The Fourteeners...

Trailheads are often a nexus for invigorating chance meetings. If you are willing to take a moment to stop and acknowledge, ask a question - it is generally a guarantee that you will discern some special gem of serendipitous awareness. Tigiwon trailhead proved this and the trail to the Mount of the Holy Cross even more so.

First it was the old man exiting the mini van - excited to be in the hills again at 10,000 feet and even more excited to engage hikers heading out. He was 93. Still walked sturdily and steady, strong voice. He fought in Okinawa in WWII. He had prospected in the hills above Minturn with his brother and lived in Vail when it was nothing more than a ranch with a creek running through it. His eyes still glowed sharing stories from a world long passed and we were keen to listen. He was itching to walk to the Notch Mountain shelter as he had done some 70 years before. "We could go all the way," he told his daughter, "But there is no food out there." He said to us that it would be to rough for them without a restaurant. He then asked his son-in-law for his cane. "I will be alright until a girl walks in front of me and then I will fall over."

Alpine start to access the shadowed North Ridge ©Bennett Barthelemy

Then there was the hiker we passed with his short-legged dog who had made the climb to the summit with him in a day. "She did great but she is going to retire for the season now. She hates wearing her booties and it will get too cold." He had taken the dog all the way to Guatemala where he worked with a non-profit teaching kids. I asked him if he felt safe there. "No, I was kidnapped four times. I finally told my parents to only put $100 a week in my account because they always took me to the ATM and made me drain my account. The kidnappers were always really nice to me though - they just wanted the money..."

Then there was the zealot. A true diehard Fourteener hiker. He had done 51 of the 58 in Colorado over the last decade. We shared bluebird skies at the summit - first day without cloud all summer. He was naming off all the peaks and ranges - excitement level at 11. He caught up to us while hiking out and introduced himself again. He was a technician, a planner and with a serious regiment he followed to meet his goal of hiking all the Fourteeners. Had sewn his own bags, assembled his own first aid kit, eschewed much of REIs stuff in favor of the army surplus. He showed us the 10 commandments of climbing the Fourteeners by Jerry Roach - Never pass up a chance to pee and never get separated from your lunch sounded pretty wise... He had a laminated card with his sisters number, the pet sitters info, his lawyer with his will info... He had hiked nearly all of them alone. He then apologized and said, "I am talking too much but I just love it out here. Oh, and the most important commandment is "Never forget why you started." He stopped abruptly on the trail and gazed longingly at a meadow with a small lake surrounded by pine and overshadowed by Huron. "This is it. This is why..."

A view of the North ridge leading to the summit ©Bennett Barthelemy

After stopping at a patch of ripe raspberries on our first day we headed down the trail and crossed paths with Junaid Dawud who had just summited. Junaid gave us peak conditions. Others on the trail told us it had rained 13 hours straight and only finished early that morning.  It had snowed up high and I had questions. It came out that he and his partner were just three summits away from hiking all the Fourteeners - in just three months time and walking between all of them. The first time he reckoned that it had ever been attempted. "The tough part is avoiding all the private land because we don't want to trespass. I could only imagine the summit fever they must have after completing 56 summits. He was aware that Longs was currently off limits, with a fine and even jail time imposed because of the recent flooding and I am sure was praying for divine providence that the mountain gods would allow it to open soon so they could complete their quest. Junaid said, "If it works out there should be a good crew of supporters on the summit of Longs when we arrive." That will be a party I hope not to miss...

The website they have gives Spot device locations to follow their route, incredible photos and updates well worth checking out and going back to to see the progress as they near the finish line at 14, 259 and some 13,000 miles later... http://14ersthruhike.com