Tracing 100 years of Barr Trail history and the man who helped make Pikes Peak a destination gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Dean Abel, 39, from Woodland Park, pushes up the start of Barr Trail during the Barr Trail Mountain Race in Manitou Springs on Sunday, July 19, 2021. Abel finished in 6th place with a time of 1:45:51. Racers embarked on the 12.6-mile course, with an elevation gain of 3.630 feet, ascending to Pikes Peak’s Barr Camp at 10,200 feet, then descending to the finishing at the Barr Trailhead.(Chancey Bush/ The Gazette)
Chancey Bush/ The Gazette
Hikes on Manitou Incline to be interrupted for local races gazette.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gazette.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hiking Bob: Opening of Pikes Peak and Summit House; Hiking on Pikes Peak; Stay on the trails csindy.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from csindy.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The first thing you should know about the Manitou Incline is that you canât just walk up and start climbing it. In its outlaw days, before the former utility-railroad-turned-tourist-attraction was legal to climb, devotees could do that. They arrived by the thousands from near and far.
But those freewheeling times led to trouble: The old railroad ties were deteriorating, the soil was eroding and people were getting injured, even dying.
The base is at 6,500 feet and the summit is at 8,590 feet, a gain of more than 2,000 feet in less than a mile. That takes a tremendous toll on bodies â even ones accustomed to strenuous activity at high altitude â and it can take hours for El Paso County Search and Rescue to reach hikers in distress.