Andrea Sansone was an elite endurance athlete, but it took crushing a women’s speed record for climbing 14 of Colorado’s tallest mountains to get her out of the shadow of her partner, legendary athlete Andrew Hamilton.
Pikes Peak
Posted inNews
CSU professor Jared Orsi aims to amplify undertold stories as Colorado’s new state historian
Jared Orsi, a history professor at Colorado State University, has begun his one-year term as Colorado State Historian, following Regis University professor Nicki Gonzales. Orsi, one of the five original members of the State Historian’s Council, has taught at CSU for more than 20 years, specializing in borderlands and environmental history and serving as director […]
Posted inNews, Outdoors
Hiker traffic on Colorado 14ers fell by 110,000 visits in 2021 after setting a record in 2020
After a record-setting year for Colorado’s highest peaks at the height of the pandemic, traffic on the state’s 14ers dropped in 2021, falling by more than 110,000 user days. The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, using remote-sensor counters on 23 trails around the state, counted about 303,000 hikers scaling the state’s 54 14,000-foot peaks in 2021, down […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors
Their family ran the Denver-owned Echo Lake Lodge on Mount Evans for decades. The city’s new plan does not include them.
MOUNT EVANS — The T-shirts and hoodies are stacked deep on the tables of the 95-year-old restaurant. Bill Carle estimates he’s spent about $300,000 on the Mount Evans souvenirs for the Echo Lake Lodge his family has operated for 57 years. He spent that before Denver officials told Carle the city would not be renewing […]
Posted inClimate, Coloradans, News, Wildfire
Amid the charred ruins of Colorado wildfires, a sense of community evolves with the rebuild
About this story: Sun staff writer Kevin Simpson wrote and compiled this account with contributions from Jason Blevins, Jennifer Brown, Tamara Chuang, Shannon Najmabadi and Olivia Prentzel. Kiki Turner stood in front of the house where she grew up, now a pile of ashes in a scorched and flattened neighborhood. She could see for miles, […]
Posted inColoradans, Culture, Environment, News, Outdoors
Pikes Peak “bolt war” pits veteran climbers against each other on America’s Mountain
Rock climbing’s “bolt wars” of the late 1980s and early 1990s are long gone. But two Colorado Springs climbers are trying to reignite the decades-old debate over bolts. Bosier Parsons and Brad Saren last year warned Phil Wortmann they would take drastic action if the veteran climber published a guidebook detailing the granite routes around […]
Posted inColoradans, Economy, Housing, News
With homelessness more visible than ever, Colorado cities don’t have to count outdoor residents
Cities were granted a pass this year from a federal requirement that they attempt to count every resident who is homeless, whether in shelters, tents in the park or alone with a blanket on a sidewalk. Many of the nation’s cities, including Denver and Colorado Springs, decided that sending dozens of volunteers to the streets […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
“Our” beloved Colorado: Race, privilege, and landscape in the state’s history
As we look forward to Colorado Day on Aug. 1, History Colorado asked each member of its State Historian’s Council to reflect on what “our beloved Colorado” means to them. Here, Jared Orsi reflects on who we mean — and who we exclude — when we say “our.” One-hundred-twenty-seven years ago last week, Katharine Lee […]
Posted inNews
Work on new Pikes Peak Summit Complex progresses at 14,115 feet
By Amanda Hancock, The Gazette COLORADO SPRINGS — Upon arriving at the top of Pikes Peak, visitors might not expect to see a bustling construction site in the middle of the breathtaking views they came for. Sometimes they pass by workers clad in hard hats and neon vests, like the site’s project manager Rob Clough, […]
Posted inColoradans, Culture
The Witches of Manitou Springs: History, hysteria and wand-waving Wiccans behind a stubborn urban myth
Manitou Springs, a picturesque mountain town nestled in the shadow of Pikes Peak, is full of whispers of witches and witchcraft. Maybe you’ve heard it from an Uber driver on the way to an area bar or while scrolling through a travel site. It’s a tale that often wanders through word of mouth. Wherever it […]