Trail & Timberline #1000 (Fall 2008)

The magazine of the Colorado Mountain Club • Number 1000 • Fall 2008

Bradford

Missouri Mountain Mixup Trailwork Washburn Museum Update

...and

much more

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The official publication of the Colorado Mountain Club since 1918 Office hours: Mon.–Thurs. 11 a.m.–7:30 p.m. (winter) Mon.–Thurs. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. (summer) Fri. 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

Trail & Timberline (ISSN 0041-0756) is published quarterly with quarterly Activity Schedules by The Colorado Mountain Club 710 10th Street • Suite 200 Golden, Colorado 80401 (303) 279-3080 Periodicals postage is paid at Golden, Colorado, and additional offices. Subscrip­tions are $20 per year; $25 for foreign mailings.

Single copies are $5; Activity Schedule editions are $10.00 © 2008 The Colorado Mountain Club POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Trail & Timberline, 710 10th Street, #200, Golden, Colorado 80401.

Editor:

Assistant Editors: Poetry

Education Conservation

Tom Beckwith (beckwt@cmc.org) Jared Smith (poetry@cmc.org) Brenda Porter Clare Bastable

The Colorado Mountain Club is organized to • unite the energy, interest, and knowledge of the students, explorers, and lovers of the mountains of Colorado; • collect and disseminate information regarding the Rocky Mountains on behalf of science, literature, art, and recreation; • stimulate public interest in our mountain area; • encourage the preservation of forests, flowers, fauna, and natural scenery; and • render readily accessible the alpine attractions of this region.

Deadlines for Trail & Timberline are always on the 10th of the month seven weeks prior to the first day of the month of publication, unless that day falls on a weekend, in which case the deadline is the following Monday.

The Colorado Mountain Club thanks the SCFD for its continuing support.

Cover photo: Glenwood Canyon. Photo by Donna Kelly.

Fall 2008

T&T Departments Adventure Travel End of the Trail

Dan Gayton

Linda Pryor

James Walter Schofield

Mary Jean Stockdill News

CMC Press wins awards

Eckart Roder funds awarded

Free web search and online shopping tools aid CMC

Gore Range Group volunteers in Eagle’s Nest Wilderness

Ski recycling

Yesteryear: “Sorting out the Crestones” by Woody Smith

Conservation

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Education

Conservation news briefs Conservation through partnership Wilson Peak access update

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A classic reborn: CMC Press reissues guide book Mountain Fest to feature Erik Weihenmayer YEP connects students to the mountains

20 18 19

Recreation Feature: Missouri Mountain Mixup by David Lien Adopt-a-Trail program in Grand County BMS trailwork requirement rewarding

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Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum Newsletter Museum Updates

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Note from the Executive Director Dear friends, Well my first two months as Executive Director for the CMC were full of action. I have said it before and can now say with more certainty that I am thrilled and excited to be part of this great organization. The month of June experienced a couple unfortunate events, and it was a testament of our wonderful volunteers, staff, and board that everything was handled courteously, professionally, and safely. As many of you heard, Linda Pryor, a CMC Pikes Peak

member, fell to her death while climbing in Crestone Needle. Linda was full of life and truly felt alive in the outdoors. At Linda’s memorial service, over half of the people in the room were CMC members.

I look forward to working with all of you to spread the goals and mission of the Colorado Mountain Club. Drop by to see me, or send me an invite to your next outdoor adventure and I’ll join you. I hope to see you out on the trails, in the museum, or “trying” to cast out on the water!

Best, Katie Blacket CEO/Executive Director

F   D First, the bad news, or rather sad news. The museum’s founding director, Niña Johnson, has taken a position at the University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts in Albuquerque.

With a deft understanding of the established practices of the museum world, yet with the ability to see the margins and their benefits, Niña was able to balance what was standard and expected, with a bit of the unexpected, and a bit of the dynamic and challenging.

When she took the director position in the summer of 2006, the museum project was still trying to turn the corner, so to speak. She left us, less than two years later, with a world-class institution, one that every club member and resident of Colorado can be proud of.

We cannot say enough about the style, class, kindness, and friendship that Niña brought to her role as Museum Director. She is also world-class.

We wish her the best of luck in New Mexico and in all her endeavors.

N C The museum’s former creative director, Chris Case, has now become the curator of the museum.

Chris came to the museum project in January 2007.

Though he has no formal museum education, he brings honed visual and creative skills from his background in art and photography. Just before arriving, Chris was working as a freelance photographer, having just received his master’s degree in Journalism (with a concentration in documentary photography) from the University of Texas at Austin.

Chris Case, new curator of the museum, honing his visual skills in Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Niña Johnson, the former museum director, inspects the famed Schoening ice axe when it arrived last winter from the Washington State Historical Society. Johnson is leaving the museum to take a position at the University of New Mexico College of Fine Arts.

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Prior to receiving that degree, Chris held a communications internship with the Jane Goodall Institute in the Washington, D.C. area. Holding a bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience (and Art & Art History) from Colgate University, Chris previously worked in clinical research at the National Institute of Mental Health and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

We wish him well as he takes up the curatorial reigns of the national museum for mountaineering history.

   It was forty-five years ago, in 1963, that Jim Whittaker became the first American to stand on the summit of Mount Everest.

To celebrate his accomplishment, and to introduce a new brand effort, the Eddie Bauer company, makers of much of the clothing worn by the members of that Everest expedition, held a gala at the Explorers Club in New York City.

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS Are you interested in leading educational tours?

Would you like to help in Base Camp?

Do you enjoy working with youth?

Are you certified to belay guests on the climbing wall?

V WE All of the clothing that many of you have seen in our museum, representing Whittaker’s summit gear, traveleld to New York to help honor the man and the manufacturer.

U E You may have heard that we will be exhibiting a seminal collection of early world maps from the 15th through 17th centuries.

Working with a Denver collector and the National Geographic Society will help us to exhibit some of the most important and rare maps from some of the most famous cartographers of the era.

Expect to hear more about the exhibit, opening events, and volunteer opportunities in the coming months. As always, visit our website for more information.

www.bwamm.org

ARE LOOKING FOR

INDIVIDUALS TO RECEIVE SPECIALIZED TRAINING AS MUSEUM EDUCATION DOCENTS Please contact the museum with questions or to volunteer

303.996.2755

SCFD Scientific & Cultural Facilities District

Making It Possible.

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             SS 

W

 J N          

      

Jake Norton has worked as a professional mountain guide and photographer for over twelve years. His climbing and photographic exploits have taken him to the summit of Mount Everest twice, to the summits of continental highpoints Mount McKinley in Alaska and Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and eighty-eight times to the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington. Learn more about Jake’s adventures at www.mountainworldproductions.com.

Lhotse Face, Mount Everest

Nuptse reflection, Nepal

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     ,     N H   . F      – D H, C A, A P, T R,  I –     ,- C V,    M E’ N R. D, T,  A     ,  C  I     ,                 . B        . O   ’        .

For me, mountains and history – and my fascination with both – have always gone hand in hand.

I grew up in the mountaineering heartland of Topsfield, Massachusetts, about 35 miles north of Boston. While many of my early climbs were made in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, my appetite for climbing and history was whetted as a young boy visiting my grandparents in Colorado.

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It was here in Colorado that I would walk through the quaking Aspen trees on the Roaring Fork Valley with my grandparents, eagerly discovering the detritus of old mining camps: a bit of tin, a discarded spoon, maybe a railroad tie or bit of lumber. What was trash to some was a treasure to me, a subtle reminder of those who had come before and made a resounding impact on the mountains I had just begun to love.

As my climbing progressed and developed, so did my zest for learning about those who came before me in the mountains. Finding evidence of their travels in the landscape only heightened my search for experience and for history.

From the 14ers of Colorado to the slopes of Mount Rainier, minor peaks in the Alps, to Kilimanjaro and the Himalaya, various bits and pieces of mountain history sit on bookshelves throughout my house: a rusted piton from the Harvey Carter-era found cragging above Emerald Valley Ranch near Colorado Springs; half of an ancient, handmade ice-axe from the crater rim of Kilimanjaro; rope, pitons, carabiners, tent fabric, and food tins from pre-World War II Everest climbs.

Sure, they’re all trash in one way or another. No one, even on eBay, would pay good money for them.

But, to me, they’re all treasures, for each brings me back to a specific time or place, and well-remembered

climb and experience. And, most importantly, each one reminds me that long before I scrambled into those hills, someone else had been there, charting the course, figuring out the complexities of the route and the climb, testing their mettle and growing their mind and spirit.

It is a humbling realization, one which helps me keep my ego in check. Always a good thing in the hills.

While I love looking at those artifacts and remembering the climbs and adventures and histories they represent, my fondest “artifact” is one I can no longer see or touch in person, but rather sits in my memory as the most humbling and poignant day of my climbing career: May 1, 1999, the day we found George Leigh Mallory.

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n this day we’re hoping to find history rather than make it. We climb strongly across the North Face and into the gullies leading to 8,300-meter Camp VI, perched on the dramatic and rugged terrain of the upper mountain. It’s a stunning Himalayan day, nearly breathless with crisp views south to the Indo-Gangetic Plains and west to the Annapurnas. Conrad and I arrive at Camp VI (27,300 feet), collapse onto a rocky platform, unload our oxygen bottles and equipment, and take a needed rest while waiting for

Sunrise on Mt. Rainier

the others to arrive.

Once all collected, we chart our plan: Descend south-southwest from Camp VI, look for blue oxygen bottles from the Chinese 1975 expedition*, proceed into the snowy basin, fan out to sweep the area for any evidence of George Mallory or Sandy Irvine—or both. *In 1975, Chinese climber Wang Hongbao discovered an “English dead” in the vicinity of his high camp on Everest. Since no one but Mallory & Irvine had died so high on Everest before, it must have been one of their bodies. See Jochen Hemmleb’s First Traces: 1933-1991 at http://www.affimer. org/hemmleb3.html and First on Everest by Tom Holzel & Audrey Salkeld.

Fifteen minutes later, gasping for breath as I make my way across jumbles of scree and rubble, I notice a blue patch in my peripheral vision. It’s an oxygen bottle, lying in the rock. It’s obviously old, machinecapped on both ends, horizontal ribbing along the shaft, and its bright blue paint blasted away by years of rockfall, wind, and weather. A quick radio call describing it to our historian, Jochen Hemmleb, confirms that it is, in fact, a Chinese bottle from 1975. We’re in the right area. The bottle goes into my backpack and we move onward.

In another 15 minutes, we’re in the pre-determined search area—a jumbled landscape of down-sloping shale, wildly tilted at impossible angles, and cover-

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ing about 12 football fields in area. It’s a morbid place, to say the least. Our cursory search brings us by numerous bodies of different eras, all having fallen victim to the ambivalent mountain looming above.

I wander about in a shallow gully just above 27,000 feet looking for anything that seems out of place in this inhospitable terrain. I find little—an occasional mitten blown off the hand of an inattentive climber; a discarded sardine can; a Poisk oxygen bottle; and lots of rock, ice, and snow. Above and below, my teammates search similar terrain, moving with precise determination in this unwelcoming basin.

Then Mother Luck comes into the picture.

Conrad Anker, scouring a shelf some 50 meters southwest of me, stops to take off his crampons and happens to look over his shoulder, behind and uphill.

It’s the proverbial “right place at the right time.” Not far away, he sees “something white, but not snow and not rock.” His interest piqued, he gets up to investigate, and immediately makes a radio call:

A cotton rope is tied around the waist in a bowline-on-a-coil. Leather, hobnailed boots are on the feet. Conrad and I look at each other in disbelief: This is one of them. But which? Mallory or Irvine. No one else from the era had died this high on the mountain.

We are, simply put, stunned into silence.

Looking at the body, I realize he is the anomaly in this morbid basin. Many other climbers lay here, all from more recent expeditions than his. Judging by their inhuman, contorted body positions, all had died long before they came to rest where they are now. This climber, however, is different, evidenced by his body position. He had somehow survived – albeit for a brief time – a fall of several hundred feet. It is the same fall that killed others, years later, in the same place. His

The last time I tried a boulder problem with my hobnails, I fell off, Conrad says.* Muffled replies of altitude-induced bewilderment come from Andy, Tap, Dave and I. No one moves an inch.

Frustrated, Conrad hops on the radio again: Mandatory team meeting here... Mandatory team meeting. I have tea and Snickers.

Glancing to my right, I can see Conrad some fifty meters away, frantically waving his ice axe above his head. Something’s up, my feeble mind informs me. Roger that Conrad, I reply and move toward him.

Being only a short distance away, I’m the first to reach Conrad’s position.

My breath catches in my throat. There, lying in the rubble of the North Face, lays a body, the remains of a fallen hero. The tattered clothing, made of natural fibers, flaps in a gentle breeze. *Since many people were listening in on our radio conversations, we had previously decided to speak in a sort of code to disguise any discovery we might make.

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hands, after 75 long years, still clutch the mountainside, the classic position of a falling climber who has dropped his ice axe and, kicking and clawing with all his might, struggled fiercely to arrest his fall. His right ankle is horribly broken in a boot-top fracture; his left leg is crossed over it in a defensive pose. Conrad and I sit silent, awed, humbled as we await the arrival of our teammates.

As historians and archaeologists, we know what we have to do while, as humans, we are hesitant. We all want to tell Mallory and Irvine’s story, to tell what happened to these remarkable pioneers 75 years before, and we want to do it respectfully and with care.

Foremost in all of our minds are two questions: Would Mallory and Irvine want their story told? Would

we, in a similar situation, want our stories told?

Unfortunately, we can never know for sure.

We can only do what we feel is correct, respectful, and prudent. With that in mind, we begin to investigate the body, delicately chipping away the ice and rock which bar access to his clothing, his pockets, and any evidence they may yield. My breath catches again as I turn over a shirt collar, exposing an ancient laundry label reading G. Mallory. We’re with him, George Mallory, the man, the myth, the legend.

Hours pass with few words spoken. Tap Richards and I chip away at ice and rock, locating intriguing artifacts of a bygone era: a custom altimeter made for the 1924 expedition; a box of Swan Vestas matches; a tube of zinc oxide; a tin of beef lozenges. I find notes

western horizon. We have to return to Camp V tonight – some 1500 feet below. It is time to go. But not just yet.

Moving slowly on the clumsy terrain, painfully aware of the 8000-foot face just below us, we painstakingly gather rocks and sand and gravel and place them atop the body of George Leigh Mallory. Forty-five minutes later, he is covered completely.

