Active Action Sports: Skiing into the record books

http://active.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/mountain_1.jpgBy most measurements, there are 54 mountains in Colorado surpassing 14,000 feet in elevation. Chris Davenport, a two-time extreme-skiing world champion, recently completed his goal of climbing up and skiing off the top of each of them.

After a few emotional moments on the 14,255-foot summit, he and his friends clicked into their skis and made a dash down the mountain and into mountaineering?s record books. The only other man to have skied from the summit of all 54 peaks was Lou Dawson, who took 13 years to accomplish the feat.

?Conditions are extremely variable in Colorado,? said Neal Beidleman, a climber who in 1996 was part of the ill-fated expedition of Mount Everest that was the subject of Jon Krakauer?s book ?*Into Thin Air*.? ?To try to find good conditions in all those ranges on all those peaks is very challenging. This was an endurance event.?

Despite the deadline pressure, fatigue and danger involved with his quest, Davenport said the summits often remained a place for reflection.

That is why Davenport will set out in April to try to climb and ski all 15 peaks in California that are at least 14,000 feet, and Mount Rainier in Washington State. If successful, he will become the only person to have skied off the summit of every 14er in the continental United States.

Thanks in large part to Davenport, there are signs that skiing the 14ers will become a more popular activity.

(Photo provided by Getty Images/taken by Mike Powell)