Paying To Climb Colorado 14ers
There are 54 ‘official’ Colorado 14ers mountains rising above 14,000 feet and at least 300′ from an adjacent saddle. An estimated 500,000 people climb on 53 of the 14ers each year without fees or permits, today. Now, the U.S. Forest Service (NFS) is investigating charging for other 14ers starting with four highly popular 14ers in Southern Colorado. The primary issue land managers are struggling with is that many of the 14ers are being climbed so much that the trails are getting overused, scattered with trash, toilet paper and poop and all the other problems that comes with a lot of use.
Getting the Little Bear – Colorado 14er
Little Bear is known throughout Colorado as one tough class 4 climb. In the summer, people have been injured and even killed from rock fall. In the winter it is a tough and steep snow climb. I know, I have done both but only succeeded once. This late May, I made it to the summit on a perfect day. The snow conditions were right between too much and too little. With mild temps, blue skies and perfect snow, I left my camp at 4:00Am and 3 hours later stood on top.
Devloping an Everest Climbing Plan
With the Everest season in full swing, many people ask what it takes to climb the highest mountain in the world.
It comes down to a few areas: skills, experience, fitness and commitment.
Summiting California’s Mt. Whitney
Next to the highest peak in North America, Denali, the highest in the lower 48 may be the known and sometimes coveted by aspiring and expert climbers alike. I have been working on my Colorado 14ers for several years in between remote climbs, but I got the idea to start working on the California 14ers earlier this year and set out to climb the highest, Mount Whitney, first. The plan worked.
My Favorite Colorado 14er
There are 58 Colorado peaks over 14, and 000′, order so to pick one as your favorite is tough. I have climbed 51 of them so this may be a tad premature but here I go anyway. For years, I told anyone who asked that Longs Peak was my favorite. It had everything a mountain […]
Longs Peak Diamond Climb – video
If you have explored my site, you know that Longs Peak is one of my favorite climbs. In under two hours, I can be on the trail at 9400′ and reach the summit at 14,256′ in a few hours on a good day. It has all types of routes from simple walkups to world-class technical […]
Random: NYC Marathon, Chinese Alz, Pumori
A wonderfully inspirational story- Meb Keflezighi wins the NY Marathon Tough season on Pumori-no summits from Peak Freak in spite of a leading great effort and the Hanesbrand test team . Success on Ama Dablam: IMG with no drama The Alzheimer’s Association site is now in Chinese, drugstore Korean and Vietnamese. Interesting analysis of Colorado’s […]
Follow Your Dreams
Setting hard goals and working towards them often defines part of human existence. Two of my friends did just that this week. Jim Davidson summited Cho Oyu and John Little his first 14er. I am so proud of both of my friends. In Jim’s blog he wrote: “I began to wonder what climbing to such […]
A Special 14er Climb
I will be climbing an old friend this week – Mt. Belford and the neighbor, check Mt. Oxford. They are in the Sawatch range in Central Colorado and I climbed them both in 2005. These are not particularly difficult climbs but this will be special for an entirely different reason. You see back in April, […]
Turning Back From a Summit
I just returned from a 4 day climb of three 14ers in the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado. I summited two of the three but turned back on Little Bear due to extreme veriglass on the summit gully. You can read all about it in the trip report. Turning back from any climb […]