| With plans for something in the San Juans, I received great news from Ryan about permission to hike Culebra, the list's obstacle that gives peak baggers of late the designation "ABC" or "All But Culebra". I drove down with much excitement and anticipation at 2:00 a.m., arriving at 5:30, an hour before our expected time to enter the ranch. On the right, the ranch gate is opened with a signed waiver and $100.00 each from Dwight, Ryan, Erin, Kurt, Jean (who I was very glad to finally meet) and myself. Big thanks go to Mr. Hill! A quick drive got us to the ranch parking lot and we departed for a spot to park at below 11,000' (before 4way). The thought of completing the fourteeners was still not fully settling into my mind. I did not have any special desire for my last peak to be a specific peak, but I am certainly grateful I did not have to hike with 30 other people I do not know and have to join some club. It was a small group of friends with the peak to ourselves - a rarity for a fourteener. Mount Evans from Mount Evans Road in March and Mount Bross in March were the only other times I had not seen other hikers on fourteeners. With great weather, great company, and a leisurely pace, I can't think of a better way to finish off this list I have worked on for over four years.
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When I began the fourteeners, I wasn't aware that Culebra was off-limits, and was shocked when I came across that information, but didn't give it an inordinate amount of thought going forward until this summer. I had the typical anxiety about the tougher ones like Capitol and Little Bear to keep me occupied in the meantime. My fourteener career has been tougher than most, not because of the time of year or conditions many climbs were done in, rather, what stands out most is that I have climbed all of the fourteeners with a minimum of 3,000' absolute elevation gain each. While I have made traverses, I have not counted them. A good example of this is when I went back to climb North Maroon this June after completing the Bells traverse in July 2003. I am not aware of anyone else who has ascended all of the fourteeners under this criterion, other than Gerry Roach I believe. I'm sure several other have done this, intentionally or unintentionally, but I do not think anyone has ascended all the centennials this way, which I plan to do. At 11,000' on the GPS, I alerted our caravan to stop. I ran down the road to 10,950' just for a safe margin of 100' and quickly returned to the vehicles. On the left, Sierra Blanca asserts itself above a stand of aspen near the road.
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| We made our way up the road on foot to 4way, enjoying conversation. We opted for a direct line once above the trees to the right of the center gully rather than staying on an eastern heading. The sun was initially unpleasant on the road, but was now not shining head-on. We had great discussions about what hikes we have planned for the future as we ascended the slope to the ridge. On the right, Dwight ascends the gentle grassy slope unaware that John is going to use a photo of him in this trip report. After spending a while on repetitive terrain, the large cairn came into view. Vermejo Peak was then visible as well - the first sight other than the Blanca group for quite some time. We paused here for some time to take in the view of Culebra to the east. Unfortunately, the sun was again a factor when we took photos of Culebra - the photo below came out best. From here at 13,300', there was a mile and 750' between us and completion of the fourteeners.
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We had hiked quite leisurely to this point, though the excitement was starting to take over once at the low point of the ridge, and our pace increased some. I was surprised to see the multitude of rock formation types on this ridge. I was feeling like a schoolboy on his birthday. The reality of actually completing the list was sinking in - the culmination of years of effort and one of my longest held dreams. The hiking was quite enjoyable, and I felt very privileged to hike Culebra under our terms. The ridge had a big falsie, but the distance to the summit was overtaken quickly. In the below photo the final strech to the summit features Erin on the left side. The sea of new peaks was fascinating to take in as the final steps were taken.
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| As we planned shortly before arriving at 10:00 a.m., we all reached the summit at the same time, free from the fetters of fourteeners. The view was marvelous, with 8 of Colorado's 100 Most Prominent Peaks visible. We boogied over to Red Mountain and back, which I am not adding to my centennial completion list. In a strange way, I am glad Culebra had been closed (the timing of ownership change was very convenient for us but we are surely a minority). This characteristic enabled us to have a common final fourteener to summit together, which surely would not have happened otherwise. We celebrated with shots of Tequila back at the ranch and Negra Modelos at Emma's. The solo drive back home was enhanced by the dramatic view of Blanca, Little Bear, and Mount Lindsey bathed in setting sunlight. For the first time, I figured out how Little Bear acquired its name, even though I had seen it from the south at least 8 times before.
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The finishers: Dwight, Myself, Erin, & Ryan:
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