AdAmAn Club starts 94th holiday hike up to Pikes Peak

A local hiking club that’s been around since 1922 will once again celebrate the New Year by hiking up Barr Trail to Pikes Peak.

Around 30 of the AdAmAn Club’s 40 active members are making the trip, said club president Don Sanborn.

The group departed on Barr Trail in Manitou Springs at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The club’s five original members named it AdAmAn to symbolize its policy of adding one member each year. Capitalizing the A’s in the name represent mountain peaks.

This year’s new member is Dr. Scott Smetana, a Kansas native, who has hiked the Peak five times and said he waited four years to be accepted as a member.

“I’m excited, honored of course, and a little nervous,” he said. “I hope everything goes well.”

The hikers dress warmly to prepare for below-zero temperatures, blizzard-force winds and deep snowdrifts near the summit.

“Fabrics have improved over the years,” Sanborn said. “I’m wearing fewer layers than I did on my first hike 20 years ago. But dressing in layers still is the best way to stay warm.”

The club will spend Wednesday night at Barr Camp, the halfway point, and arrive at the summit Thursday afternoon to begin setting up fireworks for the midnight Thursday show.

“We used to light a bonfire that could be seen from Colorado Springs, as a symbol that we’d made it halfway,” Sanborn said. “But with people following us on Facebook, Twitter and our website, we don’t need the bonfire any more.”

However, Sanborn said the hikers will use mirror flashes as a signal that they have crossed over the timber line.

“The flashes can be seen from town, and we can see people flash back at us,” he said.

At 9 p.m. Thursday, the hikers will set off five fireworks in honor of the club’s “Frozen Five” founding members.

The club gathered for a breakfast before the hike at the Congregational Church in Manitou Springs.