Colorado Champions: Colorado Springs climber attempts Matterhorn
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Sam Evermore, the Colorado Springs climbing kid, is in Europe attempting to ascend the Matterhorn. Halfway across the world, we caught up with the 10-year-old and his dad about the wild journey.
In Switzerland, it's always pastry time.
"What bakery should we stop at," asks Joe Evermore, Sam's dad.
And before a hard climb, there's nothing wrong with a little carb loading. After all it is Sam's first trip to Europe. Telling me all about it on Facetime from the quaint town of Chamonix. He's taking in the climbs, culture, and cuisine.
"The food is really weird," says Sam Evermore.
"But he likes that everything has potatoes," says Joe.
But it's not just the food that's different. The views are striking. The Matterhorn is a mountain of the Alps, straddling the border between Italy and Switzerland. It's so recognizable because of its large, near-symmetric pyramid peak.
"It's so crazy, says Joe. "There's no photo that can tell you how incredible this place is."
Sam's goal was to reach the top. And be the youngest to ever climb it.
"I couldn't believe it," says Joe. "I've never even heard of a mountain that is so rough like that. So I went into it a little scared, but we obeyed the rules and we said if we don't get there on time we are turning back."
After an impressive attempt, they did make the decision to turn around after not hitting certain time markers.
"Well we made it on time to the Solvay hut, but then we hit the cutoff on the way up to the top and so we turned back," says Joe. "And there was also a bit of rock fall, but Sam is totally going to be ready the next time we come."
Sam and Joe feel good about the decision, given how deadly of a season it's been on the Matterhorn.
"We went to the little gear shop and the lady says that someone has died on the mountain almost every day in the last three weeks and I looked up all of these stories because it freaked me out and none of them matched ours," says Joe.
And while disappointing, safety has always been the most important thing for this father-son duo.
"Priority number 1 is always come back safely, priority number 2 is to hit the summit and priority number 3 is to have a lot of fun and sometimes those come into conflict," says Joe.
Regardless, they say it's been a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
"My favorite part of the Matterhorn was climbing with my dad," says Joe.
With a new appreciation for climbing with Dad and a training strategy in place, Sam is eager to come back and tackle the Matterhorn another time.
"We are going to go train on more 14ers and we are going to try and do Pikes Peak and do the Incline a lot more and we are going to come back and try and do it," says Sam.
