Flying the Colorado Fourteeners - Trip Report

Saturday, June 28, 1986: Fourteeners Flight (1)

Alan Silverstien

One Saturday we made our long planned and awaited traversal flight of all 54 of the Colorado Fourteeners (peaks over 14000' elevation). Five of us, all Hewlett-Packard employees, rode in a Cessna turbo 210, including pilot and Civil Air Patrol member Jer/ Eberhard, myself (navigator and programmer), Dave Landers, Andy Goris, and Roger Edrinn.

We didn't think this trip had ever been done before. (We discovered later in old copies of two publications that previous attempts had been made in 1945-63.) It requires knowledge of the locations of the peaks, which is tediously available from maps or, since 1981, a USGS database. Deriving a "good" short route isn't hard, but finding the "best" route consumes a fair amount of computer time.

A faster plane would make a ``best'' route less important, but it would go by faster too. In the Cessna, we sighted and came within a short distance of every single peak, and spent time maneuvering around the more interesting ones. Even at maneuvering speed, the panorama changed quickly, too fast to really study the scenery.

The flight actually consumed 6.3 hours of engine time, or a little less than six hours flight time. Total cost per person was less than $150. We left Fort Collins downtown airport at 0518 and were back on the ground there at 1308 (7:50 elapsed), with one break at Montrose from 0825-0953. Longer legs were flown below 12500' at about 155 knots, slowing to about 90 in around the peaks. The longest leg, 140 miles from Windom to Culebra, took only 45 minutes, hardly time to get bored. Nominally the total distance was 842 miles, but actual ground track was probably much longer with turns and circling.

We'd waited more than a month for good weather and availability of the aircraft. Due to being patient we had remarkably smooth and clear conditions through the first 37 peaks before Montrose. We viewed Longs Peak just after sunrise, then went around Evans and Bierstadt, between Grays and Torreys, around Quandary and Lincoln et al, over Sherman, and shot over to Holy Cross. It was especially clear and magnificent, with the cross well defined and visible a long ways off.

(Most of the navigation was done visually, which is just as well because I added 13 instead of subtracting, when converting headings from true to magnetic, which only confused things until we noticed that.)

From there, rather than drop to the rest of the Sawatch, the route took us out to the Elk Range, to Capitol Peak. We circled it, passed Snowmass, and went all around the Maroons and Pyramid, still in very smooth air. Then around Castle and back to Massive, in the Sawatch. Here the next 14 peaks are close together and went by quickly, though we did a number of turns and S-curves. Despite being familiar with the area I had trouble picking out Belford, Oxford, Harvard, and Columbia until right near them.

After Shavano at the south end, we set a course for San Luis in the San Juans, and flew between it and Stewart. Then Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre were quite easy to recognize as we searched for Redcloud, Sunshine, and Handies. After passing Handies we circled the Uncompahgre area and admired the awesome ``castles'' in the area. On to Montrose, to the north, for breakfast and an ``iddy biddy bladder break'' about three hours into the flight.

Climbed back south to Sneffels/Ouray/Telluride, we saw that small cumulus had formed, which meant a little bumpier trip and more interesting photos. Mount Sneffels is a very spectacular pyramid of a mountain, flanked by many other peaks. Next we circled all around the El Diente cluster, very impressive, and then the Eolus area (``Needle Mountains'', well named).

From there we used magnetic and then VOR (aircraft radio navigation aid) headings to reach Culebra Peak, 35 miles south of the prominent Blanca area of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. The summits of Culebra and the peaks north in the Sangres were wreathed in clouds, so flying was a little trickier, but we still saw every peak. We passed right next to Culebra, then did several loops around the Blanca section.

Between Blanca and the Crestones the route crosses right over the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, nothing short of magnificent from above, a tremendously wide carpet of rolling sand. Medano Creek is running full right now too. We came up to the Crestones from the south, and flew along them and around Kit Carson. We explored this area for about eight minutes before making a line for Pikes Peak, the last of the 54, with a nice look straight down on Royal Gorge on the way.

After a lazy turn about Pikes, we stayed west of Denver for the 40 minute ride home, going over Red Rocks, Boulder, and Loveland.

I wanna do it again. (And next year, we did, but that's another trip report.) It's certainly a wondrous, mind-boggling trip to see so many mountains and so much of the state in so short a time.

If you've flown in a small plane, you know that it's cramped and noisy, and perhaps bumpy. I was busier than our most-competent pilot, switching between navigation, narration, video taping, still photography, noting times, and occasionally ``holding the aircraft''. The last requires a combination of sensitivity and firmness that I can assure you, takes practice (I didn't have). Next time, no video gear, I'll just take a camera!

An edited version of this document ran in the December 1990 issue of "Trail and Timberline" , the monthly magazine of the Colorado Mountain Club.

This article used with permission of the author.