Andy Politz pulls out a worn piece of paper and, with the rest of us gathered around, reads a Committal sent to us by Mallory’s family from the Bishop of Bristol, England:

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great goodness. As a father he is tender towards his children, so is the Lord tender to those that fear. For he knows of what we are made.

We silently bow our heads in personal prayer, pay personal respects to our fallen hero, and begin the descent to Camp V in silence, tears welling in five pairs of eyes.

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and equipment lists in his left breast pocket, and letters from family and friends carefully wrapped in an embroidered handkerchief in the right pocket.

A gust of wind roars up the valley, whipping spindrift snow into my down suit. Chilled, I zip up and continue our investigation and immediately laugh at myself—a self-deprecating laugh. For, here I sit, at 27,000 feet on Everest’s North Face, wearing a $1000 down suit and $1000 boots, waddling around like a modern-day Michelin Man, examining the remains of a man who scaled these same, unforgiving slopes 75 years earlier dressed only in cotton, wool, and tweed. He wore less on summit day on Everest than I’d wear skiing in Colorado. Amazing.

Before we know it, the sun is sinking toward the

s I travel the world, climbing and adventuring, the lessons and reminders of our climbing forefathers are not far away. Be it a rusty, old pin in some Colorado crag; or a tent pole from 1938, high on Everest’s Northeast Shoulder; or the memories of May 1, 1999, these small relics of days and climbers long past never fail to inspire or humble. Indeed, they are all reminders to me that any accomplishment I make, any ability I have to step a little further, to push harder into the unknown, into uncharted terrain, is only possible because of the efforts of those who came before. When I climb, I am forever reminded of the words of Bernard of ChartresI am “standing on the shoulders of giants.”

While your mountain adventures may not take you to the slopes of Everest to see artifacts, you can see some of the most famous, learn some lessons of old, in our Museum. Among the artifacts are Pete Schoening’s famed 1953 K2 ice axe, Albert Ellingwood’s climbing equipment from his pioneering ascents throughout Colorado, and an oxygen bottle from George Mallory’s 1922 Everest Expedition.

Visit us soon to learn about the giants on whose shoulders we all standand climb.

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CMC Press wins awards The Colorado Mountain Club Press won two design awards from the Publisher’s Association of the West that will be officially awarded at the November 13–15 National Publishing Conference in Portland, Oregon.

Dave Cooper’s Colorado Snow Climbs: A Guide for All Seasons received a first place medal in the guidebook category, and Penelope Pudry’s Hiking Colorado’s Roadless Trails received second place in the same category.

CMC Board of Directors applicants sought

By Dave Tabor, nominating committee chair

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State Board President Janice Heidel recently announced a State Nominating Committee to identify CMC members interested in becoming team members of the fifteen-member State Board of Directors.

Board member vacancies will be filled for various terms beginning in January of 2009. These vacancies include officers’ positions. The State Board is the primary policy making group for the CMC. Policy-setting includes program and financial functions. The Board of Directors must have members from at least seven Groups from around the state.

The CMC actively promotes the nomination process, which ensures a strong and committed level of expertise at the state level. The club is looking for candidates whose qualifications and expertise include business experience, strategic planning, group level involvement, volunteer experience, financial acumen, leadership service, outdoor activity involvement, and previous board experience. The Nominating Committee also endeavors to recommend a slate of candidates that reflects the geographic, ethnic, gender, and age

Guide books are a highly competitive category and were judged on typography, jacket/cover design, interior design, format, selection of materials used, and printing and binding production quality.

“It’s always good to receive accolades from colleagues and competitors in book publishing,” said Alan Stark, publisher for the CMC Press. “All you have to do is look at the books at a fine outdoor store like Bent Gate or Neptune Mountaineering and see that we are competing against some really fine guidebook publishers here in the west.”

Stark noted, “Alan Bernhard of Boulder Bookworks was the designer and production manager on both books.”

Publishers Association of the West is a non-profit trade organization created to serve as a forum for the discussion of publishing issues. The Association’s members range from small presses like the CMC Press to publishers with worldwide operations. Affiliate members include printers, designers, binderies, and publishing freelancers. Membership is based primarily in the western U.S. and Canada but is not limited to these regions. P

diversity of Colorado Mountain Club groups, as well as alignment with the mission, vision, and values of the CMC. The Board meets a minimum of four Saturdays per year. In addition to being knowledgeable about the CMC’s performance and operations, Directors assist and participate in fundraising efforts, sit on identified state committees, work on special projects, and encouraged to make personal and meaningful financial contributions.

Current board members whose terms are expiring, and who wish to be considered are also encouraged to submit a brief biographic information sheet and questionnaire to CMC state by August 14, 2008. Questionnaires may be obtained by contacting the state CMC office. Further information may be obtained by contacting Nominating Committee Chair, David Tabor, c/o CMC state office. Subsequent interviews and recommendations will be voted on at the State Council meeting in late October 2008.

The CMC has a long history and profound legacy that continues today. We recognize we cannot continue the important work without a strong board of directors.

We invite you to consider applying and contributing to the ongoing efforts of the CMC, and thank you in advance for your consideration and commitment. P

2008 Eckart Roder education funds awarded

By Olga Kopcha The Board of Directors of the Colorado Mountain Club and the Eckart Roder Advisory Committee proudly announce the recipients of the Eckart Roder education funds for 2008.

This year marks the second time the fund has been able to grant multiple awards. Three CMC recipients have been given funding to assist and/or enhance educational projects in their respective schools.

Ski Mountaineering School This project will fund the first year of an incentive program for instructors in winter schools, allowing them to enroll in the American Institute of Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) level 1 and 2 avalanche courses.

Level 1 and 2 avalanche courses are now recommended by the AIARE as preparation for instructors and trip leaders for winter backcountry recreation. The preparation now required to instruct in an AIARE level 1 course consists of five years experience with leadership and decision making in backcountry avalanche terrain, completion of a level 2 course, observation of a level 1 course, and completion of a level 1 instructor training course.

The ultimate goal of the Ski Mountaineering School is not only to raise the level of AIARE avalanche training of senior instructors, but also to encourage other CMC schools to adopt program in order to enjoy its benefits.

Technical Ice Climbing School Funding from the Roder fund will make possible the certification of three Tech Section instructors as “Single Pitch Instructors” through the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA). The AMGA is the premier climbing instruction and guiding organization in the United States. AMGA training and certification for our instructors will improve the quality of instruction, help to coordinate instruction among the various classes, and improve the reputation of the CMC within the climbing community.

This certification will help the Tech Section reach its goal to have the CMC recognized for its professional level of climbing instruction. The section hopes to provide highcaliber training and guiding through Rock Climbing trips and to offer more rock climbing opportunities for members.

News & events

The Rock Seconding School intends to promote the highest level of safety and knowledge, which will be passed on and taught in the CMC/Tech Section classes. By providing this level of instruction to our leaders, we are promoting awareness of involvement in the Tech Section and providing our volunteers with a chance to become better educated in this field and pass it on to others.

The Eckart Roder Education Fund was organized in 2003 to honor Eckart Roder, a long-time member of the Colorado Mountain Club. Eckart exemplified the values of mountain safety, responsibility, and courtesy. These are the values that we wish to pass on to our fellow members in Eckart’s memory.

Contributions to the Fund are continuously accepted.

They can be made to the Colorado Mountain Club Foundation in Eckart’s name, 710 10th Street, Suite 200, Golden, CO 80401. Donations may be given at the time of membership renewal in the contributions section under Eckart Roder Fund or on our website under Support. The Fund is also listed under Tomorrow’s Needs. For more information on how to apply for funding for 2009, or how the Fund works, please contact Olga Kopcha at (303) 996-2764 or olgakopcha@cmc.org. Look for upcoming events to raise funds on our website at www.cmc.org under What’s New. The next fundraiser will be October 18, 2008, during Mountain Fest at the American Mountaineering Center.

Please visit the Eckart Roder Bake Sale booth, meet Eckart’s sons, and enjoy some home made baked goodies while contributing to a worthwhile education fund.

Congratulations to all the 2008 recipients and thank you for carrying on with the values Eckart bestowed on so many of us. P Eckart Roder

Rock Seconding School Roder Funding will make possible instruction for Lead and Assistant Instructors through a licensed AMGA guide. The training will cover techniques to teach rock climbing skills, modern anchors systems, updates on lowering/rappelling systems, and management of belay stations with multiple pitch climbs. Other training areas include updating and improving instructors’ skill level to enhance their climbing skills. This will make them more knowledgeable instructors as well as provide up-to-date techniques that are safe and recognized by the rock climbing community as best practices.

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News & events Gore Range Group Volunteers for Friends of the Eagles Nest Wilderness take a break on a day of working the Booth Creek Falls Trail out of Vail. Pictured left to right are Lee Rimel, Julie McCahan, Hemmie Westbye, Sara Hall, and Abby Dixon. Friends volunteer for the White River National Forest to hike Eagles Nest and Holy Cross Wilderness trails to provide visitor education and awareness of the Wilderness resource while hiking or during a backpacking trip. Each hiking patrol volunteer wears an authorized uniform shirt with a volunteer patch along with a name tag and U.S. Forest Service volunteer baseball cap. Additionally, volunteers do campsite inventory and monitor and inventory noxious weeds. To volunteer contact Cyndi Coop, (970) 468-6699.

Free web search and online shopping tools aid CMC

By Diane Tomecek, CMC Development Assistant

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Online shoppers, web surfers, and CMC members can unite in an easy, innovative way to raise additional funds for the CMC. We rely on the generosity of donors who give beyond their membership dues. However, we realize it is not always easy to dig deep into your pockets to make contributions.

Now we have an extra option.

The CMC has partnered with the Yahoo-powered search engine called GoodSearch.com and the online shopping venue GoodShop.com. Both sites are completely free (and anonymous) to the user and shopper. Users select the Colorado Mountain Club (GoodSearch/GoodShop ID # 807677) as their charity of choice within each of the sites.

For GoodShop.com, you’ll need to access the retailer sites via the GoodShop site itself. But after that, you’re all set: click and shop away.

The biggest bang for the buck in this effort arises from using the online shopping site, GoodShop.com. With the approaching holiday season, many of us will increase our online shopping. There are over seven hundred top retailers on the site, including mainstream stores like Target, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. Additionally, as outdoor enthusiasts, it is exciting to mention that REI, Lands’ End, Patagonia, and Bass Pro Shops are just a few of the participating outdoor oriented retailers. Each retailer lists the percentage (as high as 37%) of sale the CMC will receive as a donation, so you’ll know immediately the amount you’ve helped raise.

By using GoodSearch.com as your search engine, each time you click on a search result, the CMC receives a small donation (approximately $.01). Don’t be discouraged and deterred by that seemingly small amount; it all adds up. If five hundred supporters make two searches per day, that equates to $3,650 per year for the CMC. So, plan your next

trip, check the current weather conditions or research that school paper via GoodSearch.com.

With the help of people using these two tools, the CMC has raised approximately $300 to date. We need your continued support to increase that figure. It’s easy and free to make a difference for the CMC by doing something that you already do anyway. Additionally, spread the word about this program to your friends and family members so they can assist the CMC as well.

If you need further information or have any questions regarding GoodSearch.com or GoodShop.com, feel free to contact Diane Tomecek at (303) 996-2769 or dianetomecek@cmc.org. 

Ski recycling program begins Colorado Ski and Golf and Boulder Ski Deals have joined SnowSports Industries of America (SIA) to launch the first ski/snowboard recycling program in the United States. One way to save our snow is to recycle outdated equipment. This simple act cuts energy consumption and reduces landfill waste—major steps toward keeping winter cool.

How it Works: Bring outdated skis (alpine and Nordic), snowboards, boots, bindings, poles, and helmets to any of these five locations: 2650 S. Havana in Aurora; 7715 Wadsworth in Arvada; 8100 W. Crestline in Littleton; 2454 Montebello Square Drive (corner of Montebello & Academy) in Colorado Springs; or 2525 Arapahoe Avenue in Boulder.

There is no charge for the service, and a receipt will be provided for tax purposes.

Equipment in good condition will be donated to charitable domestic programs, while equipment that cannot be salvaged will be shredded and used in a variety of new products such as composite decking, flooring, and furniture. P

With so many philanthropic choices and fewer dollars to give, how do you decide which causes you’ll help to the top?

Consider putting The Colorado Mountain Club high on your list.

You’ll fund critical programs that operate without the support of membership dues. Only with your donations can we protect the wildest places in Colorado, teach children about the connections to our natural world, and preserve mountaineering history in the library and museum.

LOG

ON TODAY AND GIVE TO YOUR

www.cmc.org/support

CLUB

Conservation

Wilson Peak access update

The Colorado Mountain Club has been working with the Telluride Mountain Club (TMC), San Miguel County, and the U.S. Forest Service to restore access to one of southwest Colorado’s most popular fourteeners, Wilson Peak (14,017´). Conservation staff from the CMC participated in a site visit this past July to review the Forest Service’s plans for a trail re-route above Silver Pick Basin that will avoid private property and provide legal public access from the trailhead to the peak.

In October, 2007, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) finalized the purchase of 230 acres in the Silver Pick Basin, allowing the Forest Service to begin planning for a re-route to the summit. Due to heavy snow last winter in the San Juans, CMC staff were not able to visit the Forest Service’s proposed trail until late July. Currently, the standard route on the southwest ridge of Wilson Peak is open to climbers approaching either from Navajo Basin to the southwest or Bilk Basin from the east.

The proposal, which the Forest Service sent out for formal scoping at the end of the summer, is for the new trailhead to be located at the end of the Elk Creek Road accessed by the Silver Pick Road. The route will then climb above Elk Creek before switchbacking out of the Elk Creek cirque and entering the west side of Silver Pick Basin well above the remaining private property. The trail will continue to

side slope above the basin and re-connect with the traditional route before reaching the Rock of Ages Saddle. The proposed alignment offers incredible views of the Mount Sneffels Wilderness to the north, El Diente to the south, and the La Sals to the west. If the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) documentation can be finalized in time, trail construction is expected to occur next summer with access by the fall.

The CMC will be organizing a series of work days in 2009 to construct the new trail and will solicit help from CMC members to get the construction completed on time.

We want to acknowledge the leadership provided over the past several years on the Wilson Peak issue by a few supporters, including Steve Bonowski and Jeff Parsons (CMC), Steve Johnson and Tor Anderson (TMC), Judy Schutza (USFS Norwood District Ranger), Kathy Peckham (USFS Norwood District Recreation Planner), and representatives from San Miguel County: Board of County Commissioners, Steve Zwick (County attorney), Kevin Geiger (Former Asst.

