Congrats to John and Renata Collard-CO Ranked 13er Finishers!

[johncollard]

Kevin, thank you for posting this. I met Mr. Bluebird in October 2003 in a school bus on the Terry Bison Ranch to tackle the Weld County highpoint one week before I led a CMC hike up Sniktau that Kevin joined where I met Renata for the first time. We were honored to join Kevin on both of his 13er completion hikes before and after the LIDAR disruption. We have been honored to join several other completion hikes, and look forward to Joseph, Ben, and perhaps others on this thread that will join the 13er completer ranks very soon!

Susan Joy Paul, we met at Doug Hatfield's wedding. I'm sure we will enjoy more relaxing hikes for a while. There's still a couple hundred 12ers we haven't visited. Renata doesn't care for the woodshed beat downs, I don't like to trespass, and we are not capable of trying the three hardest 12ers, so I'm content with the Ken Nolan grid slots and new repeats in Colorado, plus hiking with friends and helping them with their goals. Renata is Czech, and fluent in Spanish and French, so we travel internationally quite a bit, and have been to a dozen or more country highpoints...easier ones. We also like prominence peaks around the US and enjoy road trips, so we will stay happily occupied. Retirement is great!

Beau Jeanmard, I'm sorry for my poor spelling, but of course we remember the good ol' 14erworld days! I'm glad 14ers.com has become a much better forum. I don't post my life story much as a boring accountant, so I focus on listsofjohn.com checking the boxes, and personal interaction with the many mountaineering friends we've made. I'm infinitely proud of Renata for organizing an annual climber's gathering the last few years where we've met several folks on this thread.

ejfred, I listened to your interviews with the Cooneys, Laura Clarke, and a couple others. Keep up the good work! Blues and greens are much more my style, and I regret that we were down to all purples, which weren't conducive to many friends, let alone celebratory beverages, on our remaining 13ers.

Mike, thank you for posting the 13er finisher list! I'm curious if BoggyB is on that list? I'm proud to know at least half of those people, and would enjoy meeting the ones who are new to us. Your Cielo Vista climb is the most peaks I've ever done in a day, and although we couldn't remotely keep up with any of the rock stars, we thoroughly enjoyed meeting you, Derek, Al, Brian, and other nice people I don't remember. All it takes sometimes is one hike and your friends for life.

junkj, congratulations on Peak Eight! We would have made an effort to meet you if we knew that's what you were doing. A couple others we met were looking for goats to photograph.

nyker, I'm saving the best for last because I like your questions, and I'm going to tell you more than you probably want to know. My parents are originally from Colorado (Montrose and Gunnison), but I grew up in Chicago and New Jersey due to my dad's job. I had a fond childhood memory of the Colorado mountains visiting my grandfather's ranch below Fossil Ridge and Fairview Peak east of Gunnison. I moved out to Colorado 3 days after I graduated from high school in NJ and never looked back. I worked on a cattle ranch for four summers in Gunnison while I attended CU Boulder in the late '80s. I always loved the mountains for their beauty, but I never thought about climbing them. A friend invited me to climb Pettingell in October 1992. It was very difficult. I was unprepared, out of shape, wore blue jeans. Two years later I had a bright idea to climb Fairview Peak above the Quartz Creek valley where my grandpa had his ranch, and could see Taylor Park and all of God's Country. This was before the internet, so I bought every mountaineering book I could find at REI, and slowly learned all the possibilities. I was introduced to the Colorado Mountain Club in 1999, started going on hikes, took classes, became a hike leader, and I totally found myself, met friends, and thoroughly enjoyed exploring new places I never thought I would see. Throughout my career in Denver, I made sure my weekends were available for the mountains. The 14ers were the list, and everything else was gravy. I never thought about finishing the 13er list as it didn't seem possible. I truly admired the real pioneers in the mountains that I kept meeting through the CMC...Debby Reed, Jack Dais, Jennifer Roach, Dave and Chris Goldwater (completers 6,7,8,11,12) were all leading hikes for us greenhorns among many other great leaders who weren't necessarily so list-focused. Technology has really changed everything over the last 25 years. All the info you need is at your fingertips now. It makes climbing so efficient that people just fuel their bodies and go. My life's climbing schedule was like a bell curve. Slow growth, then steady growth knocking off all peaks within a reasonable drive from Denver, to taking week long vacations into the San Juans, then a slow decline as we got older, peaks became more difficult and remote, and then finally all the orphaned peaks we had to climb one at a time.

Peak Nine was definitely a worthy finisher. I was afraid it was going to be Bartlett as I didn't want to be arrested, but every time I hit a road block, Renata and friends came through to schedule something that I struggled with. Some of our friends are solid lead climbers who led us up the technical peaks, except Lizard Head we hired a professional guide. Our late great friend, Roger Linfield (completer #32), led us up Jagged in exchange for repeating Peak Six for his bicentennial completion. I know he's proud of us and smiling down from Heaven. Many great stories, and many great friends. Thank you all for reading! Be safe and climb on!

[jkirk]

Congrats John & Renata!! Excited for you both!

[Chicago Transplant]

Mike, thank you for posting the 13er finisher list! I'm curious if BoggyB is on that list? I'm proud to know at least half of those people, and would enjoy meeting the ones who are new to us. Your Cielo Vista climb is the most peaks I've ever done in a day, and although we couldn't remotely keep up with any of the rock stars, we thoroughly enjoyed meeting you, Derek, Al, Brian, and other nice people I don't remember. All it takes sometimes is one hike and your friends for life.

Thanks for the post on your journey! Boggy is #42 on the list! Glad to have introduced you and Renata the wonderful world of the long ridge run

[nyker]

John, thanks so much for that detailed response. What an incredible journey. I can only imagine the experience you had over the years. Pretty cool how a couple days after high school you moved out west and that was it.

[johncollard]

John Kirk, it was an honor to be on the hike where you met Alyson and on her pre-LIDAR 12er/13er completers. I sell your amazing website listsofjohn.com to every new climber I meet. I can't say enough how your website opens the door to every mountain in the USA, not just Colorado. Thank you for all of your work in making it possible for us!

Mike, thank you for letting me know, and for the long ridge run. It would be nice to meet Michael Davis and Vadim Beliaev someday. There's some impressive climbers on this thread!

nyker, you're welcome. I'm curious about your story, if you live in NY and visit Colorado regularly, or if you've moved out here? When I was growing up in NJ, relatively few people left the tri-state area except to a second home in Florida. The secret's been out though for a long time about how nice Colorado is if you don't miss the ocean. I enjoyed Mt. Marcy and went to Boy Scout camp in the Adirondacks. The trees are beautiful but the views are limited.

Thanks again everyone!