Pikes Peak 14,114'
February 8, 2026
When you think of scaling a Colorado 14er in the dead of winter, you usually imagine snowshoes, avalanche beacons, and battling sub-zero whiteouts, but nature throws curveballs. This weekend, a historic low-snow year met an impossibly beautiful, bluebird winter day. We grabbed our sneakers and microspikes and headed towards the Crags Trailhead.
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| Leaving the trailhead in our sneakers |
We parked at the winter road closure about a mile below the Crags campground and started walking just before 8am. The first few miles through the forest were peaceful, mostly dry trail with patches of snow and ice. The cold air was sharp, but with no wind, we were easily able to stay warm with just our light jackets.
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| Stopping for a snack on the hike up |
Devils playground was pretty wind swept and even after crossing the road, we had no trouble following the well-defined trail.
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| Mostly dry trail through the Devils Playground area |
As we approached the final climb up the steep boulder field, we saw a large herd of big horn sheep. We were recently chatting with one of the Regional Managers of Colorado Parks and Wildlife who told us this endemic herd is facing a severe decline in population. The Pikes Peak herd has dropped to fewer than 100 animals remaining due to a respiratory pneumonia outbreak that kills the young.
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| Big horn sheep just below the summit |
The final push up the boulder field is where winter reminds you it’s still winter. While the low snow meant we didn't have to worry about avalanche risks, we still had to deal with the "trapdoor" boulder field. Most of the larger rocks were exposed, but snow filled in between making it impossible to know where to step. Foot placement became a strategic game and we were happy to have our hiking poles as we tried to hop between the rocks to avoid post holing into the drifts of uncertain depth.
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| Snow drifts on the summit |
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| Approaching the summit house with the cog on the left |
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| Laura and Justin in front of the cog railroad on the summit of Pikes Peak |
At the summit we shed our outer shells, pulled off our wet socks and bypassed the tourists who had taken the cog up, and headed straight to the cafe. We got some of the fresh, world-famous donuts and steaming hot chocolate. Apparently, these aren't ordinary donuts; they are made using a secret 100+ year old, high-altitude recipe designed specifically to rise in thin air. Supposedly, these donuts will actually collapse and lose their fluff if try to take them down the mountain. I'm not sure if all of this hype is true, but we enjoyed the donuts and were not planning on hiking any down anyway.
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| Pikes Peak Bigfoot |
After relaxing and warming up, we wandered around the relatively new summit house. Despite having been here several times previously, we always enjoy the exhibits and the comparisons to other world mountains we have climbed.
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| Justin comparing Pikes Peak to Denali |
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| Justin wandering through the new summit house on Pikes Peak |
After about an hour, we moseyed down the mountain returning to our car at about quarter to four. In total we hiked around 16.5 miles, with ~5,100 feet of gain in about 8 hours, including our one-hour layover at the summit house. As far as winter 14ers go, this was definitely one of the more enjoyable ones.
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| They still display the summit sign from the previous summit house |
