Spotlight on Don Chambliss!

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Q: What was your first fourteener, and when did you climb it?
Long’s Peak via the keyhole route, on August 24, 1996, was my first 14er.  Upon becoming totally intrigued with the Mt. Everest story a little earlier in that same year, I persuaded 5 friends from work to go and experience some of this stuff for ourselves.  None of us had ever done any real climbing before, but we were confident the guide book would prepare us well.  We had a definite sense it would be difficult for a bunch of out of shape office jockeys to pull this off, but, really had no idea of the eventual sheer magnitude of our choice for an inaugural fourteener.   I remember reading in the route description we had, that the key to this long arduous route, was just “don’t give up”.  I recalled and summoned strength from this passage many, many times between our 1:25am start and my eventual 9:00am summit (two hours after the rest of my group).   I could barely even move for two or three days after our return home, yet, I couldn’t stop thinking about what an incredible “Colorado” experience it was.  I wanted more, so I began a regimen of getting myself more prepared physically, to do more.      

Q: At what point did you commit to finishing them all?
Longs Peak was the only 14er I did in my rookie year.  In 1997 I climbed 7 more, another 7 in 1998, and 11 more in 1999.  I was starting to assemble the gear necessary for April and May ascents and even did Quandary in December, and Mts. Sherman & Shavano in January.  I think I actually started checking them off on a peak list sometime in 1998, but really didn’t start thinking about doing all of them until I joined the Colorado Mtn. Club and completed their Basic Mountaineering School.  BMS really gave me the drive and confidence, that I could climb them all.  Then it was just a matter of finding the time, and buying the gasoline, to start ranging out to the more distant peaks from Denver.   

Q: What is your favorite fourteener route?
Each one of the 14ers has its own character and uniqueness, making every route a new adventure.  Definitely, one of my favorites was the North Ridge route on Kit Carson.  I also have had two awesome trips up the Barr Trail on Pikes.  The way that route is laid out, along with the pure beauty of the varying segments of that mountain, just seems to cut that 7,400’ climb down to something a lot less.  I’ve also really gotten into the springtime and early July snow climb routes, like the Dead Dog couloir on Torreys, the North Slopes route on El Diente and the Cristo couloir on Quandary, as well as other 13er snow climbs.

Q: What was your most delightful moment on a 14er?
One of my many early solo trips was Bierstadt/Evans via the sawtooth, with a descent back down the west basin on the lower slopes of Mt. Spaulding.  I remember being really exhausted and just slowly making my way down some easy tundra back towards Spaulding.  I was favoring an aching left knee and just looking at the ground in front of me, being extra careful of every foot placement, when I caught a slight movement out of the corner of my eye.  I looked up, and was just totally amazed that I had wandered right into the middle of probably 10 mountain goats.  I just sat down right in the middle of them and watched them eat for about 15 minutes until they just slowly wandered off.  It really was an incredible and unexpected treat.

Q: What was your most terrifying moment on a 14er?
I’ve managed to get my truck stuck by falling thru a frozen creek near the trailhead on Huron, tear the oil pan from underneath my VW in the upper Huerfano valley on the way back from Mt. Lindsay, fall on the ice and break my wrist on the way up Huron, slip on a snow covered talus slope and tear a rotator cuff on a November descent of Mt. Yale, get a tiny bit of frost bite on a sub zero day on Quandary, run out of water on Holy Cross, get totally off route on a snow covered Challenger, and even get totally lost on my great idea of a distance saving shortcut coming down from Columbia.  But, as far as being just plain terrified, it would have to be 10 minutes after a solo 2am start from the Vicksburg side of LaPlata, and hearing really big steps paralleling me in the trees as I made my way into the blackness of otherwise total silence.  For about 15 minutes, I was totally convinced that I was no longer at the top of the food chain.  I went out and bought a single trekking pole the very next day, solely with the idea of carrying something with a sharp point on the end of it, and not as a knee saver. 

Q: Do you have any plans for future mountain lists?
I’ve kind of been getting a Centennial peak here and there with a friend that is in hot persuit of the 13,8’s and 13,9’s, and have really enjoyed the relative solitude of the ones I’ve done.  I think I have 12 completed (beyond the 14ers), and will probably need several more to really get the Centennial’s fire lit.  Doing the three other Great Colorado Traverses, are definitely on my personal list.

Q: What 14er did you climb last? Did you intentionally save it for last or is it a 14er that previously eluded you?
Crestone Peak on September 3, 2005, via the red gully, was my grand finale.  It was really an incredible sense of personal accomplishment finishing them all, but, a real punctuation mark to it all, and just as much the highlight of that trip, was continuing on to the Needle via my first finish of one of the four great Colorado traverses.   I really had absolutely no prearranged order, or particular peak finale planned out on the 14ers.  It all just sort of gloriously worked out the way it did.  Awesome Longs, to the equally awesome Crestones, were ten incredibly awesome years (and 1 week) apart.  Being fortunate enough to physically, and emotionally, touch but a few of the many loftiest points in our amazing state, was truly a fantastic way to spend a decade. 

Q: What is the single most important piece of advice that you would give to someone just starting out?
I would just say, “don’t give up”.  I’ve never really been much of a goal oriented type person.  I think that climbing Colorado’s highest peaks has really taught me a great deal about setting personal goals in aspects of my life away from climbing.