Attorney), Mike Rozycki (Planning Director), Linda Luther and Kari Distefano (Open Space & Recreation).

Help support the CMC Wilson Peak Access Fund Please support the CMC’s efforts to restore legal public access to Wilson Peak by donating to the Wilson Peak Access Fund. You can elect to make one-time or monthly recurring donations. The CMC Foundation has offered to match every contribution to Wilson Peak up to $5,000 through the Gehres Fourteeners Fund. Call Doug at (303) 996-2752 if you need assistance or have any questions about how to contribute to Wilson Peak. P

Briefly Colorado Conservation Summit

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Join CMC conservation in Keystone for Colorado’s groundbreaking Conservation Summit on October 4 through 6. Over fifty organizations from across the state, including the CMC, will participate in a statewide get-together geared toward identifying the lasting strategies, partnerships, and policies that will sustain Colorado’s natural resources for future generations. The public is invited to attend the conference, which will include a keynote address by the Governor and the participation of hundreds of citizens, pro-

fessionals, and academics. For information about the agenda and speakers as well as registration information, visit www.conservationsummit.org.

Grassroots Advocacy Conference set for Golden

The Winter Wildlands Alliance will have a conference at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden October 24–26. Please join us to help address the biggest threats to quiet winter recreation, including climate change. This event provides opportunities to build advocacy skills, meet with agency officials, and network

with fellow quiet use activists. The conference will focus on grassroots groups’ capacity building, communication, and small-group survival skills, as well as legal, policy, and on-theground winter recreation issues on public lands. Please register by October 10th. For more information, visit: http://www.winterwildlands.org/news/ events.php.

Forest Service re-evaluates roadless areas

By Anya Byers When many of us think about spending time in the mountains of Colorado,

Conservation through partnership

By Bryan Martin, CMC Assistant Conservation Director Colorado boasts world-class recreation opportunities on some of our nations’ most spectacular public land. At the federal level, there are ten National Forests and fourteen Bureau of Land Management Resource Areas totaling nearly twenty million acres. At the state level, there are over forty state parks, the state forest, and countless acres of state land. Now, consider all the possible actions the state and federal government could take on those public lands that could affect our quiet recreation experience, the wild and scenic qualities of our public lands, and our ability to access the backcountry. Tracking them and responding so that the interests of the CMC are represented is a daunting task.

The Colorado Mountain Club’s Conservation Department serves as the clearinghouse for a lot of this information, but we are not alone. We could not do the job we do if it were not for the dedicated volunteers we rely on week in and week out. Across the state, volunteers assist us in our efforts to monitor proposed actions affecting public lands locally and statewide. Moreover, the department would not be where it is today without the strong organizational partnerships we have created at the local, state, and national level. Our partnership in the Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance (SRCA) is a great example.

SRCA is a coalition of over twenty-five conservation and recreation organizations working to protect and preserve public lands in Colorado and southern Wyoming. SRCA’s mission is to develop and implement coordinated, comprehensive, and effective campaigns for within the Southern Rockies Eco-region to protect wilderness-quality lands, conserve and restore biodiversity, ensure quiet recreation opportunities, promote healthy forest ecosystems, and restore natural fire patterns.

it’s likely that some of the top destinations that come to mind are scenic and quiet. Probably these places are either within Colorado’s 4.4 million acres of roadless national forests or our 3.3 million acres of designated Wilderness Areas. In addition to outstanding quiet backcountry hiking, camping, angling, and hunting, these areas are critical habitat for wildlife and contain the watersheds that ensure our clean drinking water.

Roadless Areas are especially critical as precursors to future Wilderness Areas, but their protection is by no means certain.

While the Wilderness Act and other legislation protect Wilderness Areas

Conservation

The coalition is made up of grassroots, state-wide, and national non-profit organizations such as the Backcountry Snowsports Alliance, the Quiet Use Coalition, the Wilderness Society, the San Juan Citizens Alliance, and the Colorado Environmental Coalition. The unique geographic focus of each organization allows the coalition to take a comprehensive look at how proposed actions locally could affect state and national policy or actions and how national policies could potentially impact local or regional public lands.

SRCA is organized in issue-area committees. Issue area committees include Recreation, Wilderness, Roadless Areas, Biodiversity, and Forest Health. The committees allow SRCA organizations to work on issues most closely aligned with their missions and their staffs’ expertise. For example, the Colorado Mountain Club serves on the Recreation, Wilderness, and Roadless Area committees. We do not participate in every committee due to the direction provided by our mission, our board of directors, and the club’s strategic plan.

Nevertheless, the Conservation Department keeps abreast of the work of all the SRCA committees in order to be as well informed as possible when deciding our strategies, priorities, and activities related to our mission.

The use of partnerships is just one example of how the CMC Conservation Department allocates time and resources as efficiently as possible to fulfill our state-wide priorities.

Beyond our non-profit partnerships, we are working to formalize our relationships with the federal land management agencies in the state through memoranda of understanding (MOUs) that will specifically define how the CMC will work with the agencies. To date, we have finalized an MOU with the Bureau of Land Management and are currently working on one with the Forest Service. We hope to expand our MOU program with Colorado State Parks and the National Park Service in the future. P

from development, Roadless Areas are protected by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (RACR). This rule was the product of the most extensive federal rulemaking in history, with more than six hundred public hearings nationally and more than 1.6 million favorable comments. However, under the provisions of a 2005 state-by-state procedure for roadless management, roadless protections seem on their way out the door. The Forest Service’s released its Colorado-specific Draft Roadless Rule on July 25, 2008 for a ninety-day public comment period.

The proposed plan creates extensive “exemptions” to protection of some of Colorado’s most sensitive backcoun-

try wild lands, leaving them with less protection than any other state in the lower-48.

Help us ensure balanced management for Colorado’s National Forests by writing public comments on the proposed rule. Comments are due by October 23, 2008. Your comments can be submitted to COcomments@ fsroadless.org. For more information on how to get involved please contact Anya Byers at (303) 996-2754 or by email at anyabyers@cmc.org.

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Mountain Fest slated for October 18

By Brenda Porter, Education Director

Erik Weihenmayer speaks through an interpreter to a group of students from the Rocky Mountain Deaf School.

They were participating in a YEP! rock climbing class at the American Mountaineering Center.

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Designed for beginning to expert mountain enthusiasts, the Colorado Mountain Club’s fourth annual Mountain Fest is a full day of mountain recreation skills and conservation clinics, a photo show, exceptional food, and displays of outdoor gear as well as indoor rock climbing opportunities and admisson to the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum.

Erik Weihenmayer will present the evening’s keynote address. The author of The Adversity Advantage and Touch the Top of the World, Weihenmayer is famous for climbing the tallest peak on every continent, even though he is blind.

He has scaled the 3,000 foot rock face of El Capitan, skied down the tallest peak in Europe, and guided Tibetan blind teenagers to 21,500 feet on the north side of Mt. Everest (see accompanying article for more about Erik).

In addition, experts in outdoor recreation and conservation will present 45-minute clinics throughout the afternoon, beginning at noon. Clinics last year included: Rock Climbing Leader Rescue, Ski Touring in Europe, How to Use Your GPS, How to Dress for Winter Outdoor Activities, Snowshoe 101, Colorado Wilderness, Winter First Aid, Avalanche Awareness, Learning to Read Constellations, Ski Waxing, and How to Avoid Getting Lost. Similar clinics will be offered this year, and the schedule will be posted as soon as possible. In addition, special family activities will be offered throughout the day on Saturday with rock climbing and REI’s PEAK program that teaches outdoor ethics to children.

The Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum and Base Camp gift shop will be open from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. BWAMM opened its doors in February, 2008, and is the first and only museum in the United States dedicated to the heroism, technology, culture, and spirit of mountaineering. The museum brings visitors into the world of mountain and rock climbing and honors the achievements of mountaineers from America and around the world. Exhibits on climate, science, cultures, and the humanities as they relate to mountains promise to make the visitor experience rich, exciting, and interactive.

Photo show, annual meeting, dinner, and more The 2008 annual CMC Member Photo show includes the categories: CMC Education, Teamwork, the CMC’s Adventure

Travel, Nature, and Other Activities. A fantastic silent auction will include trips, outdoor gear, dinner tickets and much more.

Especially for CMC members, the CMC Annual meeting at 4 p.m. will include the President’s Award and a “State of the Organization” report. A free happy hour is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

The Taste of the Mountains benefit dinner for CMC’s Youth Education Program begins at 5:30 p.m.

Finally, Erik Weihenmayer’s presentation, complete with an autographed Touch the Top of the World book will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Proceeds from the event benefit the CMC’s Youth Education Program (YEP). Each year more than 5,000 youth improve academic achievement, develop environmental ethics, and learn outdoor skills that spark leadership and personal growth through YEP. The program focuses on mountain recreation, arts, and science education. Please visit www. cmc.org/yep for more information about the CMC’s great youth programming. All activities will take place on Saturday, October 18, 2008, at the American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th Street, Golden, CO, 80401. For information: (303) 279-3080 x 2 or (303) 996-2748. P

Mountain Fest Fact Sheet Who: Mountain Fest is for all mountain enthusiasts. Activities are designed for beginners to experts, families to adults, Colorado Mountain Club members, and the public. Proceeds from Mountain Fest help disadvantaged youth experience and learn about the mountains through the CMC’s Youth Education Program.

When: October 18, 2008, 11 a.m.–4 p.m. CMC member photo show 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Exhibitors and Information booths: CMC schools, REI, and more: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. AAC and CMC Library: 11 a.m.–5 p.m. Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum open 11 a.m.–6 p.m. Silent Auction; funds help children get outdoors through the Colorado Mountain Club’s Youth Education Program: Noon–3:00 p.m. 45-minute clinics. 4 p.m. CMC Annual Meeting 4:30 p.m. Free Happy Hour Sponsored by Golden City Brewery 5:30 p.m.

Taste of the Mountains Benefit Dinner 7:30 p.m.

Erik Weihenmayer presentation (book included in admission).

Where: American Mountaineering Center, 710 10th Street, Golden, CO 80401

Weihenmayer to headline Mountain Fest World-class mountaineer and Golden resident Erik Weihenmayer will be the keynote speaker at the Colorado Mountain Club’s Mountain Fest at the American Mountaineering Center in Golden.

Erik is the only blind man in history to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, a feat he accomplished in 2001. He climbed the Seven Summits—the highest peaks on each of the seven continents—the following year. Additionally, he has scaled the 3,300-foot El Capitan in Yosemite; the Polar Circus, a 2,500-foot ice waterfall in the Canadian Rockies; and the difficult and rarely climbed North face of 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya.

Using climbing as a metaphor, he will speak to all ages about the importance of perseverance and teamwork. He has said, “In an environment riddled with pitfalls, roping up with good people is the best chance we have. Imagine your team roped together, building on each other’s strengths, growing day by day. You know if you fall, someone will stop you. If someone else falls, you stop them; it’s just automatic. People might have different responsibilities, different goals, even motives, but you link together behind one vision. The scope and power of that kind of team is unstoppable.”

Recently Erik has focused on a greater spectrum of philanthropic work and adventure. He has been a leader in working with World Team Sports to pioneer the Real Deal Inclusive Sports Adventure near Vail, Colorado. This adventure race has teams of five people, two of whom are disabled and three able-bodied. Para-Olympic athletes and disabled war veterans have participated with tremendous success. Erik got the idea for the event after participating in the grueling 2003 Primal Quest race in the Sierra Nevada Range. His team completed the race while nearly half of the other teams were unsuccessful.

Through the inspiration of his friends Mark Wellman and Hugh Herr, Erik has played an important role in the creation of No Barriers, a conference aimed at showcasing adaptive technologies that help people with disabilities get outside and accomplish their goals. Most importantly, the conference helps these people overcome societal perceptions of barriers created by their disabilities.

In a more recent expedition, Erik and his team guided six blind Tibetan teenagers to 21,500 feet on the flanks of Mt. Everest. The expedition, chronicled in the film Blindsight, represented an unprecedented achievement for the students and expanded their future possibilities. Because Tibetan society traditionally shuns people who are blind as being possessed by demons, the successes of the team were especially empowering.

In addition to his mountaineering accomplishments, Erik is the author of Touch the Top of the World. The book has been published in ten countries and six languages. Publisher’s Weekly said Erik’s memoir is “moving and adventure packed.

Weihenmayer tells his extraordinary story with humor, honesty and vivid detail, and his fortitude and enthusiasm are deeply inspiring.” A copy of his memoir Touch the Top of the World is included with admission to his presentation at Mountain Fest on October 18. P

Erik Weihenmayer on the summit of Mt. Everest. Photo credit: Didrik Johnck.

YEP connects students with mountains

By Stacy Wolff

The CMC’s Youth Education Program (YEP) strives to reach over five thousand students a year, many whom do not have the opportunity to explore the mountains—or even the foothills along the Front Range.

For the past two summers YEP has forged a partnership with Foothills Green, an after-school program for disadvantaged children. YEP stepped in during the summer months to provide a structured opportunity for these children to explore, learn, and grow. This year I had the privilege to work with twelve youth from the program. The students learned about the value of opportunity and commitment. To be a part of the program, they needed to commit to at least five of the six sessions. They learned how to work together to accomplish a goal through teambuilding, and with ages ranging from 6–16, this had the potential to be challenging. We hiked and searched for mysterious aquatic macroinvertebrates at Maxwell Falls in Evergreen, climbed at the AMC Indoor Wall, explored the riparian area of Bear Creek Lake Park, and examined our watershed through hands-on activities and hiking along Clear Creek. In addition, the youth spent the day fishing at Waterton Canyon thanks to a partnership with the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Many of the people who participated in the Foothills/YEP partnership this summer were returning from the previous year. It seems to be that our hope of inspiring, educating, and keeping youth connected is working.

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Education

From the Climber’s Guide: early photo of Mel Griffiths, Gordon Williams, and Dwight Lavender.

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A Classic Reborn

By Gary Landeck, Library Director

It took two years to make, but it’s beautiful. The American Alpine Club Library and Colorado Mountain Club Collection just received the new edition of The San Juan Mountaineers’ Climber’s Guide to Southwestern Colorado, a facsimile of the original published by the CMC Press.

