With snow-capped summits, awe-inspiring faces and inherent danger, Colorado’s Fourteeners — peaks that reach 14,000 feet or more above sea level — have enraptured hikers and climbers for years. Every year, Colorado’s Fourteeners are hiked by more than 500,000 people, with locals and international visitors taking on the challenge. Ranging from well-marked hiking trails to exposed climbs, they offer a difficulty range that allows hikers of all abilities to attempt the high peaks.

While Colorado is one of the only U.S. states to embrace the Fourteener classification, other countries have similar regional mountain groupings. In Scotland, the Munros are the 282 peaks above 3,000 feet. Though 3,000 feet might seem nothing compared to the Fourteeners, hikers start their ascent closer to sea level while many of the trailheads for Fourteeners are already above 10,000 feet in elevation.

While the Fourteeners make up some of Colorado’s most famous peaks, sometimes the celebrated classification can overshadow other beautiful mountains that are just feet shy from making the cut. Colorado’s thirteeners don’t come with the same bragging rights, but they often offer the same challenging terrain, miles of views and fewer crowds. There are 647 thirteeners and over 1,000 12,000-foot mountains in Colorado.

The biggest dangers on Fourteeners are a result of changing weather conditions. It’s common that it may be warm and sunny in town and bitter cold and windy on top of the surrounding peaks. There are often afternoon storms, and it’s important to reach the summit and begin descending before 11 a.m.

Read full story…

The Denver-based climber caught snippets of sleep in the last nine days, relentlessly jogging up and down peaks across the state. Amazingly, Hamilton adhered closely to a meticulously assembled plan that charted each trail, trailhead, ascent and road he would need to follow to make his record-setting time.

Monsoon rains and lingering snow conspired to thwart Hamilton, but his perseverance — plodding through oxygen-deprived sleeplessness on steep rocky trails — prevailed. After midnight on Wednesday morning, Hamilton was climbing Quandary Peak. By dawn he was running up and down Torreys and Grays peaks. He had summited Mount Bierstadt and Mount Evans by 2 p.m. Wednesday, when he jumped in a car driven by his loyal crew and raced to Rocky Mountain National Park, presumably sleeping the entire ride.

He rested for less than three hours at the Longs Peak trailhead before starting up the trail at 7:17 p.m., climbing through rain and fog toward the famed Keyhole Route.

“You have to have a certain amount of intensity to be able to keep going when things are really rough and it’s two in the morning and you are on some vertical cliff with 500 feet of exposure and there are 20 mile-per-hour winds and you are all by yourself and you are fatigued,” said a good friend and support staff. “But you also need a certain calmness in your nature to pull through the rough spots and keep pushing. You need that intensity and that calmness of nature to be able to break through a record like this.”

Read full story…