12x14: How the Fourteeners Explain Colorado

What a torrid, unflinching attraction we hikers and climbers have to Colorado's high peaks. Our tallest mountains have more paramours than ever before. Windom is so winsome. Democrat is all that. We swoon for the Maroons and we crush on Tabeguache. They live in our dreams and sometimes our nightmares, hulking humbly as water and wind pry at them and we ply their slopes with bright intention. We speak of them like family members, their photos on our walls, their personalities distinct, their reputations well known. We even give them nicknames, "uncle froggy" for Uncompahgre Peak and "mount sniffles" for, well, you can guess which one that is.

But some members of our family are serial killers. Join local climber Christopher Brown as he explores the heights and histories of twelve of his favorite fourteeners. From the flowered slopes of Handies Peak to the Diamond on Longs Peak, Christopher knows the way.