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Weather affects annual hike, fireworks show on Pikes Peak to celebrate New Year’s Day

EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The new Summit Complex and an additional fireworks show were two unique aspects of the AdAmAn Club's 100th hike up America's Mountain this week.

The fireworks -- scheduled to go up Friday at midnight -- will be moved to another area of the summit because of the layout of the new complex.

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"With the old setup, we used some of the Summit House infrastructure to shield us from wind and snow," said AdAmAn member and former president Don Sanborn. "We don't have that with the new location, but the Pikes Peak Highway folks are providing a large vehicle that will provide shelter for us."

With the new complex layout increasing the amount of usable space and providing more indoor areas, Sanborn was asked if people may someday be allowed to watch the fireworks show from the summit.

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"We haven't talked about that yet," he said. "I think that weather like we're seeing today wouldn't make that feasible."

Even in a dry period with little or no snow in southern Colorado, there was enough of it on the summit Friday to affect some of the day's planned events there.

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Strong winds created white-out conditions that delayed the club's 3 p.m. arrival at the end of its two-day hike from Manitou Springs.

"We split up into two groups," said an unidentified club member. "The first group didn't arrive until around 3:45 p.m., and the second group was at least a half hour behind."

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Of the 34 hikers who departed Thursday morning, only around 20 were expected to finish, Sanborn said.

"I had to turn around because my hip was bothering me," he said. "Another person had to go back because of hypothermia, and a couple of members escorted that person back."

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Sanborn said that the fresh, powdery snow was harder to walk on than older, frozen snow.

"The powdery snow is like walking in quicksand," he said.

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The weather delayed, then canceled, a second fireworks show scheduled at 5 p.m.; that show was for the benefit of Windstar Studios, a production company that is working on documentaries about the club and the complex.

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"I've been working on them for seven years," said Kevin Pinski, of Windstar. "With the weather changes up here, you need a lot of footage at different times and in different conditions to get exactly what you want. With this weather, I don't think we'll get a lot today."

Windstar also hoped to fly two drones, despite the weather; the documentaries are expected to be ready sometime in 2023.

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The weather also led to the closure of the upper five miles of the highway, but the Cog Railway was running and some passengers were hoping to see the hikers arrive at the summit.

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"I'd heard about them but didn't know a lot about them," one woman said. "I thought they did the entire hike in one day, but you said it takes two days? I can't imagine what that's like. Pretty cool though, that it's been happening for a century."

The weather affected a lone hiker, as well, who was in distress and was found by the AdAmAn Club. El Paso County Search & Rescue assisted the hiker and said he wasn't seriously injured.

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"He just wasn't prepared," a Search & Rescue team member said. "Which was surprising because he has a lot of mountain experience."

The unidentified man was taken from the main gate in an ambulance just before 8 p.m.

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As exhausting as the two-day hike is, the club may find a greater challenge driving down the mountain after midnight, with conditions expected to continue.

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Scott Harrison

Scott is a reporter for KRDO. Learn more about Scott here.

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