Originally published in 1933 by CMC members Dwight Lavender, Carleton Long, and Mel Griffiths, The San Juan Mountaineers’ Climber’s Guide was the first Colorado climber’s guidebook. The book is also considered one of the first “modern” climbing guidebooks—one that provides specific route information and accompanying photographs. Most previous climbing guidebooks were what we would today consider to be general travel narratives. The Climber’s Guide was unique in its approach in how it informed climbers about what to expect when they ventured into the wilderness.

Most of the book’s content came from Lavender’s, Long’s, and Griffiths’s documentation of the climbs they made in the 1920s and 30s. In addition to imparting specific route information, The Climber’s Guide was also cautionary. As Art Griffiths explains in the new edition’s preface, “The well-documented routes to the summits of these mountains helped others avoid the mishaps and difficult route finding that too often occurs in the San Juans.” It was the sense of community and affinity for their fellow climbers that compelled Lavender, Long, and Griffiths to write the book.

The book was never published in the technical sense.

The original Climber’s Guide was a typewritten manuscript, complete with handwritten notes and strikeouts. Only a small number of originals were made and today there are only two known extant copies—one at Stanford University (Lavender’s alma mater) and the other in the Colorado Mountain Club Collection. The new hardback edition comes with a slipcase and has been limited to 200 copies. Copy #1 will be added to the Colorado Mountain Club’s rare book collection in the library.

CMC Press Publisher Alan Stark was scholarly in his approach to reproducing the book and faced many challenges, particularly with maps. “The authors used USGS Quads and inked in trails, routes, and reference points, then cut the maps to fit on 6x9 pages

without margins. Modern printing standards require a threeeighths inch page margin, so we had to reduce the maps and map scales by seven to ten percent in order to get the complete maps on the 6x9 pages in this book,” said Stark.

John Lacher, a CMC Press Advisory Board member, conceived the idea of republishing the Climber’s Guide. Inspired by the mission of the CMC Press to bring out-of-print guidebooks back into circulation, Lacher recruited the support of Alan Stark, Art Griffiths, the American Alpine Club Library, and business partner Alan Bernhard. Lacher worked closely with Karen Jones, one of the nation’s leading book conservators, as the original book was scanned at the University of Colorado Special Collections Library in Boulder.

To celebrate the release of The San Juan Mountaineers’ Climber’s Guide to Southwestern Colorado, the Friends of the American Alpine Club Library and the Colorado Mountain Club Collection are hosting a special event the evening of Thursday, October 23.

If you are interested in attending, details will be posted soon on the CMC website and the library blog at http://aaclibrary. blogspot.com.

P

To gain the summit, begin at the bottom of the trail Earn your right to the wilderness with CMC trail work

Recreation Before

By Matt Biscan This past spring’s Denver Group Basic Mountaineering School imposed a new and valuable graduation requirement on its students. In addition to rock craft, snow work, route finding, and high peak climbing, each student was required to complete one day’s trail work. The BMS instructors have apparently been studying Booker T. Washington, who wrote “Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.”

Trail work is dirty, tiring, hot, tedious work. And it is worth every ounce of grit clinging to the skin, every sore back, and every sweaty brow. A workout, a great hike, and improving the outdoor experience for us all; what more could we expect from a day with the CMC? Think of the thousands of miles of wear CMC members impose on the trails of our fair state, its parks, and its wilderness. Have you ever asked yourself “who maintains those trails?”

In the vast majority of cases it is volunteers. As you’ve hiked in to your favorite peak have you ever wondered “why isn’t this trail in better shape?” In the vast majority of cases it is because there are simply not enough volunteers willing to put in a day or two a year working on the trails.

Thoreau wrote, “In wilderness is the preservation of the world.” It is in the maintenance of low impact trails, the elimination of short cuts, the prevention of erosion, that we preserve the wilderness. Join a CMC trail crew soon. Do it just once a year. If every CMC member did just that and no more, our trails and our wilderness would be much improved and “wildly” grateful. P

 CMC trail crew and USFS personnel hard at work CMC trail crew hiking out after a long and productive day (all photos by Matt Biscan, taken July 19, 2008, on a CMC Trail Work trip in the Mt. Evans Area, Captain Mountain Trail)

After

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Recreation

Adopt-a-Trail Program in Grand County

By Kristen Lodge Fast-forward. I have lived in Colorado and the Rocky Mountains now for four years. Because I live in Granby, I hike trails in Grand and Routt County daily. I hike, snowshoe, run, and bike on some of the best trails in Colorado.

Recently, I decided it was time; I was going to give back.

I frequent a trail down the road from my house, the Fraser to Granby Trail. Online research about the trail brought the Headwaters Trail Alliance (HTA) in Grand County to my attention. The organization is a nonprofit advocacy group named for the streams that become the Colorado River whose goals are to provide quality trails that link the towns in Grand County to recreational areas. HTA Executive Director Lucinda Elicker partners with each community to “plan, build, preserve, and maintain multi-use trails in Grand County.” This year they are trying to raise funds for a tunnel under Route 40, and they need volunteers to help finish the Fraser to Granby Trail.

In January 2008, the Headwaters Trail Alliance advertised in the local newspaper for volunteers to adopt a trail.

I respond and choose a five-mile segment of the Vasquez Pass Trail. The Vasquez Pass Trail is in the Vasquez Wilderness west of Winter Park and Berthoud Pass. I’d never been to that area or hiked any of the trails near it, and I was excited to try something I’d never done and to explore an area above treeline.

By May, I was anxious to get on the trail. The gate to the wilderness area was not yet open due to the snowy winter

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When I first started hiking in 1988 in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, before heading to the trail, I read every hiking guide available. I read the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) Guide and Best Hikes in New Hampshire to learn about the trail I planned to hike. I also started reading monthly newsletters the AMC sent. From these I learned that anyone could “adopt” a trail. Each newsletter contained pictures of people holding gardening tools and wearing hard hats and big smiles. The work looked hard, but I was encouraged by the smiles.

During those years, I spent many summer weekends hiking and backpacking in the White Mountains. While I wanted to “give back,” I couldn’t do trail work because I lived two hours away from the mountains. Hiking was my escape from the crowds of seacoast New Hampshire; I found solitude and was able to relax on those trails. It wasn’t time.

and unusually cold temperatures during April and May; so I waited.

The gate to the Vasquez Wilderness area finally opened at the end of June, and at last I got a chance to see the trail I’d adopted. It was a blue-sky day, and the dirt road to the trailhead was in great shape. It is a two hour easy hike to the trail marker for Vasquez Pass Trail, the start of my adopted trail.

Once I was on the trail everything changed for me. This is not just any trail; this trail was my responsibility for one year. I needed to maintain it and to sign up for a work day, when the Forest Service helps with major repairs such as removal of trees or replacing water bars. That would be

the hardest part of adopting the trail. That day, however, I pulled branches and debris off the trail and took photos of what logs would need saws and multiple people to remove.

I also scouted a campsite for my next visit when I would stay overnight and hike farther up on the trail to the Continental Divide.

I am so glad I’m doing this. I’m getting the opportunity to explore a new area and know a trail really well. My chosen trail has all the components of a great trail: a creek running through it, a great view of Vasquez Peak at the start of the trail so you know where you’re going, and it’s on the Continental Divide. I can’t wait to come back each week and go farther up the trail and get to know it more each time. P

Adopt a Trail Programs in Colorado:

Other important links:

• http://www.coloradotrail.org/aat.html • http://www.14ers.org/Volunteer_Programs_ Adopt.php • http://www.headwaterstrails.com/adopt.html • http://www.eaglecounty.us/uploadedFiles/ engineering/Permits/Eagle_County_Adopt_ Trail(1).pdf • http://www.lakewood.org/comres/page. cfm?ID=386&Adopt-A-Trail/

• http://www.coloradowilderness.com/wildpages/ vasquez.html • http://www.fs.fed.us/r2/arnf/recreation/wilderness/ vasquezpeak/index.shtml Kristen Lodge is a freelance writer living in Granby, Colorado. She is an avid hiker, backpacker, skier, and triathlete.

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23

Missouri Moun

ntain mix-up

By David A. Lien I often asked myself why I wanted to climb mountains but soon realized there was no need. Such questions are unanswerable, and are posed only by those who have never done it themselves– Joe Simpson, This Game of Ghosts. continued on the next page

The author on the summit of Mt. Belford A view of Mt. Belford and Belford Gulch

Map showing the area referenced.

TOPO! maps are courtesy of National Geographic Maps and are used by permission of NGS maps.

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Missouri Mountain (14,067´) is located in the Sawatch Range three miles east of Huron Peak (14,012´) and 1.25 miles southwest of Mount Belford (14,197´), but it wasn’t recognized as a separate mountain until 1956, when United States Geological Survey measurements distinguished “ridgelike” Missouri Mountain from her northeast neighbor Mount Belford and the surrounding terrain.

The standard route up Missouri is a ten-mile round trip through 4,450 feet of elevation gain. Not a bad workout to prepare for climbing Mount Rainier, which I summited just twelve days later (but that’s another story). Starting out from the 9,640-foot Missouri Gulch trailhead at 4:30 a.m., I crossed over Clear Creek and hiked up into Missouri Gulch to the 12,600-foot level, where there’s a “fork in the road.”

Going southeast takes climbers to 13,220-foot Elkhead Pass, and venturing west brings them to a 13,700-foot saddle on Missouri’s northwest ridge. The terrain above tree line was still mostly snow-covered and hard-crusted during this June 7th, 2003, climb, and visibility was limited due to gusting winds and low clouds. However, the weather was improving so I continued climbing. As often is the case, I was alone, content, and the weather gods were on my side.

Unaccompanied peak bagging is not considered a wise practice by many Colorado outdoors types, but as a solo hiker-climber you avoid mundane everyday distractions and embrace humanity’s innate evolutionary sense of adventure and wanderlust.

As John Muir said, “Only by going alone in silence, without baggage, can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.”

Colorado climber David Elkins thinks so, too. “Although it

is not considered prudent, I climbed all of the 14ers alone, and I usually climbed them by nonstandard routes. I chose to do this as a way to enjoy the solitude of nature and to see more wildlife. I consider the outdoors to be a sort of sanctuary” (T&T, Winter, 2006-2007, p. 7). It takes courage and daring to push repeatedly off into the unknown on your own like that, but the potential rewards are priceless.

In “The Solitary Way,” Outside magazine contributor Jack Turner tells us about them: “No one knows where I am, for the simple reason that I don’t know exactly where I’m going. Not knowing is a key ingredient in this game. It allows freedom from order and schedules, from what I expect and what I am obliged to do: The nematodes, the leaves, and the minnows go about their business quite oblivious to my complicated world. Indifferent. Soon I will be more like them” (April, 2003). John, David, and Jack know that going solo—and not always knowing where you’re going—is often the only way to get somewhere worthwhile.

By 9:00 a.m. blue skies appear, and a summit poked out of the clouds in the distance, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right one. Based on the admittedly imprecise Colorado’s Fourteeners route map I was using, and my seemingly careful efforts at following it, the peak I was seeing couldn’t possibly be nearby Mount Belford? The two summits (I seemed to recall) looked nothing alike, but I wasn’t sure. At any rate, I wanted to climb Missouri Mountain because the photos from my first (October 2000) ascent hadn’t turned out.

I continued climbing and ended up reaching the summit of Mount Belford instead of Missouri Mountain, having “forked” southeast instead of west while down in Missouri Gulch, but at the time I still wasn’t sure and decided not to ponder the question too long, not remembering exactly what Missouri’s summit looked like anyway. The Colorado Mountain Club’s Guide to the Colorado Mountains describes the route I followed: “A longer, gentler route to Belford is to continue south on the trail to Elkhead Pass at 13,200 feet.

From the pass head east then arc north to gain the rock outcropping of the summit” (10th ed., 2000, p. 190).

After spending thirty minutes on the summit without another climber in sight—which wasn’t unexpected given that most fourteener aficionados tend to be fair weather types—I decided to take a “shortcut” down the mountain.

Shortcuts are almost never a good idea on fourteeners or any other mountains. Because I was still inexplicably thinking that Mount Belford was Missouri Mountain, I traversed a ridge to the east and dropped down into what would have been Missouri Gulch, if this had been Missouri Mountain, but the gulch in question was Belford Gulch.

It didn’t take long to realize that where I was and where I wanted to be were definitely not the same place. Luckily, Belford Gulch runs north, like Missouri Gulch, and comes out somewhere on Chaffee County 390, which I could follow back to the trailhead, assuming I was able to negotiate the gulch and get out to the road safely.

In Belford Gulch I encountered an elk, which you almost never see on standard 14er routes, and my camera’s motor died. Had this malfunction occurred twelve days later on Mount Rainier, or just over three weeks later on Mount Kilimanjaro (yet another story), many once-in-a-lifetime photo opportunities would have been forfeited, like an elk photo on this day. During all of my fourteener and other climbs I’ve only encountered elk a handful of times, even though Colorado has more elk per square mile than any other state.

In his book On The Wild Edge, my skilled bow- and elk-hunting friend David Petersen writes, “While elk don’t seem to fear the smell of dogs—no more than they fear coyotes—the stench of humanity, apropos, fills them with dread and caution” (172). Although rarely seen from standard fourteeners trails, during the fall elk are likely to be heard. “All who have heard it,” David says, “agree that the shrill, brassy blast of a bull elk’s bugle is vocal magic, one of the most thrillingly mysterious sounds in nature, to my ears equaled only by the chilling nocturnal chorus of a wild timber wolf or the lonely wails of loons on a moon-mirrored north-country lake” (185).

Continuing down to near tree line where the elk had been, I followed its tracks to a faint overgrown trail that weaved a twisted and tangled path down through steep, well-cliffed terrain to Clear Creek, now swollen with spring runoff, but just a stone’s-throw from the road. Without seeing the elk and then following it to this nearly invisible trail—most likely the only safe way out of the basin—getting down might have taken hours longer or resulted in serious injury (or death) and a night or more trapped in this high mountain basin in the lofty Sawatch Range.

Elk and other wild animals, like humans, oftentimes follow the path of least resistance, using trails and other natural travel-ways when available—or maybe this one was just lending me a helping hand? No matter, I figured that following Cervus elaphus canadensis might lead to a safe way out of the basin, and I guessed correctly. On to Clear Creek.

After nearly an hour of searching for a suitable crossing, I waded in and was very nearly swept off my feet.

