Leafing through Aspen skier Chris Davenport’s recently released “Ski the 14ers” coffee-table book (Capitol Peak Publishing, 2007), prospective Colorado ski mountaineers are liable to be overcome by one of two reactions: inspiration or trepidation. More likely, a little bit of both.
It’s a matter of which of the 152 oversized pages your eye meets. Flip to photos of the sun-soaked snow bowls of Wetterhorn, Sunshine or the Collegiate Peaks and the advanced skier’s mind says, “Huh, I could probably do that.” Turn the page to Capitol, Pyramid or Wilson peaks and that same brain is likely to lock up momentarily before responding in a more definitive “Are you crazy?”
The answer, in Davenport’s case, is a staid “no,” and the calculated professional who went into his year-long quest to ski all 54 Colorado peaks above 14,000 feet between Jan. 22, 2006, and Jan. 19, 2007, is presented in a stunning visual tribute to winter in the mountains he calls home.
“There are more than half a million people hiking on these fourteeners every year, but almost all of them do it in the summer. No one ever sees what these places look like in the snow,” said Davenport, who encountered only four other skiers on the mountains over the course of the year. “So I just wanted to show people something new, let them see some cool lines and hopefully they’ll be inspired.”
The inspiration behind Davenport’s quest arrived as an answer to the “what next” predicament facing all aging extreme skiers with a resume as comprehensive as his. By age 36, Davenport already was an alpine ski racer, a two-time world extreme skiing champion and a performer in more than 20 feature ski films. He works as a commentator for ESPN and ABC Sports and brandishes several of the most coveted sponsorships in the pro skiing world.
Add to those titles becoming only the second person in history to ski all the Colorado fourteeners from the summit — Carbondale resident Lou Dawson, who contributes the foreword to Davenport’s book, was the first — and the first to do so in a calendar year. And finally, now he can be called an author.
“I don’t think it has changed anything. I’m still Chris Davenport, professional skier,” he said. “But I really feel like the book captures the essence of skiing Colorado fourteeners. It reflects the nature of the various types of skiing, from the easy ones to the really gnarly ones, and gives people a true sense of what it’s all about. We could have just had tight skiing shots on every page, but we tried to mix it up with the lifestyle too, to tell the story of road-tripping and skiing in the backcountry so people could get a truer sense of the project. I’m really pleased with the way it came out.”
Much of the writing in the book ($49.95, available at ) can be found on Davenport’s website, . More than 450 images from a rotating cast of the finest ski photographers in the business, however, are unique to the matte finish hardback publication designed by Aspen’s Art Burrows. A portion of every book sold benefits the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) and the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, as will proceeds from a film by Ben Galland documenting the experience, should it overcome legal hurdles from the U.S. Forest Service currently barring it from distribution.
“We appreciate Chris, and we think he is a very good steward of the fourteeners. He’s a person who sees the fourteeners for their raw beauty and appeal, not someone who’s just out to accomplish some list,” CFI interim executive director James Ashby said. “He thought protecting Colorado’s fourteeners is something worth getting behind. We’re very excited about the book.”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
