Since 1994, Colorado Fourteeners Initiative has been working hear to preserve and protect the natural integrity of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks--the 14ers--through active stewardship and public education. This RU-vid channel is one of the ways we educate Colorado 14er hikers about the unique and fragile alpine ecosystems found on these "approachable Everests", how to recreate responsibly on them, and how to increase hiker safety while doing so. Whether it's learning about unique alpine botany and wildlife, how to read the quirky weather on Colorado's high peaks, or what gear you need to provide the greatest margin of safety, you can find it here. Learn more about what CFI does at our website: www.14ers.org.
Did this about 30+ years ago. Route finding was very hard. Climbing I thought wasn’t bad, but the route finding was scary. It was amazing at top. Will never forget.
Yours is one of the most uninformed comments we've seen on the RU-vid channel. The number of fatalities by peak, which this video is focusing on, is a real number. These are people who have actually died on the 14ers. Based on that cumulative analysis, Longs Peak is far ahead of the other 14ers regardless of your or the 14er community's perceived difficulty rating. Part of that stems from the number of more serious rock and snow routes (i.e. not the standard Keyhole route) on Longs Peak. It also seems to be an exceptionally unforgiving peak on the standard route in early and late season when there is snow and ice on the route, as it reflected in the fatality early this season and one in the fall in recent years. Before saying we should do our homework, how about you do yours?
its not a hard peak.. its just time consuming. You can knock out capitol peak in a day, just go on a good weather day. Being that we live in colorado, that shouldn't be much of an issue. This is the "classic" I know more than you and this how it has to be done, type video. These people are volunteers, that run on seniority system.. just a bunch of kooks.
Basic routefinding. As you climb, also look down as you progress upward. Make a memory of what the correct route down looks like. It always looks different from your upward perspective.
I appreciate the video and the message, but the data is not very useful. The straight number of deaths doesn't really tell us much. For example, I suspect that the number of people that attempt Longs is more than all of the other peaks combined. Given that you would expect more deaths. What would be more helpful is the percent of those who attempt the climb die. With this number, I would guess that other peaks are more deadly than Longs.
Was a fun mountain, but no service except for the top! Also, almost all the vertical is at a 45 degree slope on horrible dirt in a really small distance. Its 5000ft of elevation gain over 2 miles, or nearly one foot up for every two feet across! Despite this, it is EASIER to go up than down, as going down will do horrible things to your knees, and without poles you will suffer. This mountain truly kicked my butt, but I will never forget my experience up there. Be sure to do extensive research before you go.
Capitol is a walk in the park for any real climber. A climber means someone that can climb on rock, ice and snow. Someone who has training as in courses in rock, ice and snow climbing and even first aid. It takes years to develop these skills and you have to get out and aquire them. There not found on a computer. The vast majority of people don't have them as I have climbed Capitol solo and observed the hikers up there. There hikers because they don't qualify as climbers.
Interesting. My family owned the Shavano summit. Seeing that they're spending $1M+ to rehab the trail, maybe we should have held out for more;-) I wonder if the CFI would consider naming the summit trail after my parents.
Last year we bought another parcel on the saddle for 10% less despite the intervening pandemic-driven mountain real estate boom, so I think it was a fair price. Essentially all the money going into the project is paying for people to do the hard, physical work, food to feed crews and other trail tools and equipment. As to naming peaks, that is fully in the control of the federal board of geographic names, so outside of CFI's authority.
Or maybe your family could have rehabilitated the trail yourselves. I would much, MUCH rather it retain its name, which comes from a Ute warchief. If anything, it could get his real name: "Tarbiochaket" Why would we name it after the most recent purchasers of the land claim?
Thanks Lloyd for the update and details. Had no idea Shavano rail was eroding so badly until you provided this update. I assume the ridge connecting Mt. Shavano to Tabeguache Peak is in good shape.
The top of the lower bypass will end near the start of the Angel route. This is where the summer route starts making the rightward traverse near timberline. The upper part of the Angel should connect with the new upper bypass trail higher up on the mountain than occurs today. The Forest Service will not be putting in any additional trails, but it seems like the connection should be there depending upon snowpack and melt patterns.
I recall when I was on that route in 2015, thinking how eroded parts of the upper route were in particular. Thank you for this work. And no one wants to be walking on baby heads.
Because she is a PhD researcher and national expert of this animal and knows how it's pronounced, at least in the USA. If you don't take that as authoritative, go to dictionary.com and hear how they pronounce the word. The problem is Pokemon and possibly international folks who call it pee-ka. We don't take Pokemon as authoritative and don't use any international pronunciations for the American pika.
