The Colorado Mountain Companion

M. John Fayhee is the editor of the Mountain Gazette. A one-time contributing editor at Backpacker magazine, Fayhee's work has also appeared in Forbes-Life Mountain-Time, High Country News, Aspen Sojourner Magazine, Outside, Sierra, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Men's Fitness, New Mexico Magazine, America West Airlines Magazine, Horizon Air and many other local, regional and national magazines and newspapers. He is the author of many books, including Along the Colorado Trail, A Colorado Winter and Bottoms Up. Fayhee has also hiked the Colorado Trail and the Colorado section of the Continental Divide Trail.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

7 The “Icebox of the Nation” Designation Not So Simple

13 Why Are Gunnison and Alamosa So Cold?

13 Windchill and the Weather Miserability Index

17 How Are Sunny Days Measured?

18 Non-Possessive Place Names

19 A Sense of Scale

20 Just Exactly How Big Is Colorado?

24 Colorado Mountain Lexicon

32 How Colorado’s Mountain Towns Got Their Names

42 Highest Towns a Matter of Perspective

47 Establishing Colorado’s Lowest Point

48 States Whose Highest Points Are Lower Than

     Colorado’s Lowest Point

49 How Does Colorado Compare?

51 Mountain License Plates

53 Mountain Area Codes

56 Avalanches in Colorado

60 Impotence Drugs Reach New Peaks

61 Colorado Lakes and Reservoirs

66 Lakes and Ice

67 Safe Ice Thickness and Cold-Water Hypothermia

70 Lightning: The Fearsome Flash from Above

73 Monsoon Season

75 Cloud Seeding

80 Just How Much Water Is That?

83 Global Relations

84 “America the Beautiful”: Colorado’s Most Famous Musical Summit

87 Bates Not the Only Famous Person to Summit Pikes Peak

88 Rocky Mountain High

90 “Where the Columbines Grow”—The State Song That No One Knows

91 Colorado Songs

97 Colorado As a Movie Set

105 The Great Demonymic Debate: Coloradans or Coloradoans?

109 Colorado Olympic Athletes

123 Colorado: King of the Ski Industry

126 Colorado’s Early Ski History: Highlights

137 Mountainspeak: Skiing Lexicon

145 The Naming of Colorado’s Ski Runs

148 Colorado’s “Lost” Ski Areas

153 The Colorado Ski Safety Act

155 Words for Snow—Eskimo and Colorado

159 “Texas” Ski Areas

160 Mountainspeak: Cross-Country Skiing Lexicon

163 Mountainspeak: Snowboarding Lexicon

165 Most Common Mountain Recreational Injuries

166 High Country Emergency Room Admission Statistics

167 Colorado Mountain Pathogens

169 Native Americans in Colorado

175 Colorado Geology: The Laramide Orogeny

176 Colorado Geology: The Rio Grande Rift Valley

178 Colorado Geology: The Aspen Anomaly

179 Colorado Geology: Colorado’s Highest-Ever Mountains

180 The Naming of Geographic Features

186 Gorges Versus Canyons

189 The Fourteeners

192 Colorado Fourteener Records

195 Peak Prominence and Isolation

198 The Most Dangerous Fourteeners

203 Mountainspeak: Climbing Lexicon

207 The 3,000-Foot “Rule”

209 Colorado’s Steepest Points

210 The Peaks of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

211 Headwaters Hill and Colorado’s Closed Basins

214 The Naming of Challenger Point

216 Some Noteworthy Colorado Uphills

216 Colorado’s Long Hiking Trails and the National Scenic Trails

219 Mountainspeak: Hiking and Backpacking Lexicon

227 Mountainspeak: Mountain Biking Lexicon

228 Public and/or Protected Land in Colorado

230 Colorado’s Wilderness

238 Colorado: Birthplace of Major Rivers

242 Mountainspeak: Fishing Lexicon

244 Colorado’s Endangered Rivers

247 Wild and Scenic Rivers

252 Colorado’s Highest Roads

253 Mountainspeak: Road Biking Lexicon

257 Colorado Wildfires

261 Other Large Wildfires in Western North America

263 All Firewood Is Not Created Equal

265 Endangered and Threatened Species in the Colorado Mountains

273 Colorado Mountain Birds

277 Fatal Bear and Mountain Lion Attacks in Colorado

278 High Country Snakes

280 The Colorado State Flower: What Exactly Is It?

281 The Colorado State Quarter

284 Superfund Sites

290 Strange Colorado Festivals

301 Aspen: The Brand-Name King

302 Smoking Bans: It All Started in Colorado’s Mountain Country

303 Colorado’s Mountain Historic Districts

310 Legalized Gambling in Colorado

312 Mountain Counties Most Often Vote Blue

318 Changing Your Name

322 Home Away from Home (Extradition)

325 Listing Colorado

331 Index

341 About the Author