Gerry Roach is Not Just an Accomplished Mountaineer, He’s THE Colorado 14er Expert.
Imagine if CO had 1,054 14ers! Only a handful of crazies would complete that list. Imagine if CO only had six 14ers. People would start to look elsewhere. — Gerry Roach
I’m back to finish my series on the deadly allure of Colorado’s 14ers. And once again, I had a last minute change of plans.
Today, I was supposed to interview Charles Pitman, the mission coordinator with the Summit County Rescue Group at the trailhead of Quandary Peak. Due to various circumstances, I wasn’t able to make that happen. So I spent last night pondering how I could spend ten minutes on Facebook live telling the story of just how dangerous Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains are.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been building this idea on the back of a story I wrote for 303 Magazine about a University of Colorado student who fell 150 feet off of Mount Harvard and survived. You can read that here. This story is where my thoughts were directed when I realized my interview with Mr. Pitman wouldn’t work out, and luckily for me, I interviewed a man named Gerry Roach while reporting this story, and that’s when it hit me. “I’ll tell the story of Gerry Roach and the instrumental role he has played in preparing people to take on these climbs,” I thought to myself.
Thus, I traveled to the Flatirons in Boulder, Colorado, this morning and filmed myself talking about this mountaineering heavyweight. Here is the link to watch me uncomfortably talk to a camera for the first time in my life!
Anyways, when I talk to people about their 14er experiences and ambitions, it’s common to hear the book title, “Colorado’s Fourteeners: from hikes to climbs,” come up in the conversation. Gerry Roach wrote it. With descriptions of over 250 routes up all of the state’s 54 14ers, it is the go-to guide for anyone aspiring to conquer Colorado’s towering mountains. Roach has climbed over 2,000 mountains in Colorado, including all of the state’s 14 and 13,000-foot mountains. His wife, Jennifer, is not far behind him, having “bagged” over 1000 peaks in the state along with all of the 14ers and 13ers. She helped her husband author several of his guide books.
When Roach was seven, his family moved to Boulder. It was the 1950s, and Boulder was a climbing Mecca at the time. It’s said that Roach learned how to climb mountains and fly planes before he could ever drive. He was a true outdoors-man from the onset.
Roach has spent more than 60 years traveling the world as a mountaineer and has lived in dozens of countries. He has completed more than 30 major climbing expeditions including his successful summit of Mount Everest in 1983 — eleven years after his first attempt, which was unsuccessful. Roach became the second person in history to climb the tallest peak on each of the seven continents, and he is the first person to climb all of North America’s 16,000-foot peaks.
Because of his accomplishments as a mountaineer and his local ties to the state of Colorado, I thought he would be one of the most valuable, if not the most valuable sources for my reporting on Amy Chen’s story. I was right. He is a man of very few words, but he is wise far beyond them. I would argue that anyone who has planned a 14er trip has relied on Roach’s research to a degree.
I interviewed him last October and although he is quaint with his responses, every word he uttered mattered. Here is a transcript of that very brief interview.
Tyler: So I’m curious about the allure of climbing Colorado’s 14ers in general. What is it about these mountains that make people travel far and wide to climb? What is special about them?
Gerry: Yes, the big question. Why 14ers. Here’s my perspective. Only 4 states have 14ers: Alaska, Washington, California, and Colorado. Alaska’s 14ers are beyond normal means. In fact, nobody has done them all. Washington has Rainier, a specialized project on glacial snow. California has 13+ depending how you count. They are great, and people surely do them. These people tend to poo poo Colorado, and they don’t make it here. People in the rest of the Southwest, and in particular, the Midwest come to Colorado. The big allure of the Rockies lies to our east where there are no mountains.
G: 54+ (depending how you count) is a nice number. There are lots [of 14ers] to choose from. You can come back year after year. A list of 54 is a list that mortals can finish. Imagine if CO had 1,054 14ers! Only a handful of crazies would complete that list. Imagine if CO only had six 14ers. People would start to look elsewhere.
T: I’m also interested to hear about some of the dangers Colorado’s 14ers pose, even to the most experienced climber. I’ve heard there are “easy” 14ers that really anyone can climb, and I’ve heard the contrary; there is no such thing as an “easy” 14er. I’m wondering what you have to say about this.
G: For the most part, Colorado’s 14ers are peaks that hikers can ascend. In general, they are easier than Rainier and California’s 14ers. Two-thirds of Colorado’s 14ers are Class 2 or easier — ie no hands hiking.
G: The hazards come in many forms. On the “easy” peaks, lightning is always a hazard. On the “harder” peaks, falling off seems to be in vogue this year. People simply move beyond their means. Gravity never sleeps.
