Maroon Bells in Winter Scenic Landscape

A photo of the Maroon Bells during the winter. Image: Adventure_Photo (iStock).

Chris Fisher, of Breckenridge, has set a new record on Colorado's fourteeners, reaching every summit in just 72 days, 12 hours, and 10 minutes. This beat the previous record of 84 days, 13 hours, and 57 minutes, which was set by Andrew Hamilton in 2018. Hamilton is the only other person to summit all of Colorado's fourteeners in a single calendar winter season.

Fisher's record-breaking effort has since been posted on the Fastest Known Time website, with a completion date of March 18. Fisher started his effort with Pikes Peak and finished with Pyramid Peak, one of the most dangerous mountains to summit in the state.

A social media post from Fisher following his completion of the feat provided a number of statistics related to the effort. According to Fisher, he covered a total of 611 miles with 253,000 feet of elevation gain. Travel included snowshoeing, hiking in ski boots, skinning, downhill skiing, and even rappelling.

During Fisher's mission, he was joined at times by a number of notable people in Colorado's fourteener climbing community, including Erin Ton and Andrew Hamilton. Ton climbed many of the peaks with Fisher, but was forced to take a break due to a frostbitten thumb.

An article from Summit Daily indicates that Fisher climbed 59 peaks to set the record. Though a list of the included peaks was not provided by Summit Daily, winter climbers often add North Massive to the most common list of 58 fourteener peaks.

Winter fourteener climbing comes with even more risk than summer fourteener climbing, as ridge lines get covered in snow and ice and avalanche risk is often present. Winter climbing also often means a much longer approach due to roads being snow covered or closed.

Find additional detail and images from this impressive feat on Fisher's Instagram page.

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