The Centennials in 33 Days (June 16 - July 19)

Peaks: 100 (plus 20 bonus peaks)

Mileage: 685 miles

Elevation gain: 295,000ft

Rest Days: 1

Longest day: 49 miles, 18,000ft gain

Most Centennials in a day: 10

In early June I had to cancel international mountaineering plans last minute due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, and I scrambled to make backup plans. I decided to drive down from my home in Seattle to Colorado and climb the 14ers. Then the day before I left I decided maybe I could squeeze in the centennials also. They sounded remote and interesting, and three of them even had short 5^th class sections, which sounded fun. I had Gerry Roach’s 14ers guidebook for the 14ers and would rely on 14ers.com reports for beta on the 13er centennials.

I drove 23 hours to Colorado, reaching the crag view trailhead on Pikes Peak at midnight. The next morning, June 16, I started my first peak, Pikes Peak. From there I went to Mt Elbert and worked my way south to Culebra. I luckily managed to reserve a permit so I could climb it legally.

I discovered most of the mountains have 4wd and 2wd trailheads (unlike trailheads in Washington), and I was generally too nervous to drive my forester past the 2wd trailheads. Instead, I would usually park at the 2wd trailhead and mountain bike to and from the 4wd trailhead. This was often actually faster than the trucks and jeeps driving the rough roads!

I was able to shift my schedule a bit to climb dangerous peaks like Little Bear on weekdays to avoid crowds, and safer peaks on weekends. From Culebra I moved to the San Juans. I rope soloed all three technical peaks (Dallas, Jagged, and Teapot), and Jagged ended up being my favorite peak of the trip.

Next I drove north to the Capitol and Snowmass area. My time window started getting tight by then since I had scheduled a horse packer to bring my gear into the Wind Rivers in Wyoming on July 21 for another trip. I definitely did not want to miss that date.

To make the most efficient use of time during my last week in the face of daily afternoon thunderstorms I shifted and shortened my sleep schedule to sleep around 2 hours per day, during the storms in the late afternoon. I would then climb through the night and through the next morning when it was safe to be above treeline. For my longest day I ended up doing a 36-hour push starting on Capitol for sunrise, then snow-climbing up Cathedral later in the day. I then biked and climbed Castle and Conundrum through the night and did Mt of the Holy Cross and Holy Cross Ridge the next morning before the storms came in. That ended up being 49 miles with 18,000ft gain.

On my third to last day I managed to squeeze in 10 centennials, starting at midnight to hit the DeCaLiBron peaks and ending on midnight on the summit of Silverheels.

I climbed my final peaks – Longs and Meeker – in the morning of July 19. Luckily I had finished with just enough time to take a full rest day to drive to Pinedale, Wyoming, then hike into the winds the next morning without missing the horsepackers. (I went on the climb all the WY 13ers over the next 16 days).