Longs Peak Guiding History

A buttress beneath the Diamond reflected near Chasm Lake ©Bennett Barthelemy

Without realizing it I have stepped in to quite a bit of amazing history signing on as a Longs Peak guide this summer. I have two ascents in the last two weeks and if the weather gods smile (and the lords of asthma and allergies take pity on me -currently on 4 different meds to appease my challenged lungs), four more trips to the summit will be added in the next two weeks.

Been reading Longs Peak history with its colorful and extremely fit and dedicated characters.

One of my heroes, John Wesley Powell, the one armed veteran of the battle at Shiloh made it topside in 1868 and is credited with the Peaks FA. Curiously they named a smaller subpeak after, him years later, a few miles the northwest. Isabella Bird - FFA? (one of the first female ascents at age 42 in 1873) with one eyed Rocky Mountain Jim as guide, "A man any woman could love but no sane woman would marry" -according to Bird...

Alpine starts... ©Bennett Barthelemy

The first "official" guide on Longs charged $5 per ascent and made about the equivalent I do in today's money... He was well over six feet and also worked part time as an insanely dedicated preacher. He is said to have gone into Estes bars and at gunpoint would force the customers to pray with him. Elkanah Lamb... Rad.

Enos Mills had some 300 ascents of the peak to his name and lived at the base of it for decades. A naturalist having been moved that way by randomly running into John Muir, he also ardently guided the peak and successfully lobbied congress to get Rocky Mountain National Park officially minted by President Wilson in 1913. He spent many cold nights up high in an elk-skin sleeping bag...

Longs Peak Guide Adam Fabrikant helping clients across the Narrows ©Bennett Barthelemy

 Big boots to try and fill... Huge.

*Much of this history and more is detailed in the book Longs Peak: The story of Colorado's favorite Fourteener by Dougald MacDonald... Another book to buy....