{"id":611,"date":"2015-06-26T12:59:05","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T18:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/andrewhamilton.com\/14ers\/?page_id=611"},"modified":"2015-06-26T12:59:05","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T18:59:05","slug":"introduction-2015","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/andrewhamilton.com\/14ers\/?page_id=611","title":{"rendered":"Introduction 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Colorado has lots of mountains that rise over 14,000 feet high.\u00a0 They are known as 14ers.\u00a0 Depending on the criteria<\/a> you adopt there are somewhere between 52 and 58 recognized peaks in the state.\u00a0 I am going with the list of 58 because it is pretty easy to explain:\u00a0 a point over 14,000 feet is counted if it has been given a name by the USGS (United States Geological Survey).<\/p>\n

The Colorado 14er Speed Record<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first known\u00a0Colorado 14er speed record was set in 1960.\u00a0 Over the last 50 years the record has been challenged repeatedly and lowered so that it now stands at 10 days, 20 hours, and 26 minutes.<\/p>\n

This record has changed very much over the years.\u00a0\u00a0Originally there were no guidebooks.\u00a0 It would\u00a0have been a serious\u00a0challenge that required extensive use of maps just to find roads into the mountains.\u00a0 With no guidebooks it would have been a serious undertaking just to get within striking distance of the mountains.\u00a0 Once on the mountain you would probably have been lucky to find good trails leading you to the summits.<\/p>\n

In the 1990’s, with the popularity of climbing the 14ers soaring, routes were more travelled and easier to follow, and some new guidebooks by Dawson and Roach made the 14ers more accessible than ever before.\u00a0 At the same time, ultrarunners became interested in the record, and they started lowering the record by large amounts.\u00a0The record was now fast enough that to challenge the record you needed to round up a few\u00a0intrepid individuals to provide support.\u00a0 Support crews would be responsible for cooking, driving, medicating,\u00a0babying, and motivating you so you could focus on hiking or running.<\/p>\n

In the late 1990’s and finally with the current record set in 2000, the nature of the record changed again as it became more of an endurance challenge.\u00a0 Logistics became key as every hour spent in between mountains became more important, and hiking peaks in the dark while sleep deprived became the new<\/p>\n

My Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1999, I shaved a few minutes off the Colorado 14er Speed Record and became the first to complete the 14ers in under 14 days.\u00a0 My time didn’t stand for long as it was first smashed by Ricky Denesik in early summer of 2000, and then doubly smashed by Teddy Kaiser in Late Summer of 2000.\u00a0 Teddy managed to take more than 3 days off my time only 1 year later.<\/p>\n

Last year in 2014\u00a0we gave the record a pretty good shot,\u00a0we had a good plan and a pretty solid lead on the record heading into the Elks.\u00a0 The Elks is the\u00a0range where there is some significant time to be gained on the old record, however it requires a difficult 24 hour day with virtually no support in some of the most rugged mountains the state has to offer.\u00a0 To make a long story short, I developed an injury that I just couldn’t overcome.\u00a0 I tried to continue through the Elks and beyond but a few mountains later, with only another day and a half left to go I had to call it quits.<\/p>\n

It was frustrating having to quit so close to the end, but I felt pretty good about what\u00a0we had accomplished, and that\u00a0we had given it\u00a0our best effort.\u00a0 Despite taking quite some time to heal we started thinking about giving it another shot in 2015.<\/p>\n

So we planned everything well in advance, friends and family scheduled vacations and flights around another late June attempt at the record in 2015.\u00a0 Everything was lining up nicely.\u00a0 Except there were some nagging injuries that were taking forever to heal, so I couldn’t train as hard as I wanted to.\u00a0 Then May sent huge amounts of late season snow all over the mountains, and now it looks like the monsoons have come early and the forecast is for rain, rain, rain.<\/p>\n

So with all this bad stuff going on I’ve had a hard time deciding what to do.\u00a0 I’ve gone back and forth between cancelling the entire thing and postponing the start.\u00a0 The original start date was supposed to be June 24.\u00a0 It is hard to be flexible with the dates though because of train tickets, climbing the privately owned Culebra, and because of support crew vacation schedules.\u00a0 I have been so wishy-washy that I have been driving everyone on the crew completely crazy!<\/p>\n

In the end, despite the terrible weather forecast I have decided to go ahead and start on June 29th and just see what happens.\u00a0 If the weather is too nasty or the snow is too deep then I will just have to stop and try again another year.\u00a0 But at least I won’t regret that I didn’t give it a try when we had a team lined up and ready to go.<\/p>\n

So there you go.\u00a0 I am starting the record attempt but with a huge DISCLAIMER that I am just going to turn my tail and run home if the conditions are too tough for me.<\/p>\n

Last year my overall goal was to climb all of the 14ers in the Contiguous United States.\u00a0 I realized though that for me the best way to do that would be to start with the peaks in Washington and California, because I know that I won’t be able to walk very well\u00a0after finishing Colorado, it is just too tough on the body.\u00a0 So originally I had planned to start early in June with Rainier, and then California.\u00a0 However I just couldn’t get past some early season injuries fast enough so I decided to just focus on the Colorado record.<\/p>\n

If you are interested, updates will be posted on this website, and I will include a link to a map that will be updated with my current position by\u00a0a satellite tracker that I will carry with me at all times.<\/p>\n

This year I am getting some big time help from my family.\u00a0 My wife\u00a0Natalie<\/strong> has\u00a0been able to get off some time from work\u00a0for the attempt, and\u00a0my sisters Laura<\/strong> and Jenny<\/strong>\u00a0are both here, as well as Jenny’s boyfriend Florian<\/strong>.\u00a0 Andrea<\/strong> Sansone has accompanied me on several scouting trips this year and will help out again.\u00a0 And it wouldn’t be possible with Kyle<\/strong> Knutson, who has graciously offered to take on the job of 4 wheel drive expert.\u00a0 And of course it wouldn’t be the same without my sons Calvin<\/strong> and Axel<\/strong>.\u00a0 And thanks to my mom Brenda<\/strong> Siracusan who will come out for the last few days when most of the rest of the crew has to leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado has lots of mountains that rise over 14,000 feet high.\u00a0 They are known as 14ers.\u00a0 Depending on the criteria you adopt there are somewhere between 52 and 58 recognized peaks in the state.\u00a0 I am going with the list of 58 because it is pretty easy to explain:\u00a0 a point over 14,000 feet is … <\/p>\n

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