NEW BOOK RELEASE! Climbing Pikes Peak: A Hiker's Guide to the Peak

I'm pleased to announce the release of my newest book CLIMBING PIKES PEAK: A HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE PEAK by Every Adventure Publishing! It's the first hiking guide to Pikes Peak ever.

I've been staying close to home base in Colorado Springs during these pandemic times, so it seemed appropriate that I should finish this book which I started a couple years ago. I've spent quite a bit of time this summer on Pikes Peak, the skyscraper in my backyard. I rehiked all the trails and routes in the book, including 8 summit routes, a bunch of lower peaks, and 5 great day hikes.

Most hikers just think of the two main trails to the summit -- Barr Trail and Devils Playground Trail -- so they'll be pleasantly surprised to find some different less-traveled paths to reach the top of what is called "America's Mountain."

The lower summit hikes are also superb, climbing to mostly unranked mountaintopsthat are easily accessed from the Pikes Peak Highway. Many of these unranked peaks were also unnamed as well as untrodden, so I took the liberty of naming them for local mountaineers who deserve recognition, including Bob Ormes, Spencer Swanger, and Eleanor Davis (probably the best woman climber in the US in the 1910s), as well as one for Winfield Scott Stratton, a Cripple Creek tycoon who died in 1904 and was one of America's most famous people at that time. Stratton donated the bulk of his fortune, to the chagrin of Colorado Springs elites who challenged his will, to help the poor, orphaned, and indigent citizens of the city.

Reserve your own copy of CLIMBING PIKES PEAK: A HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE PEAK at Mountain Chalet and REI in Colorado Springs or order direct from Amazon. Then you can get up the Peak before the snow flies!

See you on the mountain.