The Breakthrough Mindset and Fitness Helping Tyler Andrews Smash FKTs in the Himalayas

Picture this: You’re running in the mountains alone with minimal gear and just 1 liter of water. But this isn’t a day trip into the Colorado Rockies — you’re in the Himalayas ascending Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world. And you’re doing it without supplemental oxygen or climbing partners.

Sound risky? Tyler Andrews, a 34-year-old endurance athlete from Massachusetts, would be the first to agree. The runner has racked up an impressive list of feats on dangerous mountains, including 69 Fastest Known Times (FKTs), placing him in the ranks of the world’s most elite runners.

Last year saw several of Andrews’ most impressive records yet. He set new FKTs on Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro and Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua. On both mountains, Andrews pulled ahead of past records set by running legends like Karl Igloff and Kilian Jornet.

But this week, Andrews told GearJunkie he wants to be “the best in the world.” That’s why he decided to test his skills on the biggest stage of all: the Himalayas. On Sept. 19, Andrews hiked up the 26,781-foot Manaslu in 9 hours and 52 minutes, shaving more than 2 hours off the previous record, set by Nepalese climber Pembe Gelje Sherpa last year.

These mountains have typically been the realm of mountaineers — not trail runners. Many of them require sections of vertical climbing, which is why Fastest Known Time has long excluded speed records on those mountains, allowing Himalayan Database to track them instead.

But now that’s changing, thanks in part to Andrews, who also works part-time for the FKT organization. Since the primary route on Manaslu lacks technical climbing, he thinks turning the summit push into an FKT is fair play. And he believes the training he’s applying to these mountains — like bringing a stationary bike to Manaslu base camp — represents a novel approach to Himalayan adventure.

We caught up with Andrews to find out how he did it — from nutrition and gear to timing and technique.

GearJunkie: Congratulations on setting a new FKT on Manaslu! You’ve set many records already. Can you tell us what this one means to you?

Andrews: I mean, first of all, it’s my first 8,000-meter speed record. So that’s really special. But honestly, I think the thing that made it the most special is that I tried and failed a year ago.

And the way that the big mountains go is you often only get one shot a year. And that kind of sucks, but it definitely makes it more special when things go really well. I think the bigger the mountain, the bigger the stakes, the bigger the stage, the more important the preparation — all that stuff. And to have it go so well after what was objectively a pretty rough year, that just makes it doubly special.

GJ: You pulled off this record on what was initially a training day for you. Last year, you also gunned for the summit on what was supposed to be a training day, and ended up too tired to attempt the FKT. What did you learn and what changed? 

TA: 100%, that’s exactly correct. Last year, I definitely burned a few too many matches on my summit day first. But there’s so few opportunities to practice this stuff that you just have to make mistakes. The reason that I did that was because, on almost every other mountain, I’ve gone to the summit first before attempting the FKT. And it’s always worked, up to even 7,000 meters.

But it was way too much [on Manaslu]. I totally fried myself last year and had no gas on FKT day. So, the plan was not to do that this year. The biggest thing I learned is that there’s no information about this stuff. No one knows what they’re talking about, including me.

I always say training is an experiment of one. And that’s even more true when you have stuff that’s really tip of the spear like this. Conventional wisdom just does not work. And so, it’s really just experimentation. This time, I definitely took a gamble in the other direction and ended up working.

GJ: I read your FKT gear list from your interview. You pointed out it’s highly dangerous to ascend an 8,000m peak with only that gear. Did you have a contingency plan if something went wrong? If so, what was it? 

TA: It’s a really interesting question. I think a lot of people have this idea that, “Oh, because you’re going in minimal gear, it’s really dangerous.” I actually think the way that I’m moving the mountain is safer than the average person.

Let me explain: I spend so much less time in dangerous places. Whether it’s above 8,000 meters, whether it’s below giant seracs, or on avalanche terrain — I’m able to move so much quicker. You know, last year, when [Chris Fish, an athlete and photographer] and I were going through the Kumquat Weissfall … we went through it in 2 hours. And it takes some people on our expedition 10 hours.

So we have 80% less exposure on the most dangerous part of the mountain. Obviously, it’s a gamble, and I recognize that. It’s a trade-off. I don’t have huge boots. I don’t have a huge jacket. But we’re also talking about Manaslu.

There’s 700 people on the mountain or something, and I had Daw, our expedition leader, on radio. He’s got people on the mountain. So there is a little bit of a mountain ethics. If you do have that huge catastrophe, people take care of each other.

GJ: How did you handle nutrition on this venture? What did you eat and how often? 

TA: I’ve always tried to approach really big mountain stuff similarly to how I’ve done ultra running. So I’m not approaching it as a mountain guy. I’m approaching it as an ultra runner. You know, if I’m going to do a 10- to 12-hour ultra, I know exactly how many grams of carbohydrate I need to eat, what I need to bring, how much liquid I need. So I’m trying to eat 300 to 400 calories an hour.

