The Colorado Mountain Club

Publication Year: 1970.

The Colorado Mountain Club. The outstanding feature of recent years has been the steady, rapid increase in club membership, which has amounted to 50% within the last four years. The membership currently totals about 2800 members, of whom about 1700 are in the Denver group. The club’s activities have increased accordingly. In the past year there were over 500 scheduled trips, mostly well attended, held by the 10 active local groups in Colorado and the Los Alamos group in New Mexico. Successful and well attended mountaineering schools were held in Boulder, Denver, and Colorado Springs. A winter-camping school was held in Denver and a winter-mountaineering school in Colorado Springs. Winter-sports activities including snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and ski-mountaineering continued to increase in popularity. Outings comprised a spring ski and snowshoe trip to the Lindley Hut near Aspen in March; a trip to Africa, and a Gila Wilderness outing in New Mexico in June; a two-week camp in the Crestone area of the Sangre de Cristo Range in August; and in September a Colorado River Float and a San Juan horsepack. The African outing was not primarily a climbing trip, but 20 people made it to Gilman Point on Mount Kilimanjaro, and 11 continued to the true summit.

The club has continued active in conservation matters. We are proud to think that our efforts may have been a deciding factor in getting the Florissant fossil beds preserved as a national monument. Our fifth Colorado Open Space Conference was well attended by members, other interested conservationists, the press, and public officials. There were some accidents on scheduled club trips with broken bones and lesser injuries, but fortunately no loss of life. Several members also participated in two outstanding rescues. Finally, over 100 members have now registered with the club as having climbed all 53 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks.

David A. Carter, President