Dateline 1997: Climbing on Pikes Peak with Earl Wiggins

After I posted a photo on Facebook of Earl Wiggins at the Garden of the Gods the other day I got to thinking about a route we climbed on Pikes Peak 21 years ago. So today I went through four filing cabinets of color transparencies and finally found a bunch of images I shot on Velvia film, my 35mm film of choice back in the 1990s. Earl and I worked on a route over the nose of the Old Man at about 13,700 feet on the North Face of Pikes Peak in July 1997. Here's a photograph I shot of Dawn belaying Earl while he worked the free moves on the nose, but it ended up being a mixed free and aid route. Spectacular position on an improbable granite formation. Miss those halcyon days with The Youth, as we called him in the '70s. Rest in Peace, Earl.

Dawn Wiggins belays Earl Wiggins on the Old Man on the North Face of Pikes Peak in 1997. Photograph @ Stewart M. Green