*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on September 23, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. Size isn’t everything, even with Fourteeners. One of the most iconic of the gigantic peaks may well be the Mount of the…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on September 16, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. There’s at a peak northwest of Salida, that some say, in the springtime, after the snow starts to melt, has an angel gracing…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on September 9, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. “Elbert” is just a guy. Just some guy, who happens to be the namesake of Colorado’s highest Fourteener, all 14,440 feet of…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on September 2, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. “Fourteeners” is a weird word. If you think about it, 14 is just one of those numbers that doesn’t get a lot…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 26, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file is below. The text below does not match the audio; the text is meant to describe the context for the audio file. When I lined up this past Saturday for…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 19, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. Even the Pikes Peak Marathon’s greatest champion, Matt Carpenter, has been brought to his knees by the mountain. His first Ascent race…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 12, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. The first official race to the top of Pikes Peak was on June 28, 1936. 27 started the nearly 13 mile-race up the…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 5, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. When snow turned him back from the first recorded American attempt to climb Pikes Peak, Zebulon Pike wrote, “I believe no human…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 29, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. It’s not hard to find. In fact, there’s a marker, a relatively plain one, at the southeast corner of Pikes Peak and Cascade…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 22, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. The next time you find yourself on a bridge or a path, I’d like to encourage you to look down and appreciate…