The only real issue I had with nutrition was the water situation. I left with 1 liter of water from base camp, and that was all I had all the way to the summit for 10 hours. So that was pretty rough. And, again, that was mostly because we had our tent at Camp 3, and my plan was to go up there and then maybe walk another hour and then come down.

So when I left Camp 3, I was like, ‘Meh, I could boil some snow and take some water, but I’m only going up an hour and then down a half hour.’

I thought I’d be back soon. And then, you know, I ended up going. It was 6 hours above Camp 3, just up and then down. So, yeah, that was pretty rough, honestly. The hydration was brutal.

GJ: Can you describe your mental battle upon reaching the Death Zone? What helps you cope with the enormous difficulty of ascending that altitude without oxygen? 

TA: I honestly think that a tremendous part of the work above 7,000, maybe 7,500 meters, is all above the shoulders. It is really different from any other kind of athletic thing I’ve ever had to do. There’s no one piece that feels particularly hard or bad. It’s just the way that manifests for me as a sensation. It’s this really tremendous desire to turn around.

I’m just like, “God, I don’t want to do this,” you know? And I’ve always been a really big fan of breaking things up into smaller pieces on the mental side. I guess this is my other superpower that I tell people: I’m incredibly good at lying to myself. Self-deception is one of my greatest strengths.

So I’ll say, “Oh, you know what, I’m going to go 50 more meters, and then I’m just going to turn around and go down.” And then you say, “Cool, okay … Now I’m going to do it again.” And the truth is, you’re just getting yourself through that rep. And it’s exactly the same up there.

GJ: Where and how does run training/aerobic development factor into prep for outings like this, along with all the other variables you’re trying to train for?

TA: This is the thing that surprises people most about me as an athlete when I meet people on an 8,000-meter mountain. I’m approaching this basically the same as if I were training for a trail race. Obviously, really big mountains, you need a skill set, right? So there’s always a balance of skill and fitness, right? So, like running on a treadmill is 100% fitness and 0% skill.

I’m approaching this as a runner. And so the routes that are most exciting to me are the ones where fitness is a big percentage. Part of the reason that you’re seeing this record is because people approach it more as a skill than a fitness challenge.

And for me, it’s like 90% of the route is walking uphill. There’s a reason that Manaslu is [considered] a beginner’s mountain. A lot of it is walking uphill. That’s basically a test of your engine. I know how to get my engine really, really big and fit.

This is probably the most outrageous thing that I’ve ever done, but I actually brought a stationary bike up to Base Camp at 4,900 meters above sea level.

GJ: You brought a stationary bike to Manaslu Base Camp? How did you use that for your training?

TA: The reason for that is this is my third 8,000-meter expedition. I knew from the last couple of years of training that staying active is really important for my fitness. And so I would go out every single day in the morning and go up to Camp 1 or something, about 1,000 meters up, come down, rest, and have lunch.

And then I do a couple of hours on the stationary bike in the afternoon. And it was about training volume, but also about intensity. So again, it goes back to just this idea that no one knows what they’re doing, including me. It was an experiment, and it seemed to work pretty well. But most people are like, “You brought a bike to camp? That doesn’t make sense.”

But I was really just approaching it like an uphill race.

GJ: How do you view your accomplishment in the context of Reinhold Messner? He proved that ascending these mountains without supplementary oxygen was possible 52 years ago. Now we have athletes like you setting FKTs on these mountains — also without supplementary oxygen. What do you think about your place in the mountain’s history?

TA: When Reinhold Messner was trying to climb Everest without oxygen, people were like, “Yeah, he’s gonna die. He just can’t do that.” And, you know, I think he’s someone else who just kind of bucked conventional wisdom and was like, “Hey, I’m gonna figure this out.”

I’m not trying to cheat death. But when people tell me athletically that something I want to do is not possible, which I’ve heard a lot of times, that just gets me really fired up. I would guess that Messner probably had a little bit of that, too. So it’s an honor to be thinking about him and me in the same sentence.

GJ: What do you hope to achieve by applying these running techniques to the world’s highest mountains?

TA: Hopefully, [Chris Fish and I] are heading up to the Khumbu Valley/Mount Everest region tomorrow. So that’s really exciting, and we have a whole bunch of goals there. It’s the most beautiful, spectacular place on earth. Whatever we end up doing, it’s going to be great.

I was not an athletic kid at all. But then I totally fell in love with training at high altitude. I had done a lot of hiking and mountaineering in my day, but I really didn’t think of it as something I wanted to do competitively for a very long time, until I was probably 30.

It’s been a journey, a combination of my love of self-discovery and pushing myself, coupled with this unbelievably competitive inner drive.

Some of that is being competitive against myself, and some of it is that I want to be the best in the world. And I’m not embarrassed to say that. I want to go to the most competitive routes, the biggest mountains, the biggest stages, and the highest pressure. That’s exciting for me.

Since interviewing Andrews, the young athlete has already set another record in the Himalayas. He and Chris Fish, an athlete and photographer, ran from Lukla to Mera Peak (6,476 ms) and back to Lukla in under 44 hours. This required a 51-mile run in addition to the summit.