GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—By this time last year, longtime mountaineer Kent Beverly would have scaled many of the state’s highest peaks. He climbed a dozen 13,000-foot peaks in one weekend last spring.
This year heavy snow, the deepest in 11 years, is keeping Beverly and other climbers at lower elevations.
By Memorial Day many climbers are already on some of the state’s highest peaks, called the 14ers, because they are 14,000-feet high or higher.
“I haven’t really been out because I know there’s a lot of snow,” Beverly said. “You want to be certain it’s OK.”
Bill Middlebrook, a mountaineer who owns the Web site , is urging inexperienced climbers to avoid the San Juan Range, which got nearly twice its average snowfall. The Sangre de Cristo Range also was hit hard but the snow is melting fast, says Middlebrook’s mountain information clearinghouse.
The peaks in the Sawatch Range and Mosquito Range, which don’t require technical ascents, including Mount Evans, Mount Sherman, Mount Bierstadt and Mount Elbert, are better places to start.
“Everything is kind of delayed a few weeks,” Middlebrook said. “I think most people do proper research. They’re asking what Maroon Peak and Capitol Creek are going to look like in July.”
Middlebrook said there is a good side. Skiers or snowboarders with the stamina to hike up can ski down some of the still snowed-in peaks. He said he has skied down 25 peaks, including Mount Belford in the Sawatch Range last Monday.
Hikers, meanwhile, are urged to stay on marked trails, even if that means going through deep snow. It not only is safer but avoids damaging terrain which remains more vulnerable when it is wet.
