, resulted in the film “Journey to 100,” which just released this spring by Athletic Brewing Co. and WZRD Media.

The 30-minute documentary will be screened Saturday, June 4, at Churchill School in Baker City. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the film begins at 7 p.m.

Admission is $5 at churchillbaker.com and at the door. Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test is required.

Hardrath will be there, and welcomes questions about his experiences.

He’s happy to share — he often talks about his adventures with his P.E. students, who range from kindergartners to sixth graders.

He hopes to instill the belief that anything is possible.

“I’ve been doing this, in part, to inspire students,” he said. “To mentor and encourage the next generation — I went and did this thing that was supposedly impossible.”

And he keeps moving forward — his next idea, for the summer of 2023, is to complete the Rockies Grand Slam of 120 peaks.

He’d be joined by Nathan Longhurst, who accompanied him on some Bulger List hikes and is now working on the Sierra Peaks Section list of bagging 247 peaks.

“To see an athlete fall in love with what I love — I want to support that,” Hardrath said.