Colorado Mountain Club

Publication Year: 1949.

Colorado Mountain Club. For the Colorado Mountain Club 1948 was a busy year, though not spectacular. Trips sponsored by the Denver Group, varying from picnics and easy one-day walks to climbs of 14,000-ft. peaks, produced some 2300 safe man-days in the Colorado mountains from April through October. There were 29 one-day trips and 22 over night. In addition, groups in Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs and Walsenburg, and junior groups in Denver and Colorado College, sponsored trips about every two weeks.

The so-called Annual Summer Outing was held in the Gore Range, with about 60 in attendance for a week. It was decided to go in from the W. Exploration from that side, however, led to the conclusion that the other (E.) is easier of access and offers more climbing. Nevertheless, despite poor weather and the distances from camp, some interesting climbs were accomplished, including a few first ascents. What amounted to a second “outing” developed from a scheduled “long week-end trip”: 60 people camped in the Crestone area for six days over Labor Day and climbed all the 14,000-ft. peaks in the group.

Many members spent every week end from November to May in the mountains on skis or snowshoes. Snowshoeing has regained popularity with some who like to be out in winter but do not ski. The skiing “die-hards” participated on June 13th in a “Sunrise Slalom” on Trail Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park. Ski climbs of some of the 14,000-ft. peaks have also been made, and this spring a ski ascent of Castle Peak (14,259 ft.) in the Elk Mountains marked the highly enjoyable “Winter Outing” in Montezuma Basin, S. of Aspen.

An active conservation committee has watched pending legislation, and for three years the club has devoted one Sunday in spring to tree-planting, with the cooperation of the U. S. Forest Service. In June 1948 some 150 people planted 5000-6000 small lodgepole pines on the old “Mammoth Burn” near Tolland. This work will be continued.

The club participated in ceremonies marking the formal naming of Mt. Wilcox, a peak in the Georgetown area: a party climbed the peak and carried on two-way radio communication with the group in the valley which included the Governor and the Director of the Board on Geographic Names.

Among recent visitors who have lectured before the club are Bradford Washburn and Maynard Miller; and Walter Wood has shown his “Snow Cornice” pictures to a small group, mainly of A.A.C. members in Denver. André Roch, another recent visitor, showed pictures of his Himalayan expeditions.

Having long realized the need for revision of Fourteen Thousand Feet, which contains climbing data on the high peaks in the state, the club is now earnestly applying itself to the preparation of a fuller guidebook to the Colorado mountains, with data also on the many miles of trails and on the peaks that rise to less than 14,000 ft. but still are interesting. It is hoped that this new guidebook may be ready for publication before the summer of 1950.

Evelyn Runnette

*See pp. 289-90 above.—Ed.