GETTING HIGH AT HIGH ALTITUDE

WorldTour road racer by trade, endurance mountain biker by nature, Lachlan Morton came unstuck on the Colorado Trail Race, finding himself riding in darkness and chasing fairies

“Straight after the 2019 Tour of Utah [road race], I rode the Colorado Trail [a 567-mile bikepacking event]. Looking at it on paper, I thought I’d knock it off easily enough. Hah, I’ve never been so destroyed in my life! I took an absolute beating on that route. You really have to respect how much mountain bike racing and riding beats you up. I did four days on it, and there was about 12 hours of hiking, even with a dual-suspension bike. I’d take a bigger bike next time; there’s some real shit in there!

“I was underprepared and I underestimated the trail. On the first night, I found myself at around 13,000ft at 1am or 2am. I was looking for a place to sleep, but didn’t have the equipment to camp that high, so was trying to get lower. The terrain was very technical for the level of fatigue I had, and I was in over my head, which – aside from being hit by cars on the road – was probably my scariest moment. I’ve done the sleep deprivation thing before – including in the 2,000km GBDURO from Land’s End to John O’Groats – and was fine, but the consequences of having an accident in that environment were different.

“This was just before I started hallucinating! I’d thrown myself in at the deep end and at that point I didn’t have the skills to deal with it; I had to learn on the fly and it was very precarious. I like to put myself in uncomfortable situations, but not dangerous situations, and that was the one time I stepped over that line.”

“I FOUND MYSELF AT 13,000FT AT 2AM SO WAS TRYING TO GET LOWER... THIS WAS JUST BEFORE I STARTED HALLUCINATING”