Colorado's Fourteeners
"Cave Dog" Ted Keizer holds the speed record for climbing all Colorado's 14ers in 10d20h26m.
Colorado has 55 peaks over 14,000 feet, the so-caller "14ers". It seems a natural
challenge to attempt to climb all these lofty summits over some period of time --
most people would accept a lifetime as a reasonable goal.
Of course, for some it is irresistable to see just how quickly they can bag the lot.
Several guide books and
a website are dedicated to the 14ers.
The 14ers have become so popular that erosion and trail damage became a problem.
The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative was formed
in 1994 to maintain these routes and protect the fragile alpine environment of
these peaks.
The 14ers are scattered all over the state, and it is standard to use vehicles
to shuttle between the trail heads. You can actually drive to the summit of some
of the 14ers (particularly Pikes Peak and Mount Evans, but also Antero with 4WD).
So, over the years some rules of engagement have been established for viable
14ers records. Most critical is the so-called "Colorado Rule", which says that
the climber must ascend at least 3,000 vertical feet net elevation on foot from
the base of the first peak in a series, and descend at least 3,000 feet at the
end of the series. The climber may descend less than 3,000 feet when traversing
between peaks that are linked on foot.
Cave Dog's website gives a detailed discussion of the rules and some
intricacies.
There have been many amazing speed records on the 14ers going back nearly 50 years.
As the record has evolved, so has the list of recognized 14ers, which brings up the
interesting question of how a separate peak is actually defined. Concensus has
settled on 55 peaks for the record, though most casual climbers exclude Challenger
Point from the list.
Cave Dog's website gives an excellent discussion (by Rick Trujillo) of the history of
speed records on the 14ers. To give a sense of the challenge, for their 1997 record (14d0h16m),
Rick Trujillo and Ricky Denesik calculated that they traversed a total of 314 miles and
gained 153,215 vertical feet!
In his usual meticulous fashion
Cave Dog spent 2.5 years scouting the peaks and training for the 14ers record. He
pulled of an incredible time of 10d20h26m during Sept. 4-14, 2000.
Two other 14ers speed records are particularly notable. In late July - early August 2000,
legendary, world champion mountain runner Danelle Ballengee set the women's speed record
of 14d14h49m. An excerpt from Danelle's report
gives a sense of the dedication,
experience and training that is needed to approach the 14ers speed record:
"The record took 14.5 days, but the real journey has taken me 29 years, a lifetime.
It takes a lot of training, a lot of discipline, a lot of risk taking, a true love
for the mountains, a true love for suffering, and a bit of craziness to take on a
task like this. I suppose many of these traits are genetic, and the rest are developed
though our experiences as we grow up. My training for this has been inspired by my love
of endurance competitions, and my drive to succeed in them. I compete in endurance
events nearly every weekend. I have competed hundreds of ultradistance endurance events
including 7 Ironman Triathlons, two Eco Challenges, and 18 SkyMarathons. I've finished in
the top 10 in 98% of the events I compete in which include several world championships.
I hold the SkyGames World Title, was the '99 Mountain Runner of the Year, '97 Pro Duathlete
of the Year, and have won 57 of the last 57 snowshoe races I have entered. I have a
passion for endurance sports. I make a little money at it, but unfortunately I haven't
been able to get rich doing it. Still, I wouldn't trade this passion and lifestyle for
anything. Competing has given me the fitness, endurance, mental strength and skills to
make it through the 14ers. It has taken me many years of training and competing to build
this base. I started climbing Colorado's 14,000 ft peaks when I was about 13. Over the
next 16 years I climbed all but a handful, so I was familiar with most of the mountains.
This past summer, squeezed between work and racing, I spent my time scouting out routes
on the mountains, studying maps, and coordinating a support crew, vehicles, and the
equipment I would need for the trip. Really, I had very little time to pull it all
together. I definitely was not 100% ready, but the time was right and I was motivated.
My belief is that I'll never be 100% ready for anything, and if I don't just go for it,
it'll never get done." -- Danelle Ballengee
Andrew Hamilton set the 14ers record of
13d22h48m in 1999. Some controversy erupted over Andrew's interpretation of the "rules",
particularly his approach to Pikes Peak. Perhaps Andrew was frustrated by the
arbitrary nature of the established rules. In any case, in 2003 he
completed the first "self-powered 14ers" record. On June 24 Andrew walked out of
his front door and jumped on his bike. He returned home 19d10h40m later, having climbed
54 14ers (Andrew simply skipped Culebra Peak, to which access has become problematic due to
private property) and biked between them, that is, completing the trip entirely
self-powered! Here's how Andrew described his approach:
"The basic idea is that I have to power myself on all legs of the journey. I can bike,
run, walk, kayak... but I can't be driven on any part of the route, towed, carried, or use
any motorized technology to help me... You get the idea. However, my support crew can use
cars to carry/transport my gear, they can cook for me, fix any broken gear, etc.
Finally, I will start and finish in the same location. For me, this will be my front
doorstep. However, anyone doing this in the future can choose whatever location they want
as the starting and finishing location. I like starting from my front doorstep because
although it will cost me a few extra hours, I like the idea of starting the clock when I
really start (leave home) and stopping the clock when I can lay down in bed and sleep.
Also, starting and finishing in the same location helps to remove any ambiguity about what
is a legal place to start and stop the clock. You can start the clock wherever you want,
only you have to stop it in exactly the same location." -- Andrew Hamilton
Bill Wright has
collected various ascent and round-trip FKTs for individual 14ers. These records depend
of course on starting location and route, so record keeping for the individual peaks is
complex.