Early Ascents on Pikes Peak

by Woody Smith

Overview

An intriguing, firsthand look at what it was like to ascend the storied Colorado mountain and experience its allure in the early days of the Old West.

Magnificent Pikes Peak rises dramatically from the Colorado prairie to a height of 14,114 feet above sea level. Visible for one hundred miles around, the granite giant’s magnetic appeal compelled rugged mountaineers more than a century ago to risk loose saddles, electrical storms and even murder on treacherous expeditions to the summit. First known as Long Mountain by the Indigenous peoples who sojourned at its hot springs, Pikes Peak was a full-fledged tourist destination by the 1870s. Eager men and women ventured up and down by foot, horse, burro, stagecoach, rail and bicycle. Colorado Mountain Club historian Woody Smith captures the news of the era to recount the thrill of pioneer days on America’s most famous mountain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781625855893
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Series:	American Chronicles
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	194
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Colorado Mountain Club Historian since 2003, Woody Smith has hiked to the summit of Pikes Peak twice, reached the summit once by car, once by cog rail, climbed eighty-five of Colorado's one hundred highest peaks, made a few minor discoveries including a probable first known ascent of Kit Carson Mountain in 1883, and led a successful 2005 effort to name Colorado's seventy-fifth highest peak for Mary Cronin, the first woman and fourth person to climb all the state's 14,000-foot peaks, finishing in 1934.