Man of the heights
by Tom Jenkins
In answer to the proverbial question, “Why climb?” Jim Whittaker said, “To see what you can do.” It’s one of many reasons people want to climb our fourteen-thousand-foot-high mountains.
Colorado has most of the nation’s fourteeners—54 of 70 in the lower 48 states, with an estimated 200,000 individual ascents each year—and the most fourteeners of any country in the world. The statistics of the ascents are amazing. The youngest person to climb 14,255´ Longs Peak was eight days short of five years old; the oldest was 85. Skip Husted has climbed Longs 350 times, and Chris Reveley made the round-trip in two hours and four minutes.
In 1974, the Climbing Smiths did all the fourteeners in 33 days, after Tyle Smith had done them all in 1968 at age 8. Then Steve Boyer did them in 18 days in 1980, a record until 1990 when Quade and Tyle Smith did them in sixteen days. Later, Andrew Hamilton was the first to climb all 54 fourteeners in less than fourteen days, losing fifteen pounds in the process. Danelle Ballengee of Dillon set the woman’s record by climbing them in 14 days, 14 hours and 49 minutes. In 2000, Teddy Keizer did 55 peaks in less than eleven days, at age 29, frequently climbing in darkness with a headlamp, including his ascent of 14,081´ Challenger Point.
Then consider Jim Gehres. In August of 2001, Gehres completed his twelfth full cycle of the state’s fourteeners with a champagne toast with a few friends on the summit of 14,064´ Humboldt Peak. “I guess I’m a little goal-oriented,” he says. This seems an understatement. Assuming an average elevation gain of 3,000 feet for each fourteener multiplied by the 54 peaks yields a total of 162,000 feet, which times the twelve roundtrips results in a grand total of 1,944,000 feet. That’s 368 miles. Vertical miles.
Stats are only part of the story of Jim Gehres. More meaningful to him are the unquantifiable components of climbing mountains. When he arrived in Colorado in 1960 shortly after his marriage, “I didn’t have much money so I walked a lot and got into the habit,” he explains. He continued to walk to work for the next forty years until retirement this past summer from his position as an IRS attorney. Gehres’s first climb was the formidable 14,110´ Pikes Peak, with its tough elevation gain of 7,400 feet and a twenty-sixmile roundtrip hike. Undaunted, he notes, “I got hooked on the beauty of the mountains.” Over the years, he persisted in climbing, admiring the scenic perspectives and taking photos, mostly slides; taking different routes; seeing new views; and experiencing the infinite variety of the mountains.
Times have changed since Gehres began what turned out to be a record-breaking achievement. “I used to go all day and seldom see anyone. Sometimes I would not see a single person. Now, you can’t find a parking spot at some trailheads, particularly on weekends.”
He joined the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative to help protect the high country, and he climbs as much, if not more, now. This summer (at age 70), he climbed 14,270´ Grays Peak; 14,267´ Torreys Peak; 14,286´ Mt. Lincoln; 14,172´ Mt. Bross; 14,148´ Mt. Democrat; 14,309´ Uncompahgre Peak; 13,988´ Grizzly Peak; and 13,761´ Bull Hill. This past fall, he traveled to New England to climb the highest peaks, including the notoriously windblown Mt. Washington.
During his many years in the mountains, Gehres has experienced the inevitable severe weather conditions, yet there have been only a few times he felt endangered. He clearly remembers descending from the summit of 14,130´ Capitol Peak with Sam Guyton and Dennis Jackson. “I dislodged a small rock with my foot, which in turn dislodged a much larger rock, about the size and shape of a coffin, (ironically),” he says. “I was knocked off my feet and ended up actually riding on the large rock. At the last minute, I managed to roll off the rock just before it plunged over the edge.” He explains that the silence was deadly “for what seemed like an eternity until all the rocks crashed far below.”
The fourteeners and the high thirteeners constitute a world of challenges and beauty unparalleled in Colorado. Gehres’ statisticss are impressive, but what the stats provided with forty years of experiences are more so. P