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Q: What was your first fourteener, and when did you climb it?
In August 1995, I did a solo backpack trip that ended up in Chicago Basin below Mt Windom, Sunlight, and Eolus.

I had done some rock climbing back in the 70's but after quiting that I had no interest in peak bagging. However camping next to a group that was planning to do Sunlight and Windom I asked to tag along. I came close to summiting Sunlight but storms caused a retreat to the valley between it and Windom. After a bit of a wait we went up Windom and I had just enough time to summit before another round of storms. I retreated in a whiteout. Very exciting!

Q: At what point did you commit to finishing them all?
I was pretty well hooked right away. I live in the Houston area and started spending two weeks each summer climbing with my wife Susan, and friends Debbie, Cliff, Bob, and John. Cliff unfortunately has passed due to cancer. I doubt there are too many out of staters that have completed the 54. A nice side benefit to doing them all is seeing a lot of Colorado.

Q: What is your favorite fourteener route?
I can't pin any one down but Crestone Needle, Crestone Peak, Longs, Capitol, Eolus, Kit Carson are real standouts. The Maroons and Pyramid were much more fun than the guide books made out.

Q: What was your most delightful moment on a 14er?
I can narrow that down to two, one private and one with my wife. Susan does not like the exposure and scrambling of the 3rd and 4th class routes, but did do some of the Class 1 and 2 peaks. She is a cancer survivor and did Grays fairly soon after completing chemo. I was very proud of her and it was a big moment for her. Oddly enough there was another cancer survivor on the summit with us. A stunning private moment was being on Handies with massive thunderstorms all around but not over me. I spent 45 minutes watching lightening strikes on Umcompahgre, Wetterhorn, Windom and many other peaks. 

Q: What was your most terrifying moment on a 14er?
I didn't really ever have a terrifying moment on any of them. I started really early and I have a pretty good idea of my climbing speed. I was willing to turn around if weather was brewing. Also since I could climb about 5.7 in my younger days I was generally confortable on 4th class terrain or the occasional low 5th class move. Eolus and Tabeguache really were annoying, since both of them took three trips to knock them off. Also I tried Capitol once and got altitude sick at the "K2" bump at 13,000 ft and turned back. I don't like backpacking that much anymore and going back was a pain.

Q: Do you have any plans for future mountain lists?
I've started on doing some of the Centinials, but haven't committed to that. I've developed a bit of a problem with my right foot and I'm not sure how much more hard hiking I can do. I spent 11 yrs on this so I'm not sure I'm up for that again!

Q: What 14er did you climb last? Did you intentionally save it for last or is it a 14er that previously eluded you?
I did Pikes last which was a combined effort with our friend Debbie, she thought we would both be doing that as our 54th together, but she was not able to get North Maroon done in time. Nice for me since Susan drove up to meet us and brought me a cold beer to celebrate. We ate at the restaurant and amazed the tourists that we had walked up. At first I did not really plan carefully enough the order I was doing them and wasted some valuable vacation time driving across the state to get one that I missed! The day we did Pikes was beautiful a fitting end to a long quest. There were clouds filling the valleys up to about 11,000 ft. and were above the clouds most of the day.

Q: What is the single most important piece of advice that you would give to someone just starting out?
I think this really depends on your climbing, hiking, camping background. Watching the weather may be the most important for summer climbing. Lightening kills, in fact I met a man on San Luis that had been struck on Longs in the shelter at the keyhole. Unless you are a trail runner, take windproofs and pile on every trip. I required more water than most and usually carried 3 liters.