Member Bio

Member #: 96
Member Year: 2014
Mark Copelin

Bio Summary
Community Activity Summary
Volunteer roles in his church, and actively teaching and speaking to groups occasionally. He was an assistant scoutmaster and Scoutmaster of the Manitou Troop 18 Boy Scout Troop. Leading young men in outdoor pursuits year round from backpacking, camping and winter snow caves and skiing trips.
Occupation Summary
Mark worked as a geologist out of college for a mining company in Utah. Working in the Henry Mountains looking for Uranium ore at the Tony M mine. Then he and his wife moved to Colorado Springs in 1983 and started prospecting for business working with his father in law in the Louden Office Equipment business. OfficeScapes was the company that evolved out of Louden's and Mark was a sales person for 38 years helping customers all over the Pikes Peak region.
AdAmAn Service

Hobbies
Mark's Hobbies are camping, fly fishing, telemark and cross country skiing. As well as hunting. He also has a passion for playing music with his family and friends and plays the Mandolin.
Climbing Experience Summary
Mark has climbed about 40 of the 14'ers in Colorado. Pikes Peak about 15 times mostly winter ascents. Started focusing on some lessor peaks with great interest lately like Bison Peak in Lost Creek. Few people, nice high country experiences.

Bio Detail
Community Activity Detail

Occupation Detail
Mark is involved in office furniture sales and helping outfit commercial offices and even designs and works with K-12 Schools in the front range of Colorado and eastern slope of the mountains. He works with all commercial space with design and project management building workstations, offices and seating. The key part of his job is relationship building and connecting with his customers.
Climbing Experience Detail

Memories
Memories From First Climb
My first trip with the Adamants started on December 29th at 8PM at night when John Graham a friend from scouting showed up at my front door. He said someone was sick and they had an opening for the climb. And did I want to climb the next two days with the club. I jumped at the opportunity to see what the club was like and get up on the peak with a winter ascent. It was a quick night of packing and grabbing gear and food for the trip. The trip was a great experience and the group was so cohesive and friendly. They looked out after everyone and the hike was full of conversation and good times. The peak was more extreme than I had envisioned as you get up on the face above treelike but with the proper gear and pace we all made it up. The firework show was terrific and I knew I was hooked into trying to come again as a guest.
Memories From First Member Year
My first year as a member was totally memorable as it was a brutally bad snow and extreme temperatures. My notes from the climb notate the extreme temperatures. December 30th, 2014. Day started out at 8 below zero on the trail as we started. New snow had fallen overnight and the hike to Barr Camp was breaking snow and temperatures all day below zero. We had small breaks and short lunch and kept moving to stay warm. Barr Camp was a warm welcome and the fire was burning and keeping the cabin warm in ice covered world of Pikes Peak. We ate and visited then off to sleep as the next day would be even tougher. The hike to A Frame was tough and the new snow was deeper with some areas up to knee deep. We shared the head of the group in order to share the load. As we got past A frame it was colder, windy, and had challenges. I personally was spent just getting to A Frame and really bombed out the last mile. it was a tough hike and really hard for me personally. After much food and getting warm, later that night I had the privilege to set off the fireworks bringing in 2015.
Memories of Family

Favorite Memories from Climbing Fourteeners
I really don't know a lot of the forebears. The men that were climbing when I started that were the old timers were Ryer Hitchcock, and Dr. Bob Stafford. And even Jeff Williams. These guys amazed me the strength they had even at their age. I was there near Jeff when he slipped in the golden stairs and almost fell off a rock drop. And saw Dr. Stafford climb into his 70's which was quite inspiring. These men loved the club and the traditions of the club. They would always be up and ready to climb no matter the weather and with gear that was older than some of the climbers. I can only imagine the grit and drive of the original members as they had such archaic gear and all the photos show much more snow than we have had in recent decades.
Memories from Favorite Mountain Climb

Memories of Favorite Gear
First boots. in the early climbs I hiked in leather boots and they were cold and in the snow hiking all day. So changing to winter type snow boots with insulation was a game changer. the other item that really is indispensable is a face mask and googles. These items protect the parts of skin that take such a beating in that wind and snow and cold up high. And last but not least, wool is key to staying warm and having layers of wool helps keep the body warm in the extremes of winter.
Memories of Worst Gear Failure
The closest example of failure to me was having water bottles that all totally froze up and did not allow me to hydrate as I climbed. it was one of the extreme cold years where the temperature was in the minus 20 range and winds blowing. All my water froze solid and i had nothing to hydrate with. Since that year, I invested in Hydroflask and started taking a small thermos as well with hot water from Barr Camp.