Hiking the 14ers

Pair who walked to Colorado 14ers expect to hit 58th summit Sunday
By Jason Blevins, The Denver Post
Published: Sep 27, 2013, 18:25
Updated: Sep 29, 2013, 1:08

GEORGETOWN — After several drivers slowed down to gawk, a pretty girl in a truck stops and rolls down the window.

"You guys want a ride?" she says.

Luke DeMuth starts shaking his head as Junaid Dawud politely declines.

"Really? Are you sure?" she says.

"We can't take any rides," Dawud says. "Thanks though."

With their grungy backpacks, sweat-stained hats and worn-to-moccasin shoes, the two look like they could really use a ride as they lope down Guanella Pass, "pulled by the gravity of beer," Dawud says.

"It's tempting sometimes," DeMuth says. "Especially when it's hailing."

But traveling in a car would break the rules of DeMuth and Dawud's epic mission.

The pair has been walking for 10 weeks, starting down south in the San Luis Valley. They've climbed every 14,000-foot peak in Colorado as they've ambled north, leaving what 33-year-old Dawud called a "continuous set of footprints" and forging a first-ever through-hike of the state's high points.

The self-supported trekkers will climb the North Inlet Trail and scramble up Longs Peak on Sunday. When they descend into Grand Lake Sunday afternoon, they will have scaled the last peak and walked more than 1,300 miles, climbing about 300,000 vertical feet in a first-of-its-kind mission. (It's "about" 300,000 vertical because the elevation-gain feature on their GPS has maxed out and stopped counting.)

Dozens of records hang on Colorado's highest hills. There's been the first to ski them all. The first to ski them in a single winter. Solo in winter. First woman skier. First snowboarder. Fastest. Oldest. The record the for the youngest to climb all the fourteeners was set last week by 6-year-old Axel Hamilton, whose 8-year-old brother finished them all in 2011 and whose dad biked to each fourteener in 2003 and set a speed record - 20 days - for human-powered ascents of the peaks without using a car.

DeMuth and Dawud weren't necessarily aiming for records or glory. They're raising money for the youth-mentoring Big City Mountaineers.

"It's a cool bonus to be the first, but honestly I just wanted to do it," says Dawud, who twice has hiked the 2,663-mile Pacific Crest Trail. "I was just jonesing for a long hike. Being first makes it our own adventure."

Two years ago, Dawud, who works at a Boulder restaurant, felt like he wasn't getting out in the high country enough. So he schemed a route between the state's 58 high points.

Their route included the state's five "asterisk" peaks. These are higher than 14,000 feet, but do not stretch 300 feet from the saddle connecting them to other fourteeners, a climbing standard sets the official count of 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado at 53.

"I was a little surprised to find no one had done it before," Dawud says.

Not a second passes before the ever grinning DeMuth, galloping toward Georgetown, says: "I understand why now. Turns out no one is this stupid."

While DeMuth casually depreciates the last 67 days as "a long walk in the woods," the effort has been grueling.

It rained ceaselessly during their ascent of the 14 peaks in the San Juans. It hailed for days in the Sangre de Cristos. They woke to several inches of snow in Chihuahua Gulch west of Grays Peak and Torreys Peak. The bushwhacked for 6 miles between Aspen and Mt. Massive. Even though they traveled as much as possible on trails, there were many miles along roads.

"Pavement is brutal," Dawud says.

"But the road has treated us well," says DeMuth, rattling off their found-on-the-ground scores, including knives and cash.

They occasionally gobble ibuprofen — "Vitamin I" they call it — as they roust from their Yama Mountain Gear tents before dawn every day. DeMuth got food sickness from "bad chicken tacos" at an eatery outside Durango and climbed a couple peaks in the soggy San Juans while vomiting. A lightning storm on Sunshine Peak had "the rocks snapping and crackling" as they touched the summit and ran down, DeMuth says.

The pair had two four-peak days in the Mosquito Range and the San Juan's Eolus group. They scaled all seven of the daunting Elk Mountain's fourteeners — the most technical peaks of the mission — in a mere five days. They are spending three days — Thursday, Friday and Saturday — hiking 70 miles from Georgetown to Grand Lake before their ascent of Longs Peak.

Eating from supply boxes they mailed to mountain post offices and the occasional bar fare, they miss fresh fruit and vegetables, something DeMuth regularly nibbles when he works the produce department at the Whole Foods near his home in Basalt.

They are tired of instant mashed potatoes, bags of pasta and dehydrated beans. (But not the steady stream of Snickers.) They estimate they've each lost at least 10, maybe 20 pounds. A bottle of Jim Beam peeks from the side pocket of DeMuth's custom ultralight Ula Equipment backpack, revealing another source of motivation when things get rough.

They say they've remained positive and focused on their goal, never once pondering surrender. The moments of joy make it easy to overlook the tribulations, they say. Not just the chromatic sunrises, the inspiring vistas or the flush of summiting, but the people along the way.

The guy near Crestone who gave them a trout. The lady who followed them on their website — 14ersthruhike.com — and showed up on top of Mt. Evans Wednesday morning with fresh sandwiches. The night in a new friend's driveway camper in Minturn. The free beers at mountain bars. The hospitality of everyone eager to hear their tale.

"We call it our front door policy," Dawud says. "Walk in the front door of a bar or restaurant and see what happens."

"It's amazing what a conversation can do for you," DeMuth says.

The hostess at Georgetown's Alpine Restaurant and Bar asks if they'd like a table inside or out.

"We better be outside. You know, from a smell perspective," says Dawud, acutely aware of his ripe funk. Baths have been few over the last 10 weeks and the pair has been hustling for the last month, too busy to stop for streamside soak.

"If we are not sleeping, we are walking," DeMuth says. "Seeing the weather change, it's been like we need to really push."

Soon, everyone in the Alpine Restaurant knows about the guys on the porch who are through-hiking the fourteeners. A few free beers find their way to the table.

"I grew up in Colorado and I've never heard of anyone doing that before," says Thane Wright. "That's impressive. Pretty spectacular. A helluva way to spend two months."

Alpine owners Tina and Aaron Smith offer their yard for their tents.

"That is too cool," Tina says. "You guys are hardcore."

While most everyone they meet shares that amazement, their audacity and extraordinary effort hasn't quite dawned on Dawud or DeMuth.

Sure they are giddy to have their list whittled down to one remaining peak, but the whole picture is only slowly taking shape.

"Sometimes I think we are too close to realize it. It's an amazing thing but it's kind of our normal. Every day, we go to bed saying 'Man, what a day,' " Dawud says. "I figure it's going to take twice as long to process this trip than it took to actually do it."

"Yeah, decompressing and absorbing everything is definitely going to take a while," DeMuth says, tucking into his calzone. "Man that was unbelievable that lady with the sandwiches today. How cool was that?"

Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or twitter.com/jasontblevins

Kick ass.

That's very cool, I would like to be able to do something similar at some point.

Everything gets more B/A when you slap a time limit on it.

Wow. Awesome adventure.

Sounds like they finished up on Longs today. What an effort. I've been working on them for more than a decade and I've only gotten through 37.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using TGR Forums

I was going to be all snarky, but all I can say is wow, my hat is off to these guys. Excellent work!

that is sick

fanstatic............hahahhaha

They occasionally gobble ibuprofen — "Vitamin I" they call it — as they roust from their Yama Mountain Gear tents before dawn every day. DeMuth got food sickness from "bad chicken tacos" at an eatery outside Durango and climbed a couple peaks in the soggy San Juans while vomiting. A lightning storm on Sunshine Peak had "the rocks snapping and crackling" as they touched the summit and ran down, DeMuth says.




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