Struggling across, fighting the fast-moving current the whole way, I dried off while walking along Chaffee 390 for a mile-and-a-half to the trailhead. It had been a long day—over nine hours of climbing and hiking, from 4:30 a.m. to 1:40 p.m.—and even though I was never truly lost, the thought of descending Belford Gulch into some distant, unfamiliar mountain valley was unappealing.

On the other hand, it would have been an excellent fourteener climbing adventure, as all difficult journeys with an unknown outcome or destination tend to be. And as someone far more poetic than I said, climbing a fourteenerer “is like love—anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.” Another wise soul adds, “Sometimes you have to lose yourself to find yourself.” I hope to lose, and find myself amidst Colorado’s mighty fourteeners for years to come. P David Lien has climbed all fifty-four Colorado fourteeners, the fifty state highpoints, and six of the Seven Summits. He turned back at 25,200 feet on the north/Tibet side of Everest in 2006.

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the trail

Linda Pryor: 1959–2008

By Sarah Carr and Monique French

Accidents in the mountains are less common than in the lowlands, and these mountain mansions are decent, delightful, even divine, places to die in compared with the doleful chambers of civilization.

Few places in this world are more dangerous than home. Fear not, therefore, to try the mountain-passes. They will kill care, save you from deadly apathy, set you free, and call forth every faculty into vigorous, enthusiastic action—John Muir.

On Saturday June 28, 2008, our climbing partner Linda Pryor, an active member of the Pikes Peak group of the Colorado Mountain Club, died while climbing Crestone Needle, one of the many divine “mountain mansions” of Colorado.

The group was about 150 feet from the summit when she fell while climbing a difficult section. Her head hit hard, knocking off her helmet, and she tumbled about a hundred feet. As she tumbled, she appeared to be unconscious, and we believe she died on impact.

Linda was an experienced climber. This was her second time on Crestone Needle as she had completed all the Colorado Fourteeners and Kilimanjaro. She had also completed all the Basic Mountaineering School (BMS) modules and was considered by some of her BMS instructors to be more a peer than a student. She was looking forward to taking the High Altitude Mountaineering School course and was already beginning to plan to climb the Mexican Volcanoes and Aconcagua. Linda was a cautious and careful climber who knew and respected the limits of her abilities, but she was always preparing for the next challenge. The sky wasn’t even the limit for her.

Linda was the perfect climbing partner at the gym, on the rocks, and on the mountain. A close friend said, “She accepted people where they were and who they were.” She was always gently encouraging us to do our best and to grow, but never pushed us where we didn’t want to go. She always taught by example. In fact, she even taught and cared about people she didn’t know. In her personal trip report to friends for her solo summit of Capitol Peak in September 2007, her final fourteener, she tells the story of three young climbers she had seen that morning: “Got up around 3:30 a.m. and headed up to Daly ridge around 4:00 a.m. Ate some breakfast on the ridge (Zone bar—blah). Started to head out when 3 young guys (early 20s I’d say) popped up on the ridge.

They followed me since they had not been up there before.

I crossed the gully that you come across pretty soon after leaving the ridge—a little tricky in the dark but managed ok. Waited on other side for the 3 kids to get up nerve to cross the gully in the dark. After about 15–20 minutes one of them finally made it across and waited for the others to come. I continued on as I felt they would be ok with the one finally across—amazingly I kept finding cairns even in the dark. Made it up to K2 ridge around 6:30—seemed like it took forever to go up the boulder field to K2—got a sunrise picture—awesome. Kept looking back for the 3 kids but never could see their lights.”

She continued her climb, summited, and a couple joined her on her downclimb. “Got back to camp around noon— neighbors had some beer cooling in the stream so had one with them and visited for awhile. They mentioned the three kids I had started out with turned around at K2 because they weren’t comfortable with the exposure. They said one wanted to continue on—muttering something about if that woman could do it by herself, they should be able to do it. I was pretty stoked. I bet they hated to see an old lady outdo them.”

This was Linda. She brought her sense of humor and fun wherever she went. It was her “Eleventh Essential.” Once again, a lesson we will always remember.

We will always miss her and feel blessed to have shared these “delightful … divine” places with her. She will be always in our hearts and as difficult as this is, we are thankful that she died living life to the fullest, with a smile on her face ... not in those “doleful chambers of civilization.”

Our “”Eleventh Essential” will forever be the lessons that she taught us of friendship, kindness, compassion, and responsibility for yourself and your fellow climbers in the mountains. Linda, we will always love you. P

Dan Gayton: 1939–2008

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By Karin Lindquist and Sue Burke with notes from Kay Gayton and Paul Weber To the delight of fellow hikers, hot dogs and buns tumbled from trip leader Dan Gayton’s pack at the summit of Greyrock for an unexpected feast. Dan had just introduced a new hiking/scrambling route on this popular mountain near Fort Collins and the “weenie route” was inaugurated. This is just one example of Dan’s original and multiple contributions to the Fort Collins Group of the Colorado Mountain Club. An avid rock climber and snowshoer, Dan willingly shared his passions. On many summer evenings from 1992 to 2003, Dan set up top-roping sessions at Horsetooth Reservoir.

Both experienced and wanna-be climbers benefitted from his diligent anchor set-up and his watchful eye. Dan’s good humor, storytelling, and high concern for safety and comfort made him a popular trip leader. Additionally, Dan’s trips to East Glacier Knob and Little Matterhorn in Rocky Mountain National Park were club favorites and annual destinations.

As a member of a Crestone Peak, outing his impromptu leadership led the group to the ultimately safe decision to bivouac at the Playground of the Bears when descent was slowed by an injured climber and darkness neared.

Dan popularized snowshoeing among Fort Collins CMCers. He initiated club purchase of snowshoes and led trips every other weekend for several years. Slower snowshoers never felt abandoned, and cold hands were always made warm. Dan also created a new winter route to Lake Haiyaha so that the blue-green ice wonders there would be available to past, present, and future snowshoers.

Dan was raised in New Jersey and migrated to Colorado in 1970. He taught fifth grade in the Poudre School District.

His gift for teaching extended beyond classroom hours. During summer months Dan took groups of elementary school children climbing and provided top-roping sessions for Fort Collins Boy Scout Troop 190. After his retirement in 2001,

he continued teaching and volunteering. For a decade Dan maintained the Fort Collins Group’s web site.

Dan met his wife, Kay, on a CMC backpack trip in 1990. They married in 2000. Although Dan was often bored by slide shows, their home became a gallery of their outdoor adventures.

Luscious but sometimes austere photographs were hung in Dan’s handcrafted frames with mats by Kay. In addition to woodworking, Dan had many interests. Dan was an expert on Shakespeare and history. He was a scuba diver, pianist, competitive runner, flyfisherman, football and baseball player, artist, sailor, and seminarian. He had a lifelong interest in fitness and visited his health club almost daily, engaging in Spinning, weight training, and Tai Chi. After retirement, Dan’s life was expanded and enhanced by his grandchildren Jordan, Logan, and Caleb. The basement in Kay and Dan’s home became a fantasy playground for sword fights, climbing expeditions, and art. The boys’ lives were expanded and enhanced by this very involved grandfather.

An active person in good general health, Dan’s development of cough last October and shortness of breath in February was unexpected by family and friends. However, he faced the diagnosis of lung cancer with courage and optimism.

Dan Gayton was awarded Honorary Membership in the Colorado Mountain Club in 2007. He is sorely missed. P

the trail

Dan on the top of Notchtop after climbing up the Spiral Route.

Credit: Dave Grohusky

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End of

the trail

Mary Jean Stockdill 1935–2008

By Sallie Stockdill and Sheryl Randall

Born in Fairmont, Minnesota, and relocated in Colorado, Mary joined the CMC in 1968 because of her love of the mountains. She hiked throughout Colorado and around the world— Kilimanjaro to Peru, Patagonia, Nepal, Russia, Finland, the Arctic Circle, England, Scotland, Ireland…. Of course, before Mary set out on these adventures, she completed her goal of climbing all of Colorado’s 14ers and had inspired others to do the same.

She was known for her patient instruction and encouragement, which was her trademark from being a special education teacher and working with children.

Many enjoyed Mary’s pictures of her trips. Her keen observational powers and great sense of humor when she told stories of her trips made them alive. She could find an upbeat way to describe her fellow companions and could even make rain, mud, bugs, and unexpected mishaps seem a part of the adventure.

After she had a very unpleasant experience during her first trip to Nepal, many wondered why she would want to go back again. The answer was easy: she had not accomplished her goal.

During a CMC in-state outing some years back in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness after a big snow year, the snowmelt made many streams impossible to cross, which limiting the hiking.

One morning, Mary had enough and decided to drive to Hahn’s Peak. It was quite a distance away but did not involve stream crossings. When she returned, her reply to the question why she drove so far for such a short hike that wasn’t particularly scenic was classic: “Because I had to get on top of something.”

Mary was very fond of the reply George Mallory, of Everest fame, gave to the question “Why climb mountains:”

What’s the use of climbing mountains? My answer must be at once, “It is no use.” There is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever…. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron. We shall not find a foot of earth that can be planted with crops to raise food. It is no use. So, if you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself—upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from the adventure is just sheer joy.

And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to enjoy life. That is what life means. That is what life is for.

We are so happy for Mary that she can once again climb new mountains and experience that joy. P

James Walter Schofield

By Fred Hopper Jim Schofield was born May 24, 1925, in New York City.

He grew up in Bergen County, New Jersey. After graduating from Union City’s Emerson High School, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in August of 1943. After a final assignment in the Army of Occupation of Japan, he was honorably discharged in August of 1946. Returning to New Jersey, he completed a course in mechanical drafting and machine design, and then embarked on a life-long career as a draftsman.

Joining the Interstate Hiking club of New Jersey in 1955 marked a turning point in Jim’s life: he began an enduring obsession with mountaineering, hiking, and mountain climbing. As an active member of the Appalachian Mountain Club and other outdoor organizations, he hiked and climbed extensively throughout four New England states, satisfying a personal goal he had set to reach the summits of all four-thousand-foot peaks in New Hampshire. “The experience “changed my life forever,” he wrote in 1992. He quit his draftsman job in New Jersey to spend the summer of 1960 in Europe, where he hiked and climbed extensively throughout the Alps. After returning home in September, 1960, he did not go back to his old job; instead, he moved to Colorado. Working as a draftsman, he jumped from job to job until 1963 when he landed a position at Lowry Air Force Base in Aurora as a draftsman and civil engineer technician. There he stayed until his retirement in August of 1985.

Jim joined the Colorado Mountain Club in November of 1960. His previous experience qualified him as a leader on numerous hiking, technical climbing, showshoeing, and cross-country and downhill skiing trips. He served many years as chairman of the CMC’s Leadership Training Committee, and for twenty years, he volunteered as an instructor for the Basic Mountaineering School.

After settling in Colorado, Jim began to climb all the fourteeners. He reached his goal in 1962. In the years that followed, he repeated that record twice before deteriorating knees prevented further serious climbing.

Jim met his future wife, Karleen Kay Beckman, at the CMC Lake Alice Outing in British Columbia in 1974. They married in May of 1975. Both worked, danced, played bridge, and traveled together until Jim’s retirement in 1985. Karleen’s retirement in 1986 enabled them to expand their activities to include more ambitious foreign trips and tennis. His tennis

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friends remember him for his collection of very broad-brimmed hats and his unique choked grip on his tennis racquet.

An accomplished amateur artist, Jim in remembered for inventing a new watercolor technique. When one of his

the trail

works had an ugly foreground, he solved the problem by cutting out the unacceptable part, painting a new one, and taping the desirable rendition to his painting. In the planning and execution, Jim used his drafting skills so that the measurements were precise. The fit was perfect.

Jim is survived by his wife, Karleen, a brother-in-law, Val Negri, seven nephews, three nieces, and a host of friends.

He will be missed.

Tom Pullen and Helen Garrett contributed to this article.

31

Place-name polka: Sorting out the Crestones

By Woody Smith, CMC Archivist For most Coloradans, the names of the state’s mountains seems as inevitable and immovable as the peaks themselves.

Yet some of the names by which we now call our mountains are not even as old as the state itself.

One of the state’s more celebrated mountain names— Crestone—first appears two years before statehood during the celebrated Hayden Survey of 1874–1875. However, this fails to account for the obscure fact that from the 1870s to the 1920s, the mountain that we know today as Kit Carson was commonly known as Crestone.

Cockscomb One long-held explanation of the name “Crestone” holds that it is a translation of the Spanish word for “cock’s comb”—presumably because the profile of the Crestone massif resembles the crown of a rooster.

However, this fails to account for the obscure fact that from the 1870s to the 1920s, the mountain we today know as Kit Carson was commonly known as Crestone.

Although this name trade has been alluded to in earlier “Yesteryear” columns, it has generally escaped deeper examination due to a lack of direct evidence. Recently uncovered historical materials help to clarify this cloudy issue.

Three Tetons According to maps of Colorado printed in the 1860s and early 1870s, the dominant feature of the northern Sangre de Cristo Range was “Les Trois Tetons.” One of the earliest appearances of this name is on the 1863 Map of Public Surveys in Colorado Territory to accompany a report of the Surveyor Gen. It appears as “Le trois Têtes” and is located at the northeast corner of the Baca Grant. This is also the location of the “first” Crestone.

A passage in John L.J. Hart’s Fourteen Thousand Feet (1925) confirms the location of the Tetons. In the first known reference to the massif, the 1853 Gunnison party “while going up the San Luis valley… crossed a creek ‘Trois Tetons, deriving its name from the peaks whence it descends.’” The only maps showing Trois Tetons Creek are those of the land office surveys of 1863 and 1892. On them the creek “descends from the mountain ‘Les Trois Tetons,’ which is inside the Baca Grant and therefore cannot be the present Crestone Peak (now Kit Carson)” (19).

1883 Another piece of the puzzle can be found in the July 29, 1883, edition of the Rocky Mountain News. A headline proclaims, “Crestone’s Crest Scaled by a Party of Aspiring Pleasure Seekers.” The story, whose author is not named, claims an ascent of Crestone Peak by a party from the San Luis Valley. However, the route description suggests an ascent, not of the Crestones, but of present-day Kit Carson Peak.

The writer describes Willow Park: “a little grassy park, level a a barn floor…. Its altitude is about 9,500 feet.” He mentions the two Willow Creek waterfalls followed by

Yesteryear

a description of Upper Willow Lake: “Continuing up Willow Creek about two miles to where it has its source in a little lake, nearly round about onefourth of a mile across.”

According to the story, the party camped in the trees at Lower Willow Lake (11,560´) much like today’s climbers.

