BOW VALLEY – Under a starry night sky, Canmore’s Adam Mertens set off at 2 a.m. running toward the towering Cascade Mountain.
Mertens, and a trusting climbing partner, ascended the east ridge to check off the first peak while the sun rose on a near continuous journey of around 127 kilometres.
“There’s so many adventures to be had close to home, and often our attention is focused far away but we live in one of the most incredible, beautiful, special places in the world,” said Mertens.
For 64 hours, three minutes and three seconds, the adventure buff ran, climbed and scrambled through the Canadian Rockies to complete a route not known to have been ever done before. It’s the second time that Mertens has taken on such a monstrous feat. In 2023, he was the first to combined the Canmore Quad (Grotto,Lady Macdonald, Ha Ling and the East of Rundle), the Rundle traverse and Banff Triple Crown (West End of Rundle Sulphur and Cascade), which was named the Bow Tie.
“I think that there’s a lot of emphasis within the running community on races but [I’m] trying to step outside of that a little bit and look at what exists beyond there, to build on what’s already been done,” said Mertens.
For most of the mentally draining hours, the trek was flowing smoothly until near the end when Mertens was caught in a thunderstorm in an exposed position near Carrot Creek.
The rocks around him started to audibly buzz from electricity in the air, giving him a clear sign to get moving.
“My partner, who I was with at the time, got a little zap from his watch when he had it up in the air, and I pulled out my hiking poles, and they were kind of buzzing,” he said. “I had never experienced [that] before, but it was pretty terrifying.”
For that reason, the route went incomplete in the name of safety, and he’s not sure if he’ll go back, but Mertens said he would love to see another brave adventurer in the community complete what he set out to do.
“We are in a community of incredibly talented mountain athletes that have those skill sets,” he said. “It’s running at the intersection of climbing, and I think there are a lot of people that are finding joy in that interdisciplinary area where you mix together those different disciplines.”
Dubbing it the Bow Valley Cirque, avid adventurer Reuben Driedger first suggested a variation of the route to Mertens which would take him up the peaks and ridges of the valley.
Mapping out the unique route meant taking new approaches to the popular mountains and ridgetops with little information on what the trek may entail.
“One of the things I really wanted to do is not to do any backtracking,” said Mertens. “I wanted to try to essentially stay as true to the ridgeline as possible that you see from town without looping back on myself.
“That was a combination of using routes that there was a lot of existing information about, and then having to piece together some other sections that, maybe, weren’t as common or the information wasn’t out there.”
Mertens had a team of around 10 people supporting him duringthe trek around the valley to aid him with sleep, nutrition, morale, technical sections and to limit how much gear he was carrying. In addition, he had more help from people who checked different sections beforehand to make sure they would work.
“The whole thing wouldn't be possible without the team,” said Mertens. “It’s pretty incredible to see the support of the running community and this place that rallies behind me and others for everything that they tackle and really celebrate those achievements.”
He split the trail into six sections for different partners to join him on, drawing on each person’s skill sets.
“I really wanted to ensure that there were partners who I had been out in the mountains with, and had that rapport,” said Mertens. “And also had the sense and the knowledge to pull the plug if at any point it felt like it was unsafe or like the fatigue had kind of built up to the point that we couldn't continue.”
The already impressive feat even included a peaceful paddle board ride down the Bow River to Gap Lake, allowing Mertens to seamlessly continue on foot up Grotto Mountain.
“That paddle boarding section at the end of the second day was really special,” he said. “The valley is so busy, but you can find these spaces of quiet.
“You could hear a little bit of the sound of the highway, but otherwise it was just us and a lot of angry beavers.”
For quick bursts of energy, Mertens was on a diet of Snickers bars, cheese, salami, liquid nutrition and a bottle of TUMS to maintain and hydrate his body during the hot days.
“I had a bag of food, and I essentially said, ‘this is the bag of food that I'm going to consume on this 10-to-14-hour stretch’, and I told my crew that I wanted them to yell at me if I came back with any of that food,” said Mertens.
Getting some shut-eye was also an important role for Mertens who slept approximately six hours during the three days on trail.
“It’s incredible what you can accomplish, for a short duration of time, on very little sleep,” said Mertens. “I thought maybe there’d be some napping along the way, but I didn’t need to fortunately.”
Unlike after the Bow Tie when Mertens slept 18 hours, it took him a while to repay his sleep debt.
“You’re so dysregulated after eating candy for three days and consuming caffeine and not sleeping, it actually took a few days before I could even sleep,” he said.
However, he was able to get his hands on some fresh pizza slices that he’d been craving the whole time on the trail.
“I’ve continued to eat pizza for the two weeks afterwards,” said Mertens.
