Centennial Finale on Stewart Peak!

Summit!
Summit!
Stewart Peak (13,983′)
Distance: 10 miles (round-trip)
Elevation Gain: 2,850 feet
Class 2
July 16, 2021

It’s taken almost eighteen years, but today I finally completed my dream of summitting the hundred highest mountains in the Rockies! The day was made special by the group of people I got to share it with: Dad, Brian, Matt, Braden and Carter. And it was made even better by the incredible variety of wildlife we saw throughout the course of the day.

First Look at Stewart Peak
First Look at Stewart Peak
Even before we made it to the trailhead, a Kamikaze antelope buck did his best to engineer a direct assault on the van I was driving. I participated in the game of chicken until the last second, when I slowed down to accommodate the bighorn. We didn’t have time to deal with roadkill and car insurance claims on this particular day.
Bull Elk
Bull Elk
We also saw other antelopes, several world-class bull elk, and even a quartet of cattle that crowded the road and tried to keep us from getting to the parking spot. Eventually we did make it to the Cebolla Trailhead, and began hiking before 7am, a half hour ahead of schedule.The trail switch-backed up through the forest to timberline, then we entered a vast sea of willows on a scale unlike any I’d ever seen. There was a trail, but it was often obscured by the bushes, and was not always easy to follow. Thankfully, there were enough large posts along the way to mark the path at intervals, and eventually we made it to our exit from the willows at 12,450 feet.
The Willows
The Willows
As we were walking through the willows, we could hear a pack of coyotes howling not too far away, and shortly after that we noticed a herd of deer above us, including some fawns—probably chased off by the coyotes.

From here, we had a steeper hike up to the 13,200-foot shoulder of Baldy Chato, but the grass and occasional rock was solid and pleasant to walk on. The undulating ridge from here went up and down for quite a while, and the scenery got better as we went.

Break Time below Baldy Chato
Break Time below Baldy Chato
And the wildlife sightings continued. Plentiful chirping pikas were busily darting between rock outcroppings as we walked.After rounding Baldy Chato, the ridge-walk above timberline went on for quite a while. I enjoyed the time at altitude, but unfortunately by the time we reached the last low saddle a couple miles later, we were back at our “starting” altitude of the ridge-walk: 13,200 feet.It was all uphill from here… and the weather decided to keep changing as we went. We would get rained, snowed and sleeted on, but thunderstorms stayed at bay long enough to allow us a weather window for the summit.From the upper saddle at 13,500 feet, we continued up the final summit pyramid, with Carter “The Mountain Goat” leading the way.Brian was taping, so I paused just shy of the summit, and donned a concerned expression: “Guys, I don’t know how to tell you this… I just now was able to zoom in on my GPS… and this is not the right mountain.”

I totally got him too—if only for a few seconds—before I couldn’t keep from smiling. “Just kidding.”

And then our attention was turned to a trio of giant bighorn sheep, who seemed intent on staying near the summit we were trying to claim.

Bighorn Landlords of Stewart Peak
Bighorn Landlords of Stewart Peak
Finally, at 11:50am, I stepped onto the summit of Stewart Peak alongside Dad, who is just three months shy of his 78th birthday! Side-note: his middle name is Stewart, after his uncle. Along with Carter, age 11, we may have had the youngest and oldest ever to have summitted Stewart Peak!This was a sweet moment, one we were happy to prolong for about an hour. We took pictures, videos, and goofed off in perfect “mountain nerd” style. I loved it.Mr. Bighorn, the biggest of the three (Carter named him Steven), did not want to leave us alone. This turned into some interesting standoffs, before we finally succumbed and relinquished the summit back to the worthy landlords. The animals just seemed to have the upper hand today.But it’s all good. We had our fun; time to hike back down.Besides, the skies were getting worse. The winds whipped up and we got rained and sleeted on some more before arriving back at our—now sopping wet—world of willows.
Exiting the Wilderness
Exiting the Wilderness
Several had had issues with the altitude today, but as we approached timberline again everyone was feeling good—and tired, of course. NOW it was time to celebrate!A lot of thanks are in order:

Thanks to God, for the ability to put one foot in front of another a couple million times—and keeping me safe in those close calls in the mountains.

Thanks to my wife Holly and my mom, Donna, for putting up with my bizarre definition of fun.

Thanks to my dad, Steve for always sticking with me to the end, and joining me on every mountain he could, including this finale.

Thanks to Brian, for joining me in my madness to some of the most difficult and fun climbs.

Thanks to Matthew, Braden and Carter for making this last day a fun one.

And thanks to the 32 people I hiked and climbed with throughout the hundred highest, along with the others I met on all the miles of trails along the way.

Here’s the full list of the 100 Highest.