AdAmAn Club Has Great Weather!
Skies were clear for this year's AdAmAn climb and fireworks show. Unlike last year, where only a third of the Pikes Peak region could view the fireworks, this year they were seen far and wide. On Tuesday, December 31, 2013 the AdAmAn Club completed its annual trek up Pikes Peak to ring in the New Year with a fireworks show for the Pikes Peak region. Twenty four members and nine guests made this year's climb. New member Nick Baki, its 96th member, led the climbing party in a classic climb.
It had snowed on Sunday prior to the start of the climb, so the club was in snow the entire time. The snow was fairly light and shallow aside from the mile below timberline. Nick had to work hard leading through fresh drifts collected by the trees, often post holing up to his knees. Thankfully for Nick, conditions were much easier above timberline where the snow was windblown, hard packed and fairly easy to walk on. There were a few spots of steep, hard packed snow, where Nick had to work to kick steps in the snow to safely cross it. The winds were high early in the day, but abated as the club climbed higher. Thus the winds were not much of a factor in this year's climb. With the sun out, temperatures were quite comfortable running between 9 - 14 deg F with wind chills just below zero. The club was able to flash mirrors at Colorado Springs during our lunch break at timberline and enjoyed all those who took time out of their day to flash back at them.
Upon reaching the summit, the club turned its attention to preparing to ring in the New Year with their usual fireworks show. The afternoon and evening ran smoothly and followed the customary traditions of the club. Five fireworks were launched at 9:00 pm in honor of the original "Frozen Five" members of the club. By midnight the wind had picked up significantly and was throwing gravel. A small cloud had formed over the summit and it was snowing slightly. None of this kept the fireworks from being a success. The cloud was light and shallow, thus fireworks could be seen through and generally above the cloud. At the stroke of midnight the Club greeted the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display from the 14,115-foot summit. The local four wheel drive group gave the club a ride off the summit after the fireworks show.
Based on comments on the club's Facebook page, the fireworks show was well received and there have been some great photos of the fireworks posted on the web.