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| Blue Lakes Basin from the summit of 14,150-foot Mt. Sneffels at sunrise |
Summits are
magical places. Reaching the summit of a high peak gives me the exhilarating, humbling and awe-inspiring
experience of being a tiny speck on top of the world. To me, mountaineering is almost a metaphor for the
human condition. It embodies in concrete form the way we reach for the sky, yet can only climb so high.
In the spring of 2006, I began working on a series of images I hoped would capture these complex emotions.
Most photographs I'd seen that were taken on summits were, to be frank, rather boring. How could
that be, I thought, when the emotional experience of reaching the summit is so enthralling? Then I thought
about when those photos were taken: at noon, in midsummer, when the sun is as high in the sky as it will be the entire year.
Most summit photos taken at that time of day show distant, hazy peaks almost lost in the white glare of the midday
sun. In an attempt to give my images an impact that matched my emotional experience, I decided to start
shooting sunrise from the summits of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks. I
started with 14,433-foot Mt. Elbert, the highest mountain in Colorado, in mid-May of 2006, and immediately realized that I
had set myself an enormous task. My initial estimate that I could do all 54 Fourteeners in two years if
I worked hard at it quickly ran into reality. Camping on the summit is a poor option. Even
if I could carry all the necessary food, water, camping and camera gear up 3,000 or 4,000 vertical feet to the summit, I would
then be camped atop the tallest lightning rod in the vicinity and would be likely to wake up with a killer case of acute mountain
sickness ‒ if I could sleep at all. Instead of camping on the summit, I began climbing the peaks
in the dark, with only the wind and stars for company. To summit a Fourteener before sunrise, starting
from the road or a high camp, usually requires getting up at 1 am. With my 50th birthday looming
less than a year away, I found it difficult to recover from a night of lost sleep, followed by a strenuous climb, while camped
at altitude. Climbing one peak a day for several days in a row exacted a heavy toll.
But taking a rest day between climbs seemed like a waste of time, with summers so short, the list of peaks so long
and the pile of work back in the office so pressing. Faced with these challenges, I have done sunrise Fourteener
shoots in spurts, as time, energy, injuries and two back-to-back spinal surgeries have allowed.
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| Five Fourteeners from 14,265-foot Castle Peak at sunrise |
At the time of this writing, in September, 2010, I have done 30 shoots on 17 peaks. For a complete
list, see below. Not all shoots produced good images. During my first attempt on Quandary
Peak in mid-May of 2008, I had the misfortune of choosing a night that was so warm the snowpack never froze solidly.
It had been a snowy spring, and the snowpack still extended right down to the parking lot. I wasted
so much time breaking trail on snowshoes in bottomless depth hoar that I was still 200 feet below the summit at sunrise.
To add to my frustration, the sun rose into a massive cloud bank that killed any chance of interesting light.
My first attempt on Quandary was the only shoot where I didn't summit before daybreak. You can read
about my rematch with Quandary Peak in January, 2010, by clicking here. The photos I've chosen to show here are the closest I've come so far to capturing the joy, excitement
and wonder of climbing a Fourteener.
Although I hope to complete all 54 peaks someday, the goal was never to simply tick them off. Rather, the goal
is to come back with outstanding images, and that means carefully considering composition, sunrise and sunset angles, best
time of year, etc. Regardless of how many peaks I eventually do, I cherish each opportunity I can create to climb
another Fourteener in the dark and shoot sunrise from the summit. At 53, with a history of serious spinal problems,
I am acutely aware that I will not be able to do these shoots forever. I've arranged the thumbnails below
in the order in which I did the shoots. To read a chronological account of this project, please start by
clicking the image in the top left corner of the thumbnail array and proceed left to right in rows as if reading a book.
Clicking a thumbnail will open a new page with more information about the image as well as a larger version.
You can also proceed chronologically through these stories by clicking on the link at the bottom of each full-length
image description. To purchase a print of
any of these images, please visit my product catalog. To go directly to the product page for any of these images, please click on the thumbnail below, then select
a link from the choices at the bottom of the page that opens.
I will donate 5 percent of the retail price of any Sunrise from the Summit print purchased through
this website to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, the non-profit dedicated to building and maintaining sustainable trails on Colorado's highest peaks.
All images on this site are copyrighted by Glenn Randall. None may be used in any way, whether online
or in print, without specific written permission from Glenn Randall.
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| Sunrise from Sunlight Peak |
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| Twilight Wedge from Sunlight Peak |
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| Sunrise from Mt. Sneffels |
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| Sunrise from Wetterhorn Peak |
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| Dawn Light from Uncompahgre Peak |
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| Sunrise from Handies Peak |
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| Sunrise from Redcloud Peak |
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| Sunrise from Humboldt Peak |
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| Moonrise over the Mosquito Range from Mt. Elbert |
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| Uncompahgre Peak Panorama |
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Preserving the Peaks Please
support the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative I am hardly alone in my love of climbing Colorado's
Fourteeners. On any summer weekend, the popular peaks are packed. Each year about half a million people attempt
a Fourteener. More than 400 people per day, on summer weekends, climb the easiest routes on the most accessible
peaks. That sheer volume of use is causing heavy wear and tear on the peaks themselves. A 14,000-foot mountain
may seem indestructible, but it is not. Thousands of trampling feet can kill the tundra, which takes years to grow back.
Scree slopes are actually quite susceptible to erosion inadvertently started by climbers ascending and descending the same
lines over and over again. In response to the increasing damage, a group of environmental and mountaineering organizations,
in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, founded the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative in 1994. CFI is dedicated to
building and maintaining sustainable routes on the highest peaks. This is an organization I actively support.
I urge you to do the same. Of the 500,000 people who climb a Fourteener every year, only about 650 are currently
members of CFI. If even 10 percent of the non-members were to join, it would make the high alpine world we all love
a much better place. Please join the effort. If not you, then who? For more information, and to become a
member, go to CFI's website by clicking here.
I will donate 5 percent of the retail price of any Sunrise from the Summit print purchased
through this website to CFI.
Fourteeners from which I've shot sunrise from the summit, in alphabetical order. Castle Peak
Grays Peak Handies Peak
Humboldt Peak
Longs Peak
Mt. Democrat
Mt. Elbert
Mt. Eolus Mt. Lincoln
Mt. Sneffels
North Eolus
Quandary Peak
Redcloud Peak
Sunlight Peak
Uncompahgre Peak
Wetterhorn
Peak
Windom Peak
Didn't find what you were looking for? Want to see a bigger selection? To see my complete
collection of 257 Fourteener images, both those shot from the summit and portraits of the peaks shot from the valley
below, please visit my Fourteener collection on AGPix.com by clicking here.
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"All of my landscape photographs are authentic records of memorable visual experiences.
They are not enhanced either digitally or in the darkroom. What you see in my prints is what I saw through the
lens."
Glenn Randall
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