Conquering The Fourteeners

With a list of achievements a mile long, Chris Davenport already enjoyed notoriety within the ski community when he set out to climb and ski all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks in a single season. But snowfall was inadequate or non-existent on several of the summits, so he finished the season with a mere nine peaks left; he’s already picked up two more summits this season, and hopes to check off the rest by January 21, 365 days after starting. We checked in with him shortly after he came down from Kit Carson Peak to check on his progress. In the first part of our interview, Davenport talks about his motives and how he has prepared for the project.

When and how did the idea for the fourteeners project come to you?

In the fall of ’05, I was out on a mountain bike ride by myself, and I was thinking a lot about the coming season and what my goals were going to be for the year. I just wanted to find something a little different, a little more challenging, and that no one else was doing. The other motivating factor was that I wanted to stay in Colorado more, to be around my family and my kids. I started thinking about the fourteeners as an interesting project to do in a season. I didn’t know if I could pull it off or not, but I knew it would be a great adventure.

How many peaks had you already summitted at that point?

I had climbed 34 of them, but only skied about a dozen.

What have been the main challenges you’ve faced for the project?

The main challenge has been the weather. The peaks are all skiable; it’s just a question of whether they have enough snow on them. The other thing was figuring out the logistics, because the peaks are spread out all over the mountainous regions of the state, so I’m trying to be efficient and not just go out all willy-nilly. I needed good data as to what peaks would be in the right condition when, so I wasn’t wasting time and energy.

How much time passed until you checked off the first peak?

I decided to do the project in September, so I spent the fall planning, training, and researching the mountains to find the ultimate ski lines on each peak. Then it was watching the weather. I was already sort of an amateur meteorologist, but I got even more into it because it’s such an important part of this project. There wasn’t much snow at the beginning of January, so I had to wait until January 22 to start the first peak.

How do you pick your routes, both ascending and descending?

The fourteeners are incredibly popular peaks for climbing and hiking in the summer, so there are well-established trailheads and routes on most of the peaks. In the winter, they’re obviously covered with snow, but you’ll still take those routes. As far as descending goes, it’s a matter of what route holds the least avalanche danger. I try to ski the most difficult line on each peak, something that hasn’t been skied before.