2025 Field Season Overview
Mt. Democrat
In 2023, CFI helped the Conservation Fund purchase about 300 acres of mining claims that provided access to Mt. Democrat and nearby Mt. Cameron, part of the popular Decalibron Loop near Alma. The area had frequently toggled between being open to the public and closed due to landowner liability concerns. That lack of clear access meant that funders did not want to invest in trail reconstruction and maintenance efforts. Bringing those lands into public ownership provided a major catalyst for Great Outdoors Colorado and the National Forest Foundation to make major investments in the area. In 2025, CFI will focus on redoing the trail, while other organizations will tackle needed improvements at the trailhead (parking, camping, toilet facilities, etc.) Data collected in CFI’s Sustainable Trails Program inventory has documented the need for trail structures to be installed adjacent to sensitive plant species—eight of which found in the Kite Lake Basin are particularly imperiled and vulnerable—so hikers don’t wander onto tundra in crucial locations. CFI’s four-person crew, along with Rocky Mountain Youth Core workers, will install 110 timber and rock check steps, 1,200 square feet of wall, and 140 linear feet of drainage over this two-year-long project. This work will directly address the 1,986 cubic feet of erosion and 995 linear feet of braiding in the area.
Thank you to the following groups for funding this project:
Mt. Bierstadt & Mt. Blue Sky
In 2025, CFI will dedicate one crew that will split its time between Bierstadt and Blue Sky. One of Colorado’s most popular fourteeners, Bierstadt has not received significant work or improvements to its trail since CFI crews worked there in 2014-2015. Since then, the condition of the boardwalk that traverses a wetland area has deteriorated significantly. In 2025, CFI plans to repair and replace 300 linear feet of boardwalk along with the installation of an additional 45 linear feet of elevated causeway to keep hiking traffic on dry portions of trail, especially during peak snow melt season (when the majority of damage has historically occurred). As with the original installation and construction of the boardwalk, CFI will be using non-native materials and receiving proper clearances for working in a designated wilderness area.
Since the historic rain events and mudslides that occurred on Mt. Blue Sky, just above Chicago Lakes, in 2013, CFI has been working to re-establish a stable trail through the debris to keep hikers off the adjacent fragile terrain. The very steep and loose nature of the soil and rock that buried the trail in the slide makes this a very difficult area in which to work. To quarry additional material to build the necessary staircases and walls, CFI’s crew will use griphoists to safely bring rocks to the worksite. CFI plans to install 34 cribbed stone steps as well as 250 square feet of tundra support wall along with proper delineation of the newly established corridor and restoration of adjacent, trampled tundra. The crews will work eight days on with six days off to maximize the relatively brief window that CFI has to perform the work on this fourteener.
Thank you to the following groups for funding this project:
US Forest Service – Great American Outdoors Act
Mt. Shavano
CFI’s Sustainable Trails inventory in 2012 gave the Shavano summit trail an “F” grade and noted significant problems regarding overly steep grades, proximity to a creek that floods annually in early season, extensive erosion, and a proliferation of trail braids on the ill-defined approach to the summit. The trail has deteriorated in the years since due to erosion from spring snowmelt and summer thunderstorms, the boots of roughly 7,000-10,000 annual hikers, and substantial blowdown of beetle-killed timber. Today Shavano has the worst-rated 14er summit route in the state.
Work improving this designated trail could not occur previously despite its high priority because it crossed three private mining claims, including one parcel that contains the mountain’s summit. The USFS spent many years unsuccessfully trying to obtain these parcels through land exchanges before CFI stepped up in 2016 to raise $50,000 from private sources and purchase the parcels. In 2022, CFI kicked off the first season of new trail construction on this high priority peak. This project will reconstruct two bypass sections of trail totaling three miles (one on the upper mountain, one on the lower mountain), perform 1.5 miles of heavy reconstruction in three sections of the existing route (near the Colorado Trail, between the two reroutes, and on the ridge traverse from the summit to Tabeguache Peak), and will close/stabilize/restore 2.5 miles of the current route that will be bypassed. CFI predicts this project will be its longest, most expensive, and most technically challenging trail construction project to date.
In 2023, CFI opened the first lower trail bypass to the public. In 2024, CFI began Phase II of this six-year project. Seasonal staffers completed the second lower bypass and continued to push the upper reroute closer to the summit. This year, one crew will focus on full-bench construction below treeline to complete the final leg of the lower reroute and then move to trail restoration work higher up on the mountain. A second crew will build new trail in the alpine, at an elevation of roughly 14,000 feet, with some full-bench construction and the completion of a variety of stone structures.
Thank you to the following groups for funding this project:
Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation
Nomad Crew
Fourteener enthusiasts, local businesses, youth summer camps, and college programs perform routine trail maintenance through CFI’s Nomad program to protect trail structures, control erosion, and restore denuded areas. About 24,000 volunteer days have been performed since 2001. Historically, about one-third of Nomad volunteers have been youths or young adults.
In 2024, CFI’s eight-person Nomad crew hosted 47 volunteer projects on 12 peaks across the state. These projects engaged 526 unique individuals who contributed 1,058 volunteer days. This year, CFI plans to host more than 40 volunteer projects with local businesses, youth camps, partner organizations, and individual from around the nation. The Nomad crew hopes to complete more than 1,000 days of volunteer trail stewardship in 2025.
Want to help CFI reach our goal and give back to the fourteeners? Head to our project registration page to sign up for a project.
Thank you to the following groups for funding this program:
Kimberly Appelson Internship Endowment
Nicholas Feinstein Memorial Internship Endowment
City of Aspen
Pitkin County
Town of Breckenridge