The next day, July 19, 1883, the party climbed “Crestone.”

One reference of note is to the “Greenhorn Range,” which was an early name for the Crestone massif, as well as the present-day Wet Mountains. The party returned to the trailhead by nightfall.

Despite the writer’s vivid summit description, the details of the mountain’s upper reaches are vague enough to cast doubt as to the party’s ultimate success. However, there is little doubt that the route to 1883’s “Crestone” matches today’s standard route up Kit Carson Peak via Willow Creek.

1890s Some of the earliest known peak lists were printed in a Denver & Rio Grande promotional pamphlet called Around the Circle. In 1890, the list contained thirty-five fourteeners and twenty-four thirteeners, although, tantalizingly, seventy-two peaks “between 13,500 and 14,300 are unnamed and not on this list.” Some of the fourteeners were later demoted, and some of the thirteeners promoted. Some names are simply a mystery. Among those included are the Crestones, 14,233´; and Frustum, 13,883´.

The Hayden Survey was the source for what became the default name and elevation given on lists and maps for the Crestones. It was used liberally, making an appearance on at least half of the maps printed between 1880 and 1900.

Frustum Peak is a Wheeler Survey name, but the exact location is a matter of some conjecture. On the Wheeler map of 1878, the name seems to be in place of present-day Kit Carson (See T&T, Winter 2007-08).

In Fourteen Thousand Feet, John Hart wrote that “The Land Office also resurveyed the Baca Grant in 1892. On this new map, the present Kit Carson was still called Trois Tetons, although in the field notes, contrary to the map, the highest of its three summits is called Crestone, probably due to local opinion.

A present day topographical map of

1900s Even the government agreed that Kit Carson used to be Crestone. In their Sixth Report, the U.S. Geographic Board, forerunner to today’s U.S. Board on Geographic Names, ruled: “Crestone: peaks, Sangre de Cristo Range, Saguache County, Colo (Not Three Tetons.)”

The ruling is significant because present-day Kit Carson Peak is the only fourteenerer in the Crestone Group that rises exclusively in Saguache County. It also confirms that there was pre-history of the massif being called the Three Tetons.

They also affirmed that, as of 1906, the peak visible from the town of Crestone was officially recognized as Crestone.

However, Kit Carson peak hadn’t skedaddled; it had only shifted southeast to the Crestone massif, essentially

the Crestones, showing how the names have shaken out.

33

1916 view southeast from the summit of Mt. Adams (13,931´) from the scrapbook of Eleanor Bartlett. The climbers knew it as “Horn Peak.” The name has since shifted to a nearby summit. This was also a first known ascent.

Contrast this image with the modern-day photo on the facing page taken by the author.

34

reversing the present-day position: “Kit Carson: peak, Sangre de Cristo Range, Custer and Saguache Counties, Colo.

(Not Frustum.)”

The exact source of this note is a puzzle, since it is the only known use of “Kit Carson” in the Crestone group that does not locate the mountain in its present place. Its location in both Custer and Saguache counties make it undisputedly the Crestone massif, since the countly line was drawn in 1877. The note is also puzzling because the name Frustum has no history of being used on any of the present-day Crestones.

Despite the Board’s ruling, Denver Clason Map Company issued a 1908 Map of the San Luis Valley indicating Crestone and Humbolt peaks in their present positions. However, the map uses Les Trois Tetons in place of Kit Carson. This is certainly among the last printed references to “Tetons” for the massif in the northeast corner of Baca Grant Number 4.

1910s Eugene Parsons’s A Guidebook to Colorado (1911) lists “Altitudes of Promi-

nent Peaks And Passes” without clues to their locations. Among them are Crestone, 14,233´; Tetons, 14,198´; and Frustum Mountain, 13,893´.

Humboldt Peak is not listed.

In 1914, the Colorado Mountain Club published its first list of “The High Peaks of Colorado.” Ellsworth Bethel and James Grafton Rodgers made the compilation, which included forty-two fourteeners. Crestone Peak (14,233´) and Kit Carson Peak (14,100´) were included. However, both peaks were listed as being in Saguache and Custer counties—the ridge crest is the county boundary. Hence, it could only refer to the Crestone massif.

Moreover, the text noted, “The name Crestone supplants three Tetons….” This apparently assigns “Kit Carson” to the present-day Crestone Needle, and it leaves the Kit Carson massif unnamed.

In fact, the mountain bearing the name “Kit Carson” was removed from the list in October, 1914, when the CMC published Leaflet No. 2 (A typo indicates No. 3). Mount Bierstadt was also demoted, reducing the number

of 14ers to forty. Crestone remained unchanged. In November of that year, the real “Leaflet No. 3 (No. 1 Revised)” was published. In it Kit Carson Peak was restored to its original spot, including placement in Saguache and Custer counties. The list stood at forty-one.

A nearly identical list appeared in the May, 1915, issue of The Trail.

Among the minor changes, Crestone lost its second “e,” becoming Creston.

It also eliminated James Grafton Rogers’s name from the authorit credit.

The first documented ascent of present-day Kit Carson and the Crestones occurred in July of 1916, the honor going to the fabled climbing party led by Albert Ellingwood and Eleanor Davis.

According to Ellingwood’s 1925 account in T&T, members of the party climbed “Kit Carson” on July 21. Two days later, they “struck off for Spanish Creek… determined to make a test of the unclimability of the Crestones,” which were ascended on July 24, 1916 (Trail & Timberline, 6/1925, p. 2).

The CMC archives contain a photo scrapbook belonging to Eleanor Bart-

lett, who was also on the 1916 trip.

Her pictures and captions reveal that the climbing party knew present-day Kit Carson as the Creston Peaks—the highest being the Middle Creston— and the present-day Crestones as The Needles. Consequently, the 1916 party actually climed first ascents of the Middle Creston and The Needles.

In 1917, Clason’s Guide Map of Colorado indicates Crestone Peak at the northeast corner of the Baca Grant.

1920s and beyond In 1921, the CMC’s list claimed fortytwo fourteeners, including “Crestone Peak, 14,291´, Custer, Saguache” and “Kit Carson Peak, 14,100´, Custer.

Humboldt Peak is not listed in any location.

In 1923, Roger Toll’s The Mountain Peaks of Colorado was published.

Based on U.S. Geological and U.S. Geodetic and Coast Surveys, it is significant because it notes the “1,664

total number of named points of elevation.” Notably, it marked the introduction of the Crestone Needle. With the exception of the name Frustum being used for Kit Carson, the features are listed as we know them today.

Nevertheless, the issue still was not resolved. In April, 1923, the CMC’s yearly list appeared: Crestone Peak, 14,291´, Custer, Saguache; Crestone Needle, 14,130´, Custer, Saguache; Humboldt Peak, 14,100´, Custer; and Kit Carson Peak, 14,100´. The double Custer County listing implies that the Kit Carson massif went unnamed, while Humboldt was named twice.

In 1925, the list published in the first edition of Fourteen Thousand Feet totaled 47 peaks. Although Kit Carson had finally found its current location, Crestone Needle had now wandered over to the vicinity of Humboldt: Crestone Peak, 14,291´, Custer, Saguache; Crestone Needle, 14,130´, Custer; Kit Carson Peak, 14,100´, Saguache; and Humboldt Peak, 14,044´, Custer.

By June of 1925, the new names are well enough established that Albert Ellingwood makes no mention of the previous nomenclature in his account of the 1916 Crestone trip. Oddly, however, the placement of Crestone Needle exclusively in Custer County persisted for years. In 1993, William Bright’s Colorado Place Names still listed only Custer County.

Only in 1994 would Maxine Benson’s 1001 Coilorado Place Names finally list Crestone Needle in both Custer and Saguache counties.

Nevertheless, the question was still not settled—at least not for those who remembered how it used to be. In the July 1948 T&T, Fletcher W. Birney, Jr., wrote that “a movement has been initiated by those interested in the town, named Crestone… to have the peak, visible from the town, named Crestone.” Birney wrote, “The Colorado Mountain Club has gone on record in favor of the existing nomenclature of the Crestone group of 14,000-foot

peaks.… Every plan so far has eliminated the name Kit Carson and left an unnamed mountain… an unnamed peak could become the resting place of some politician’s John Henry.” The first (lower) of the two Willow Creek waterfalls, proving from their description that the 1883 expedition ascended, not one of the Crestones, but present-day Kit Carson Peak.

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Apparently logic, local sentiment, and a history of being called “Crestone” did little for the powers that be in Washington, D.C. Crestone remained Kit Carson. P

NEW BOOKS

THE COLORADO MOUNTAIN CLUB PRESS

37

Rocks Above the Clouds A Climber’s Guide to Colorado Mountain Geology

Colorado Lake Hikes A Colorado Mountain Club Guidebook, Second Edition

By Jack Reed and Gene Ellis

By Dave Muller

A Colorado mountain geology book written specifically for climbers, scramblers, and hikers.

• A geologic primer for mountain people • A range-by-range geologic description of Colorado mountains • Detailed geologic information on the Fourteeners

The only guidebook available for hiking to Colorado Lakes • 100 hikes to 145 different High County lakes • Four levels of hikes from easy to most difficult • Color photographs and maps throughout

Rocks Above the Clouds is the first geology book written for climbers, scramblers, and hikers. It is an exploration of how the nature of mountains and the challenges they present to climbers are influenced by the rocks that form them—in other words, by their geology.

Starting with a description of the types of rocks found in mountains, the authors of Rocks Above the Clouds then describe the geologic processes, from the big bang through the processes that continue to shape them today. Following this mountain geology primer is a rangeby-range description of what to expect in the Colorado mountains, and then some very curious information on the Colorado 14ers.

While Colorado is noted for its high peaks, literally hundreds of beautiful lakes and reservoirs sit under these peaks, many of which can be reached by hikers of all skill levels.

Collecting the streams and snowmelt from above, the lakes provide homes for fish and refuge and water for birds and other wildlife. Lakes of various sizes and shapes can be found in rocky bowls, high basins or open valleys. Some are man-made to prevent floods, store water and provide recreation. All these lakes are very much worth visiting. And although most lake hikes take place in the summer, many of these hikes can be done in relative safety on snowshoes in the winter.

128 pages, 4 x 7, 65 color photos, 10 color maps, paperback, ISBN: 978-0-9760525-8-6, $14.95, CMC member price $11.96

224 pages, 6 x 9, 120 color photos, 101 color maps, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9799663-1-6, $24.95, CMC member price $19.96

AVAILABLE IN NOVEMBER

Flatiron Classics Easy Rock Climbs Above Boulder, Second Edition

By Gerry Roach The legendary guidebook to Boulder’s Flatiron climbing • The first, best Flatirons guidebook • Most routes are 5.6 or easier • Completely updated to include seasonal closures Soaring up from the Boulder foothills, the Flatirons are famous for moderate climbing; not only are they a great training ground for more difficult climbing, but Flatiron climbing is simply fun.

Join Gerry Roach exploring this array of sandstone slabs that host a colorful universe of clefts, corners, cracks, chimneys, caves, overhangs, faces, grottos, alcoves, notches, ridges, and summits. There are more than 250 routes on 110 rocks, and 88% of them are rated 5.6 or easier.

First published 20 years ago and long out of print, Flatiron Classics has been completely updated to include seasonal conservation closures and some reevaluations of route difficulty. Roach has designated 52 of the routes as “Classics” and added a list of the Top Ten routes.

272 pages, 6 x 9, 90 photographs, paperbound, ISBN 978-0-9799663-2-3, $18.95, CMC Member price $15.16.

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The Best Fort Collins Hikes A Colorado Mountain Club Pack Guide

By John Gascoyne Twenty Fort Collins hikes selected, described and photographed by members of the Fort Collins Group of the Colorado Mountain Club.

• A wide variety of trails from urban strolls to alpine adventures.

• A handy CMC Pack Guide with complete trail descriptions, color photos, maps, and commentary.

• Trails for hikers, bikers and snowshoers; some are wheel-chairaccessible, some are equestrian-friendly and littered with horseshit, and most are open year round.

The Best Fort Collins Hikes was written by CMC members for a wide range of readers—from experienced hikers who already know the local scene to visiting flatlanders who want to enjoy the best of the area. The descriptions range from very easy walks, to a number of moderate hikes, and a few of the difficult and demanding variety.

96 pages, 4 x 7, 42 color photographs, 21 color maps, paperbound, ISBN 978-0-9799663-0-9, $14.95, CMC member price $11.96

Hiking Colorado’s Roadless Trails A Colorado Mountain Club Pack Guide

By Penelope Purdy The first guidebook written specifically for hiking in “roadless” areas—pristine places where there are no roads, no logging or mining.

• 20 great roadless trails in Colorado’s backcountry • Complete beta on locating the trailhead and detailed route descriptions and maps Imagine walking through a National Forest where there has never been a road or logging or mining, where silence reigns and wild animals find secluded places to raise their young and survive harsh weather.

Second only to fully protected wilderness areas, roadless areas are the most intact natural forests that remain in Colorado. This book is the first guide specifically written to help you find these roadless trails, some of which are still threatened by encroaching development.

Proceeds from the book go to assist The Colorado Mountain Club’s conservation efforts.

Colorado Snow Climbs A Guide for All Seasons

THE COLORADO MOUNTAIN CLUB GUIDEBOOK

By Dave Cooper A year-round guide to snow climbing in Colorado • 40 of the finest snow climbs in Colorado • Organized by season for yearround snow climbing • Full color photos and maps

COLORADO

SNOW

CLIMBS A GUIDE FOR ALL SEASONS

The Colorado mountains offer some DAVE COOPER of the finest snow climbing in the US—from winter ridge routes, to couloir and gully climbs in the spring and summer, to the alpine ice routes which form each autumn.

The climbs in this book are organized by season and then by technical difficulty and commitment. They range from routes requiring little more than an ice ax and the requisite skills to technical climbs involving sections of serious ice and mixed climbing.

By including “classics” as well as a sampling of lesser-known high quality routes (along with detailed maps and route descriptions), Cooper continues the tradition started in his best-selling “Colorado Scrambles.” GPS data for critical points on the approach and climb, plus four-color photographs, provide additional route information.

112 pages, 4 x 7, 30 black-and-white photos, 21 topo maps, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-7-9, $12.95, CMC member price $10.36

192 pages, 6 x 9, 100 color photos, 40 maps, ISBN 978-0-9760525-9-3, $22.95, CMC member price $18.36

Playing for Real

Colorado’s Quiet Winter Trails

Stories from Rocky Mountain Rescue

By Mark Scott-Nash Rocky Mountain Rescue is the oldest mountain rescue teams in the country.

