Time Like the Present
It’s hard to believe that Best Summit Hikes in Colorado has been in publication for five years now. I am humbled and grateful to all those who helped make the book a success and warrant a second edition.
The first edition of Best Summit Hikes was a lesson in tenacity and endurance. When I signed on to the project in the autumn of 2005, I had a flexible job, a decent 4x4 truck, and enough money to do the project right. I owed readers the authenticity of personally hiking every peak in the book. I was ready to rock.
When the business of actually hiking rolled around in May 2006, the flexible job had unexpectedly gone out of business, my once-mighty truck blew its engine, and my budget dissolved. Times were tough. Peanut butter or jelly tough.
I had a decision to make. I could delay the whole endeavor until things got better. If I went for it, it was an uncertain proposition. I scrambled to buy an 18-year-old Honda Accord, just to have something—not the ideal mountain vehicle. Though I desperately wanted a new camera, I was going to have to work with the humble digital in my possession. I couldn’t eat out much nor gather my bearings at hotels. And I had to stay out in the field for extended periods since the price of gas had rocketed in 2006 to roughly $3 a gallon, an all-time high at the time. In other words, I had plenty of reasons to stop before I even started.
From the top of Pacific Peak, which is just shy of 14er status, it’s easy to see why size doesn’t always matter when it comes to deciding the best summits in Colorado.
It was fortunate that the subject matter happened to be a wonderful metaphor. We have every reason not to climb mountains. They are cold, barren places where exposure, rockfalls, avalanches, and thunderstorms batter the body and the spirit. You have to get up early to visit them, and for most of us, that means a rushed weekend of bleary-eyed driving between the actual business of wandering into brain-cell-dissolving thin air. As with many of the challenges of life, it’s easier to sleep in.
Perhaps because the task was so grandiose and the end so far away, the entire process became very simple. Put one foot in front of the other. Walk uphill. Repeat.
From May to September, I adapted to a spartan but incredibly fulfilling existence, intimately connected with the spirit of the mountains. I wrapped up my final hike in a dance of golden aspen leaves on a crystal-blue September afternoon on East Beckwith Mountain. Somehow I had done it. All I really had to do was find a way to get started.
Mountains occupy a unique place in the human heart. They are gratuitous and essential. Every peak is flush with glory and peril, and they demand great things from us. Mountains haunt our dreams and engage our spirit. They will outlast us in every way, and when we are long forgotten, the connection we forged in those high reaches will silently sustain.
There’s no time like the present to find your mountain.
James Dziezynski
July 2012
Boulder, Colorado
Trip Outtakes
All photos by James Dziezynski unless otherwise noted
The Citadel’s twin summits offer fun scram-bling to reach their lofty pinnacles. This slot is the easiest way to descend the east summit (photo taken from the west summit).
Photo by Jody Pratt
This mountain goat means business! Remember to respect wildlife, especially those who have a propensity for head-butting hikers off narrow ridges.
Mount Sniktau starts from the high point of Loveland Pass and offers great views for not a lot of work, rela-tively speaking!
Spring thaw comes to the Mohawk Lake Basin with 13,950-foot Pacific Peak looming in the distance.
This inflatable clown suit was the perfect way to celebrate the summit of 14,309-foot Uncompahgre Peak and a fine homage to Billy and Benny McCrary of Guinness Book of World Records fame.
Navajo Peak’s classic pyramid resembles an ancient Mayan temple. Airplane Gully is located to the right of the shadow from the pinnacle on the far left.
Classic class 3 terrain on Pyramid Peak, a possible side trip when hiking Belleview Mountain
An amazing look at the aptly named Spectacle Lakes from just below the summit of Ypsilon Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park
Neva Peak looms on the traverse back to Jasper Peak.
Fools Peak is one of Colorado’s best seldom-climbed mountains, and an aesthetically pleasing picture when viewed from Lower Lake Charles.
Storm clouds create an ominous portrait of Hesperus Mountain.
The gully up to the summit of Mount Sneffels offers a great look at the colorful palette of the San Juan Mountains—and yes, that’s a Hartford Whalers baseball cap on my head.
Photo by Jody Prat
A sneaky photographer is caught in the shadows capturing a peaceful moment on “Medium Agnes.”
Hikers begin the descent from Mount Zirkel. This unique northern panorama looks out onto Steamboat Springs on the horizon.
Bobblehead Goofy is looking the wrong way on the summit of Eureka Mountain—he’s missing a stun-ning view of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains!
Windy
