The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) and Leave No Trace, Inc. (LNT) in cooperation with the Rocky Mountain Region offices of the United States’ federal land management agencies have developed a Fourteener Leave No Trace Program. The following online handbook is the guiding document of the Fourteener Leave No Trace Program. It provides insight into the environmental issues facing Colorado’s Fourteeners and explains practices that will minimize damage to the alpine environment by hikers and climbers.
The handbook is broken into seven sections, each representing one of the principles of the Fourteener Leave No Trace Program. Within each section, the handbook discusses factors to consider when making judgments about how to minimize damage to alpine ecosystems and impacts .
Leaving No Trace depends more on attitude and awareness than on rules and regulations. Minimum impact recreational practices must be flexible and tempered by judgment and experience. Consider the variables of each Fourteener environment you visit – soil, vegetation, wildlife, moisture level, amount and type of use the area receives, and the overall effect of prior use – then use the information you learn from reading this handbook to determine which recommended practices apply.
Peaks in Peril
Colorado is blessed with fifty-four majestic and diverse peaks higher than 14,000 feet in elevation. From the rugged ridgelines of Mt. Sneffels to the dramatic rise of Pike’s Peak from the plains, the beauty of Colorado’s Fourteeners is unparalleled. Every year, an increasing number of hikers and climbers, now totaling more than 500,000 annually, attempt to ascend a Fourteener. As recreational use of these areas increases, so too does the cumulative impact of such use. Polluted waters, displaced wildlife, eroded soils, braided trails, and trampled vegetation are threatening the mountains we cherish. Colorado’s Fourteeners are being loved to death.
For example, on Humboldt Peak in the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado, hikers used to take a direct route out of South Colony Basin towards the summit. Through a sequence of trampling by hikers, vegetation loss, then erosion, what was once a pristine mountainside developed an eroded gully up to ten feet wide, four feet deep, and over 1500 feet long. In 1998 and 1999, the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative and the U.S. Forest Service reclaimed this gully and constructed a sustainable trail to replace it. This thirty-week project required the efforts of a full time professional staff, over 500 volunteers, and among other work, the movement of over 400 tons of rock to stabilize the gully. The total project value was over $250,000. Humboldt Peak is not an isolated example. Similar damage is occurring on Fourteeners and lower peaks throughout Colorado.
Clearly, the future health of these mountains lies in the hands of the people who love them. The choice is ours: Minimize the damage we cause through the skillful use of Leave No Trace practices, or face a future of costly restoration, the alternative to which is the continued unraveling of Colorado’s alpine tapestry.
Rare and Fragile Colorado
Colorado’s high-country is home to hundreds of uniquely adapted plant species. These rare plants, which include the endangered Rocky Mountain Columbine, Globe Gilia, and Penland Alpine Fen Mustard, have proven to be especially vulnerable to human disturbance. The characteristics of alpine flora – small size and woody structure – that make them hardy enough to survive in harsh mountain environments, also make them vulnerable to trampling by hikers. In fact, studies in the Rockies have shown that it takes only a moderate number of footfalls to severely damage most tundra plants.
Once killed, re-growth of alpine and sub-alpine plants is extremely slow. In most cases, these plants require hundreds of years for full recovery. Severe weather and deep snow result in a short growing season, which inhibits the regeneration of trampled vegetation. Further, erosion paths caused by human recreational practices divert critical nutrients away from surrounding plant communities.
Wildlife living in alpine environments is also vulnerable to human presence. Wildlife behaviors such as avoidance, attraction, and habituation can be witnessed on the flanks of any Fourteener. Visitors who feed, disturb, or otherwise affect the normal migratory and feeding patterns of wildlife often do not understand that their actions have a negative effect.
Given the increasing number of visitors, the fragility of alpine tundra species, and the vulnerability of wildlife, practicing Leave No Trace hiking and camping techniques in Colorado’s high country is critical to the long-term health of the Fourteeners. When traveling above timberline, hikers and climbers must take on an added responsibility to preserve this rare and fragile environment.
Fourteeners and Wilderness
Thirty-five of Colorado’s Fourteeners are located within designated Wilderness and represent some of the most pristine landscape remaining in our country.