• Gripping tales of tragedy and triumph in the mountains • Historical vignettes of Rocky Mountain Rescue on its 60th anniversary Pagers go off all over Boulder and programmers, grad students, accountants—men and women from all walks of life—drop what they’re doing, grab their rescue gear, and head for the hills. Someone is in deep trouble in the mountains, and the members of Rocky Mountain Rescue are responding to try to save a life.

Playing for Real describes what goes through a rescuer’s head from the excitement of the initial page to searching for and finding victims.

176 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 23 photos and illustrations, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-6-2, $11.95, CMC member price $9.56

A Colorado Mountain Club Guidebook

By Dave Muller 99 Snowmobile-free Colorado winter trails.

• Quiet winter trails, no snowmobiles allowed • Richly illustrated with four color photos and maps throughout Veteran author Dave Muller has identified and described 99 snowshoe and cross country ski routes that by Colorado or Federal regulation (and enforcement of forest constables) are free of snowmobiles.

Each route description starts with extensive beta including: Distance, estimated time needed to complete the route, starting elevation, highest elevation, elevation gain, difficulty level, an assessment of avalanche danger and a list of all the relevant Colorado, Federal and privately produced maps.

240 pages, 6 x 9, 100 color photos, 100 maps, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-1-7, $21.95, CMC member price $17.56

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The Colorado 14ers

Rocky Mountain Flora

A Colorado Mountain Club Pack Guide 2nd Edition

A Colorado Mountain Club Field Guide

By The Colorado Mountain Club Foundation The essential guide to the most popular routes up all 54 of the Colorado’s 14ers.

• Over half a million North Americans attempt to climb at least one Colorado 14er every year • The most current guide to the 14ers available

A comprehensive, accurate, fullcolor field guide for anyone who loves Rocky Mountain wildflowers.

• Authoritative authorship that sets a higher standard for flora field guides • Photos of each flower and its leaves to aid in identification

Organized by mountain range, this completely rewritten and redesigned second edition, is the only book you will need to find the most popular route up each of the 54 Colorado 14ers.

Each description includes clear, concise directions for driving to the trailhead, where to park, a map of the route, difficulty rating, elevation profile, distance, and estimated round-trip time. As the most up-todate book available, The Colorado 14ers covers all access issues (as of this writing, five of the 14ers are closed to public access).

“What is that wildflower called?”

It’s a question that every one of us who has hiked, run, or climbed in the Rockies has asked at least one hundred times. Organized by color, Rocky Mountain Flora has all the features of competing field guides, such as images of each flower, taxonomy, and detailed descriptions. In addition, unique components include a Life List for the serious wildflower enthusiast, the specific location, elevation, and time of year that the flower was found, and a special “LOOK FOR” feature that helps in quick identification.

120 pages, 4 x 7, 54 black-and-white photos, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-3-1, $11.95, CMC member price $9.56

320 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 1,339 color photos, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-4-8, $22.95, CMC member price $18.36

The Colorado Trail

The Colorado Trail Databook

The Official Guidebook 7th Edition, Revised

3nd Edition

By The Colorado Trail Foundation

By The Colorado Trail Foundation

Completely revised guide to the extraordinary Colorado Trail which stretches 468 miles from Denver to Durango.

The lightweight, small, durable guidebook that all Colorado Trail hikers should have in their packs.

• For thru-hikers, day hikers, mountain bikers, trail runners, XC skiers, and equestrians • Elevation profiles, GPS waypoints, town maps, and mountain bike detours of Wilderness Areas The Colorado Trail (CT) is the premier scenic long trail in North America. It winds its way through endless fields of wildflowers to windy passes, from wild mountain rivers and streams to quiet trails through old growth forests. The CT crosses eight mountain ranges, seven National Forests, six Wilderness Areas and five river systems.

This seventh edition of the official Colorado Trail guidebook has all the information you will need as a thru-hiker to plan and complete the trek. New to this edition are complete rewrites of the 28-segment trail descriptions and the addition of integrated GPS waypoints.

256 pages, 6 x 9, 131 color photos, 45 maps, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-2-4, $24.95, CMC member price $19.96

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By James Ells, PhD

• Updated GPS waypoints for over 500 locations • Two-color maps for all 28 segments The Colorado Trail Databook is the essential lightweight guidebook to be carried in your pack, whether you are a thru-hiker of the 468-mile trail through the Rockies or out for a weekend backpack or day hike.

Compiled and updated by experts from The Colorado Trail Foundation, this Pack Guide condenses all the information you need in easy-to-read, mile-by-mile descriptions with the elevation of geographic features to check against your altimeter, and latitude and longitude to check against your GPS. 64 pages, 4.5 x 6.5, 29 maps, paperback, ISBN 978-0-9760525-5-5, $9.95, CMC member price $7.96

Colorado Scrambles A Guide to 50 Select Climbs in Colorado’s Mountains

By Dave Cooper A detailed “tick-list” of the 50 best scrambles in Colorado.

• Includes many of the classic Colorado scrambles as well as many superb, but little-known routes • Full-color maps and photos throughout

The Colorado Year Round Outdoor Guide

By Dave Muller Year-round fun on 104 routes for any level of hiker, snowshoer, or skier • Features a pair of outings for each week of the year by season • Written for hikers, skiers, and snowshoers

The Colorado mountains provide endless opportunities for climbers of all skill levels, but until Dave Cooper wrote Colorado Scrambles, no one had identified the classic third- and fourth-class climbs or “scrambles” of the high country by the quality of the route. And while many of the routes have some exposure to significant heights and objective dangers like rockfall, most routes do not require the use of ropes or protection.

Drawn from author Dave Muller’s long-running, weekly series in The Denver Post exploring hiking, crosscountry skiing, and snowshoeing adventures in Colorado, this fullcolor guide selects many of the best outings that the state has to offer.

There’s a pair of outings for every week of the year, with many not described before in other guides, and all chosen for their seasonal appeal. The emphasis here is on tours with skis or snowshoes in the winter months and hiking outings in the remainder of the year.

304 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 250 color photos, 60 maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9760525-0-4, $22.95, CMC member price $18.36

224 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 104 color photos, 101 color maps, paperback, $18.95, ISBN 0-9724413-2-8, $18.95, CMC member price $15.16

Colorado Summit Hikes for Everyone

Run the Rockies

By Dave Muller The peak bagger’s encyclopedia • Describes classic peak routes from easy to difficult • Contains detailed information on 105 named summits From world-renowned Rocky Mountain National Park in the north to the magnificent San Juans in the southwest, from the famed peaks above Aspen to the remote tops of the Sangre de Cristos, no other state offers so many inviting summits to reach or such spectacular alpine hiking as Colorado. Now the Colorado Mountain Club, the hiking and climbing experts in the Rockies for nearly a century, reveals some of its classic favorites.

Colorado Summit Hikes For Everyone contains detailed information for reaching 105 named summits, from peaks suitable for beginners to the famous 14,000-foot Capitol Peak.

224 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 120 color photos, 96 color maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9724413-3-6, $18.95, CMC member price $15.16

Classic Trail Runs in Colorado’s Front Range

By Steven Bragg A comprehensive guide to the Colorado Front Range for any level of trail runner—beginner to expert.

• Fifty great routes that are relatively close to Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs • Large, clear route maps that detail distance, elevation gain, and loss, with GPS way points for the directionally impaired runner Run the Rockies contains detailed information for 50 classic trail runs chosen for their proximity to the major population centers of the Front Range, as well as their incredible scenic qualities and appeal to runners of all abilities. Here you will find everything you will need to enjoy the best the state has to offer: accurate access and route descriptions, must-have maps and elevation profiles, running techniques, equipment checklists, and safety tips. Fully GPS-enabled means that no matter how lost you get, you can find your way (if you have a map).

192 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 81 photos, 51 two-color maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9724413-5-2, $17.95, CMC member price $14.36

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Guide to the Colorado Mountains 10th Edition Edited by Randy Jacobs with Robert Ormes

Roof of the Rockies A History of Colorado Mountaineering 3rd Edition

By William M. Bueler

The ultimate guide to the Colorado mountains, with over 250,000 copies in print.

A “must-have” history for any mountaineering, western, or Colorado history collection.

• Includes every named mountain in Colorado • Detailed descriptions for classic routes • Maps, photos, and tips

• Covers explorations and surveys, Pike to Hayden • A history of early mountaineering in all the major Colorado ranges

If you only allow yourself just one hiking and climbing guidebook for Colorado, make sure you have this one on your shelf. Since 1952, Guide to the Colorado Mountains has been the authoritative source on Colorado’s mountains, a must for casual hikers, peak baggers, or veteran mountaineers with over 1,500 hiking and climbing destinations—peaks, passes, lakes, and trails.

368 pages, 6 x 9, 87 black-and-white photos, 28 maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9671466-0-7, $18.95, CMC member price $15.16

The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree 60 Favorite Climbs from 5.5 to 5.9

By Charlie and Diane Winger A detailed guide that provides all the information a trad climber will need for Joshua Tree.

• Detailed directions to locate each climb • Full-color photos of each route Many climbers who visit Joshua Tree spend as much time searching for good routes as they do actually climbing. This guidebook offers the climber a fun, varied, and challenging “tick-list” of 60 great trad climbs, and makes it easy to find your way around. With color photos of every route, detailed maps, and easy-to-follow driving and hiking instructions, you’ll be able to do numerous routes per day and make the most of your climbing trip.

192 pages, 6 x 9, 202 color photos, 12 maps, ISBN 0-9724413-9-5, 21.95, CMC member price $17.56

Colorado has some of the highest and most spectacular peaks in North America, and no other state has a longer or more bountiful mountaineering legacy. In this mountaineering classic, mountaineer and historian William M. Bueler brings this rich history to life with tales of great adventures in Colorado climbing.

Combining solid research and entertaining prose, Roof of the Rockies tells the complete story of 200 years of mountaineering in the state from the early nineteenth-century explorations and discoveries to the challenges and triumphs of the present.

244 pages, 6 x 9, 24 illustrations, 79 black-and-white photos, 14 maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9671466-1-5, $16.95, CMC member price $13.56

The Stettner Way The Life and Climbs of Joe and Paul Stettner

By John D. Gorby History buffs, climbers, and armchair adventurers alike won’t be able to put this book down.

• A remarkable story of two early mountaineering legends, including coverage of their most significant climbs • Fifty vintage black-and-white photographs and six maps Brothers Joe and Paul Stettner were legends in the early mountaineering community, putting up some of the most difficult routes in America during a career that spanned the beginning of rock climbing in the 1920’s to well into the big-wall climbing era of the 1950s. Often considered the first true sport climbers, fellow legend Paul Petzoldt called them “human flies” for their bold and acrobatic style.

208 pages, 6 x 9, 50 black-and-white-photos, 6 maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9724413-0-1, $14.95, CMC member price $11.96

42

Morpha

What’s Up with Altitude

A Rain Forest Story

Mr. Moffat’s Class Investigates How Altitude Affects Our Bodies

By Michael Tennyson, Illustrated by Jennifer H.Yoswa The rain forest cycle of life for children.

• A superbly written and stunningly illustrated tale for children • A kid’s book to be read time after time A beautiful new butterfly named Morpha meets Azuela who greets her with the words,“Hello little one.” Azuela, an older Blue Morpho butterfly, teaches Morpha about the cycle of life in the rain forest, starting with where to find the soft fruit to eat and how to make herself more difficult to see.

Morpha learns to zig and zag to avoid hungry birds and talks to leaf cutter ants, a giant slug, and a Tarantula to learn how they are part of the cycle of life. At the end of this beautifully illustrated ecological lesson in life, an older and much wiser Morpha watches a young butterfly struggle out of its chrysalis and says,“Hello little one.You have much to learn.”

40 pages, 8.75 x 11.25, 27 color illustrations, hardback, ISBN 0-9671466-8-2, for children 6-8 years of age, $14.95, CMC member price $11.96

The Essential Guide to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

By John Jenkins Gunnison National Park’s Black Canyon is a recreational mecca for nearly one million visitors each year.

• A complete activity and travel guide for everyone—tourist to rock climber • Full-color photos, maps, elevation profiles,“Info Charts,” tabs, and activity symbols make information quick and easy to find The recreational opportunities around Black Canyon are unsurpassed; you’ll find everything in this guide to help you enjoy your adventures in this unique 130,000-acre area—detailed route descriptions for hikers, bikers, and climbers; fascinating geologic and natural history of the area; travel information about the facilities for both camping and lodging; safety and equipment tips.

In addition, there are color-coded tabs and activity symbols to make it easy to find information, plus complete park planning information, including facilities, camping, lodging, and safety and equipment tips with plenty of close-by activities and fun attractions of interest.

Written and Illustrated by Lisa Gardiner • A kid’s book about altitude that is very useful for the classroom, too • Science experiments and stories combined to illustrate the concepts of altitude • Beautifully illustrated in full color Follow along as each child shares his or her experience with altitude from the “potato chip miracle,” to living as a Sherpa in Nepal. A wonderfully illustrated book that combines a storytelling element with experiments that can be done in the classroom or at home, including: making an altimeter, weighing air mass, calculating air temperature, creating a model of the lungs, and constructing prayer flags. Each story introduces a particular concept of altitude, while the experiments allow children to demonstrate what they have learned, providing a unique learning experience that is not only informative, but fun.

48 pages, 8.5 x 11.5, 60 illustrations, paperback, ISBN 0-9724413-8-7, for children 8–10 years of age, $12.95, CMC member price $10.36

The Essential Guide to Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

By Charlie and Dianne Winger THE guidebook to the Sand Dunes.

• Details unlimited recreational opportunities for the park’s 225,000 annual visitors • Color-coded tabs and activity symbols for quick reference Nowhere else in North America do massive desert dunes meet tall forests of evergreen and aspen that lead to the alpine tundra of the peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The Sand Dunes are a gateway to camping, wildlife viewing, hiking, backpacking, climbing, mountain biking, and dare we mention—dune snowboarding. The recreational opportunities at “The Dunes” are endless. Slide down the highest sand dunes on the continent, backpack to a pristine high-country lake, or climb one of Colorado’s legendary 14,000 foot peaks.

