Spotlight on Nathan Hale!

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Q: What was your first fourteener, and when did you climb it?
My first fourteener was Mt Democrat, and I'm honestly not sure exactly when I climbed it. I was fairly young though; 10 or 11, I think. My parents and I were on our way back from Mesa Verde via South Park and they told me that they'd climbed some of the mountains ringing the valley and I was shocked because it didn't even seem possible, but I felt the ache of desire in my chest to reach the summit of those mountains. It was (and still is!) a very real physical feeling. I'm fairly certain that it was shortly after that when they took me out to do the DeCaLiBron. I found some fools gold along the trail and got my first taste of descending without accomplishing all my goals when we couldn't complete
the full circuit (stopping at Cameron) due to incoming weather.

I climbed a few others in the next couple of years--Sherman, twice up Grays, and then Blanca a bit later on--but then fell off it for a while. Then in August of 2002, shortly before I left for college in New York City, I figured I'd go complete the DeCaLiBron to get some good pictures and stories to share with the folks out east and then I was hooked. Unfortunately for my climbing, I was also in New York City...

Q: At what point did you commit to finishing them all?
I'm not sure. I remember once looking at Roach's guide and trying to figure out if I was even capable of finishing, since I didn't think I'd ever be able to climb a Class 4 route. So I was buoyed to find out that North Maroon only sort of counted as a separate 14er, and it looked like you could do Mount Wilson from El Diente and never have to do any 4th class! And I guess I just ignored Pyramid, Little Bear, and Capitol. I think I finally committed to finishing them all once I had done about 15 or so. And once I climbed Pyramid (my first Class 4) I felt confident that even my skinny little self was really capable of it.

Q: What is your favorite fourteener route?
I can't choose just one. Some that I enjoyed a lot: the Holy Cross Couloir, Windom's standard route, Crestone Peak via the South Face, and I'm sure I'm forgetting several others that I loved just as much. My least favorite, by the way, would be Mount Princeton's standard route, though the Grouse Canyon route on Princeton is fantastic. There are a lot of very beautiful and relatively uncrowded routes on the fourteeners, and I've been fortunate to climb quite a few peaks by more than one route. I think I'm actually about a third of the way through my second go-round, and most of thoserepeat ascents have come via alternate routes.

Q: What was your most delightful moment on a 14er?
The rush of adrenaline and the feeling of accomplishment that I felt as I topped out on Snowmass, my final fourteener, was pretty delightful. Beyond that I think it would be hard to pick out just one moment. I always enjoyed it when the weather was holding out and I could take the time to sit down and just enjoy the views and my surroundings and feel the breeze blowing and smell the forest or the wildflowers. The feelings that inspires in me are a large part of what has kept me climbing. And I had some pretty great times with my various partners over the years, too.
 
Q: What was your most terrifying moment on a 14er?
When I got "buzzed" with electricity while on Shavano. That was my first 14erWorld trip report, actually. I feel like I should go back and read it, but I shudder to think what I would find. And it wasn't ON a 14er, per se, but I had a very close call with nearly rolling my car when I was on my way up the Lake Como Road for my first attempt at Ellingwood. I didn't want to get out of the car while it was teetering on the cliff like that because I was afraid it would roll, so I waited in the car for several hours while my partners Brian and Ryan walked down the road to get some things at the Alamosa Wal-Mart to get the car off the ledge safely. I swore off climbing for a month or so after that one.

One other moment that stands out is when Brian sliced his butt wide open on a rock hiding underneath the snow during a glissade. It wasn't terrifying, really, but it definitely got my attention and made me glad that we were both prepared for that sort of a situation. We were still lucky that Brian was able to walk, because he's got about 80 pounds on me, so Idefinitely couldn't have carried him...

Q: Do you have any plans for future mountain lists?
I dunno. I have some interest in the Centennials, but I don't know if I could ever get excited about climbing Thunder Pyramid. It just seems like a choss heap to me and has always seemed like something I want nothing to do with. For a very long time I wasn't even interested in the centennials, but a few days after finishing the 14ers I found myself looking through the Roach & Roach 13er book and before I knew it I was planning what routes I wanted to take on certain peaks. I also remember seeing a discussion someplace of doing the list of least climbed 13ers on Lists of John, which is something that appealed to me at the time (one peak in particular), so I may do a few of those, we'll see. But as was mentioned when the list was discussed, it's a bit of a moving target since the act of climbing the peak usually removes it from the list.

Q: What 14er did you climb last? Did you intentionally save it for last or is it a 14er that previously eluded you?
Snowmass was my final fourteener. It was both left for last intentionally AND elusive. Shortly after committing to finishing all the fourteeners I decided on Capitol as my final peak since it was widely regarded as the most difficult, which seemed fitting. In the meantime I kept making plans each year to climb Snowmass because it looked very beautiful, but I never seemed to get around to it. Finally last year we headed out and actually started up Snowmass from the west side but we turned around before starting the real climbing because it came at the end of a long trip and our hearts just weren't in it.

Shortly after that we decided that we wanted to finish on an easier fourteener because we wanted to be able to enjoy the summit without the thoughts of tricky and exposed moves on the downclimb creeping in. By that time Ellingwood and Snowmass were the easiest remaining peaks, and the idea of the Lake Como Road being anywhere within 100 miles of my final fourteener didn't appeal to me at all, so Snowmass it was!

Q: What is the single most important piece of advice that you would give to someone just starting out?
Take it one peak at a time. You can take that two ways: focusing on the peak at hand will help you get up and down safely while progressing your skills and also help you enjoy the experience of each peak a bit more since you won't always be thinking of the next peak in line. Had I been looking ahead to Capitol while doing those early peaks I might have just given up on the whole adventure because I would have just gone with my initial instinct of not being able to do
it. Taking it one peak at a time allowed me to progress my skills slowly such that Capitol wasn't a big deal when I got there.

And even though the question says "single" piece of advice, I'm going to give another: good partners, particularly those more experienced than you, are invaluable. My friend Sean and I climbed most of our early fourteeners together, helping each other with the tentative first steps towards learning all the skills that we needed. When he went to a NOLS course with his roommate (and my future climbing partner and fellow fourteener finisher) Brian, they both came back with much more knowledge and were generous and patient in sharing it with me. I feel fortunate to have climbed with and learned from both of them. I climbed most of the more difficult peaks with Brian, and he has always had a knack for pushing me and helping me to be a better climber.