Call Is Out For Volunteers To Maintain Quandary Peak

BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. (CBS4) - Coloradans love their open spaces, and now they have an opportunity to keep them beautiful.

Quandary Peak is 14,200 feet high and located south of Breckenridge. It's one of the more popular Fourteeners for people to climb. Now the call is going out for volunteers to maintain the mountain.

"It's actually not that steep, it's a fairly gradual slope," Lloyd Athearn said.

Athearn's life is consumed with Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. He's the executive director of the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, a group that relies on nearly 1,000 volunteer days each summer.

"We helped build this trail, we do ongoing maintenance, hiker education, vegetation restoration and try and keep the peaks in good shape," Athearn said.

In the short 3 1/2 month summer the Fourteeners Initiative completes nearly 50 projects, and this September they're looking for help on one of the state's busiest trails.

"We're looking to get about 70 volunteers to come help us for a day of trail maintenance here on Quandary Peak," Athearn said. "While the trail was built a decade ago, it is in need of constant maintenance. There is rare and fragile alpine tundra vegetation on the mountains, which makes it so spectacular to see while you're hiking.

"It doesn't require any particular skill or expertise beyond the desire to give back and have a great day in the mountains."

Quandary Peak sees about 20,000 hikers a year, and with that kind of traffic the Fourteeners Initiative is constantly out working to keep hikers on the trail and the rest of the vegetation safe and thriving.

Additional Resources

Sign up to help at Quandary Peak as part of the Xcel Energy Day of Service. That takes place on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 9 a.m. to noon.

CBS4 has partnered with Xcel Energy to provide nine different wildland restoration projects on the Day of Service.

LINK: Xcel Energy Day Of Service | Colorado Fourteeners Initiative