272 pages, 6 x 9, 80 color photos, 24 color maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9724413-1-X. $19.95, CMC member price $15.96

256 pages, 6 x 9, 65 color photos, 20 color maps, paperback, ISBN 0-9724413-4-4, $19.95, CMC member price $15.96

43

FALL 2008 ORDER FORM S E N D O R D E R F O R M A N D PAY M E N T T O :

Colorado Mountain Club Press, 710 10th Street, Suite 200, Golden, CO 80401 1-800-633-4417, ext. 103

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FAX 303-279-9690

or order online at cmc.org BILL TO:____________________________________________________

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SHIPPING AND HANDLING

CMC MEMBERS: Please fill in your name, address, phone and email, Visa or MasterCard number and expiration date. Total your order, compute the tax at 7.6%, and add shipping and handling. Checks made out to The Colorado Mountain Club for the total are fine, too.

$ 1 – $19.99. . . . . . . . . . . $5.00 $20 – $49.99. . . . . . . . . . . $7.00 $50 – $75.99. . . . . . . . . . . $9.00 $76 – $99.99. . . . . . . . . . $11.00 $100+ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $12.00

DISCOUNTED BOOK PRICING FOR MEMBERS OF THE COLORADO MOUNTAIN CLUB ___ Best Fort Collins Hikes, ISBN 978-0-9799663-0-9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.96 ___ Colorado 14ers, ISBN 978-0-9760525-3-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9.56 ___ Colorado Lake Hikes, ISBN 978-0-9799663-1-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19.96 ___ Colorado’s Quiet Winter Trails, ISBN 978-0-9760525-1-7. . . . . . . . . $17.56 ___ Colorado Scrambles, ISBN 0-9760525-0-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18.36 ___ Colorado Snow Climbs, ISBN 978-0-9760525-9-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18.36 ___ Colorado Summit Hikes, ISBN 0-9724413-3-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.16 ___ Colorado Trail, ISBN 978-0-9760525-2-4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $19.96 ___ Colorado Trail Databook, ISBN 978-0-9760525-5-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . $7.96 ___ Colorado Year Round, ISBN 0-9724413-2-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.16 ___ Essential Guide to Black Canyon, ISBN 0-9724413-4-4 . . . . . . . . . $15.96 ___ Essential Guide to Sand Dunes, ISBN 0-9724413-1-X. . . . . . . . . . . $15.96 ___ Flatiron Classics, ISBN 978-0-9799663-2-3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.16 ___ Guide to the Colorado Mountains, ISBN 0-9671466-0-7 . . . . . . . . $15.16

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44

___ Hiking Colorado’s Roadless Trails, ISBN 978-0-9760525-7-9 . . . . . . $10.36 ___ Morpha: A Rain Forest Story, 0-9671466-8-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.96 ___ Peaceful Canyon, Golden River, ISBN 0-9671466-5-8 . . . . . . . . . . . $11.96 ___ Playing for Real, ISBN 978-0-9760525-6-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $9.56 ___ Rocks Above the Clouds, ISBN 978-0-9760525-8-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.96 ___ Rocky Mountain Flora, ISBN 978-0-9760525-4-8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $18.36 ___ Roof of the Rockies, ISBN 0-9671466-1-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13.56 ___ Run the Rockies, ISBN 0-9724413-5-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $14.36 ___ San Juan Mountaineers, ISBN 978-0-9799663-3-0 . . . . . . . . . . . . $185.00 ___ Southern Rockies Vision, ISBN 0-9724413-6-0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $15.96 ___ State of the Southern Rockies, ISBN 0-9724413-7-9 . . . . . . . . . . . $15.96 ___ Stettner Way, ISBN 0-9724413-0-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11.96 ___ Trad Guide to Joshua Tree, ISBN 0-9724413-9-5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $17.56 ___ What’s Up with Altitude, ISBN 0-9724413-8-7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10.36

TOTAL $__________________

Adventure Travel trips are open to Colorado Mountain Club members. Guests are accepted at the discretion of the leader. Most trips require a non-refundable deposit at sign up. Contact Adventure Travel coordinator Bea Slingsby for more information at (303) 422-3728 or e-mail beahive@ comcast.net.

Day Hiking In Tasmania January 31–February 14, 2009 $1,200 Land + Air (Est $2000) We will explore the unique island of Tasmania, Australiaís island state, in this all new trip. Tasmania was the last land mass to break off from Antarctica, and things there are truly different. Weíll start in Launceston, and head for the east coast, stopping at Douglas Apsley Natíl Park to view the gorge and stop at a nature park to visit some Tasmanian Devils.

Hike in the Hazard Mountains in Freycinet Natl. Park.

Exploring the Tasman peninsula, weíll hike to Cape Hauy and visit Port Arthur. In Hobart, we can hike Mt. Wellington and visit the Salamanca Market. Weíll head inland to hike in Mt Field Natíl Park and Lake St Clair. Then weíll drive north into Cradle Mountain. Most meals will be prepared by the group; shopping will be done locally. Hikes will be MOD to DIF B. Lodging will be hostels, cabins (some bunk beds) and one private hotel, all with shared bathrooms.

Included in the cost is lodging, van transportation, park entrance fees, twelve breakfasts, nine lunches, eight dinners, leader reimbursement, and CMC fees. Final cost may vary slightly based on currency exchange rate and fuel costs.

Not included: airfare, Australia visa ($20-available on line), travel insurance, several meals, personal spending money.

For information, call Janet Farrar 303-933-3066 or e-mail wildjc@juno.com after April 30.

Yellowstone In Winter 2009 February 4–9, 2009 • $1006–$1156 Steaming geysers, bison, elk, deer, wolves, and other wildlife are all part of the experience of visiting Yellowstone National Park in the winter. Notable for being the worldís first national park, Yellowstone has half of the worldís geothermal features and is the centerpiece of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the largest remaining, nearly-intact ecosystem in the Earthís northern temperate zone. Skiers, snowshoers, nature lovers and photographers will enjoy the convenient trails leading directly from the lodge to the geysers and waterfalls. The trip includes round-trip bus and snow coach transportation between Denver and Yellowstone, a one-night motel stay in Jackson, 3 full days and 4 nights in the Old Faithful area of the park, snow coach drop-off fees, happy hours, and several meals (4 breakfasts, 1 lunch, and 3 buffet dinners). We depart Denver by bus on Wednesday morning, February 4, stay overnight in a motel in Jackson, arriving in Yellowstone on Thursday afternoon. We leave Yellowstone and return to Denver on Monday, February 9, 2009. There are 3 levels of accommodations. Each room has 2 double beds and a private bath. Prices are per person based on double occupancy. The modern Snow Lodge hotel facility is $1156, the ìWesternî cabin is $1095, and the rustic ìFrontierî cabin is $1006. (The cabins are 200 to

300 yards from the lodge so you may be ìbreaking trailî to the lodge when it snows.) The lodge contains meeting areas, a coffee shop, and a restaurant.

Cabin accommodations are limited so sign-up is on a first-come, firstserved basis for each level of lodging.

The cost does not include remaining meals (1 breakfast, 4 lunches, and 2 dinners), optional transportation within the park (sight-seeing excursions), ski/snowshoe rental, or trip insurance. There is a 3% guest fee for non-CMC members. Register with a leader by calling 303-665-7052 or e-mailing howbert1@attglobal.net to verify an opening for your requested lodging type. Or you may complete and send the form below and the leader will contact you. Registrations and all payments must be received by December 20, 2008.

There is a $100 non-refundable fee for cancellations. No refunds will be made on or after December 20th unless a replacement is found.

AdventureTravel

Kilimanjaro 19,340´ February 7–21, 2009 • $5,250, incl. air SAFETY NOTE: political violence in East Africa is confined to Kenya. Tanzania is not affected and likely will not be. We will offer the optional third week extension to Mt. Kenya again if the situation stabilizes.

This is the 7th Kilimanjaro trip sponsored by the CMCís High Altitude Mountaineering Section. Kili is the worldís largest free-standing mountain and one of the fabled Seven Summits. We take the Machame Route and stay at the famous Marangu Hotel, first visited by Club members in the 1950s.

The trip includes a four-day budget safari to Serengeti, Lake Manyara, and Ngorongoro Crater. A series of training & getacquainted hikes will be offered beginning in October. Nights are a mixture of a rustic hotel with full amenities, travelers camps, and tent camping. Excellent physical conditioning is required, and a high comfort level with 3rd world travel.

Price includes air fare, lodging, ground transport, visa costs, Park fees, most meals, leader expenses, and CMC fee. Cost does not include shots, medications, travel insurance, bar tab, excess baggage fees, and a few meals. Final cost may vary slightly depending on air fares and currency exchange.

Trip packets are available by regular mail only after March 15 from the trip leader, Steve Bonowski, at nztrekker@ earthlink.net, or P.O. Box 280286, Lakewood CO 80228.

No phone calls please.

Best of the Grand Canyon: Colorado River raft & hike April 25–May 7, 2009 • $3,820 Truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience, this unique trip to the Grand Canyon offers participants the opportunity to experience this World Heritage Site on a motorized raft for 188 miles through the best of the canyon, departing from the historic Leeís Ferry and ending with a helicopter ride from Whitmore Wash and a plane flight back to the start. It is especially ideal for those who would like to hike in areas which can be reached only from the river, and those who have always wanted to experience the canyon but who do not wish

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to make the 7 mile, 4,500´ backpack in and out. Our outfitter, Hatch River Expeditions, has been guiding river trips through the canyon for over 70 years. We will have 3 guides and 20 participants on two 35´ S-rig boats running 30 hp 4-stroke outboard engines (fuel efficient and quiet). The average motorized raft trip through the Grand Canyon runs 7 days, so this 12-day trip will have plenty of opportunities for hiking. Hatch offers us daily guided hikes at 2 or 3 hiking levels, or one can choose to rest in camp. There are several opportunities for point-to-point hikes where we may hike from one drainage to the next, and the raft will pick us up later in the day. The deposit is $300. Please see website for cancellation policy, payment schedule, and additional information. Register with leaders: Blake Clark and Rosemary Burbank: (303) 871-0379 or blakerosemary@cs.com.

AdventureTravel

Trip to the heart of Europe from Prague to national parks of the Czech Republic May 2 3–June 6, 2009 • $1950 This trip is for those who would like to explore nature, culture and history in a tiny country located in the center of Europe. As a native from this country, I selected a variety of attractive destinations and hikes in different National Parks.

We will start by discovering the beauty of Prague. On the way south, we will visit one of the most beautiful towns in Europe, Cesky Krumlov. We will travel to Sumava National Park and hike in a pristine forested mountain range with deep dark lakes and fascinating moors. We will stop to see world famous Pilsner Urquel brewery as beer is an essential part of Czech culture. We will explore sandstone formations in Nature Reserve Czech Paradise, famous among local climbers. We will traverse the Krkonose mountain range and stay in a well equipped hut on the ridge. We will climb Mount Snezka (5256 feet) in this National Park, the high

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point of Czech Republic. The cost of trip includes lodging in hotels and huts, transportation in Czech, breakfast and some meals. The price does not include airfare or travel insurance. The final cost may vary depending on currency exchange. Hikes up to B and C level. Maximum number of participant 15. For more information contact the leaders, John or Renata Collard: (303) 617-4773 or renata.collard@ uchsc.edu.

Parinacota 20,801 • Nevado Sajama 21,484 • Trek the Cordillera Real June 17–29, 2009 • $3,445 Here is your chance to climb in the spectacular Cordillera Real of western Bolivia as we tune up and adjust to the altitude. After a three-day trek and some time in La Paz, we then head to the southwest corner of the country for climbs of two beautiful extinct volcanoes, including Sajama, the highest in the country. As we drive to the peaks, the high altiplano slowly gives way to the fringe of the Atacama Desert, the driest on the planet. We will camp out in tents with meals provided by a La Paz based outfitter. The outfitter provides all transportation, guides for the trek and mountains, and logistics support from porters and mules.

Our four nights in La Paz will be in a comfortable two-star hotel. In addition to the outfitter and hotel, the posted trip cost also includes air fare (currently running about $1,500 round trip Denver-La Paz), Bolivian visa, most meals, gratuities, leader expenses, and CMC fee. Cost does not include shots (yellow fever vaccination is required to enter Bolivia), personal medications, personal gear and equipment, meals in La Paz, travel/evacuation insurance, bar tab, or airline baggage fees. Final trip cost may vary slightly depending on air fares and currency exchange rates. Participants will be asked to attend a planning meeting in January, 2009 as well as a number of conditioning hikes and climbs next spring.

Trip packets are available by regular mail from the trip leader: Steve Bonowski, P.O. Box 280286, Lakewood CO 80228 or nztrekker@earthlink.net. No phone calls please. 

A COLLECTOR’S EDITION

The Pioneering Book on Colorado Mountaineering

NOW AVAILABLE

The San Juan Mountaineers’ Climber’s Guide to Southwestern Colorado

By Dwight Lavender, Carleton Long and Mel Griffiths The Colorado Mountain Club Press is pleased to announce the publication of a limited edition of 200, slipcased, numbered, sewn-binding replicas of the pioneering title in Colorado mountaineering: The San Juan Mountaineers’ Climber’s Guide to Southwestern Colorado.

In 1933 the first climber’s guide to southwestern Colorado was produced on a typewriter. The authors assembled the typed pages, added carefully annotated topos with inked-in routes plus 21 pages of photos. Once the three books were collated the authors had the books hand-bound for use by climbers. As climbers used the books, the authors made corrections and additions in both pencil and ink. The Colorado Mountain Club Press limited edition of this mountaineering classic faithfully reproduces the typescript pages with annotations, the color topos with inked-in, and the photographs.

Dwight Lavender, brother of well-known Colorado author David Lavender, was the driving force and inspiration for this book. Dwight, along with Carlton Long and Mel Griffiths, composed a volume that has served as reference source for climbers and many subsequent guidebooks including Robert Ormes’ many editions of Guide to the Colorado Mountains.

The authors, Lavender, Long and Griffiths were central figures in a group of climbers loosely associated under the name of the San Juan Mountaineers. These climbers explored, named, and even resurveyed most of the mountains in southwestern Colorado.

Only 200 copies of The San Juan Mountaineers’ Climber’s Guide to Southwestern Colorado have been published in this limited, replica edition. The book is only available from CMC Press at $185.

Contact CMC Press sales manager, Robin Commons for further information at 303-996-2743.

Limited Edition: 320 pages, 6x9, 25 pages of B&W photos, 21 color maps, hardback with slipcase, numbered 1 through 200, $185.

There is no CMC member discount on this Limited Edition.

A sample page and map from the book.