Pikes Peak Summit Proving Dangerous: Snow
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Last May, Teresa Taylor was watching climbers pad up to the summit of Pikes Peak in shorts and sneakers. This year, she’s warning everyone that beyond Barr Camp, you’d better be dressed for the worst.
This is the snowiest spring on Pikes Peak in more than a decade. Barr Camp recorded 231 inches of snow this winter. (It only saw 50 inches in 2006.)
Hikers venturing above treeline will find that the peak is more wintry this May than it usually is in January, and they should be prepared.
“The snow is still waist-deep in places, and we just got more today,†Taylor, the caretaker at Barr Camp, said Wednesday. Every day, she warns people that the trail is buried.
Some climbers listen — she persuaded a dozen Texans in jeans to turn back Sunday. But some climbers don’t. Two Air Force Academy cadets headed up to the summit Tuesday. They became stranded above treeline and had to be rescued by helicopter Wednesday morning.
The cadets, Jesse Mortensen, 21, a junior from Michigan, and Jesse Luschen, 22, a senior from Iowa, were out to enjoy a hike during an idle period at the academy between the end of spring term and graduation.
They hiked seven miles up the snowless bottom part of Barr Trail on Monday and spent the night at Barr Camp. Tuesday, they left camp early, expecting to cover the remaining five miles to the top before noon.
They did not have snowshoes, ice axes or winter gear, but they did carry sleeping bags and a tent.
When Taylor said weather was moving in, they assured her they could beat it to the top.
If you get in trouble or get tired, Taylor told them as they left, the last train leaves from the summit at 4 p.m.
“They said, ‘Four? We’ll be there long before then,’†she said Wednesday.
They never got there.
“We hiked for hours and hours. It was very frustrating and hard,†Mortensen said Wednesday.
The cadets pushed through knee- and waist-deep snow. A storm rolled in, pelting them with snow and hail.
Snow obscured the trail. Clouds obscured the summit.
“We could hear the train whistle. We kept thinking we were at the summit. Obviously, we weren’t,†Mortensen said.
The cadets likely took a wrong turn near 13,000 feet, two miles from the summit, and crossed onto a steep flank of the peak called the Bottomless Pit.