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Wednesday
September 08, 2010
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| 7/28/2010 10:00:00 AM |  |  | | 1970s Hallock High School classmates Ray Hunt, Hallock, Bill McMillan, Divide, Colo., and Bill Sugden, Hallock, hiked over six miles up Pike’s Peak July 12 in Colorado. “We have our 40th class reunion July 29 in Hallock and did it in honor of them,” Sugden said. - Photo submitted |
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1970 classmates scale Pike's Peak as a tribute
By Louise Money, Staff Writer
On July 12, 2010, Hallock High School classmates Ray Hunt, Bob McMillan and Bill Sugden scaled Pikes Peak in Colorado in honor of their 1970 classmates and upcoming 40 year reunion July 29 and 30.
The group was inspired to climb this mountain as McMillan lives nearby and has conquered it four times before. "I was out there visiting Bob in Divide, Colo. My wife Lori and I took a train ride up to the top. I thought, wouldn't it be neat to climb this? So Bob and I began talking about it," Sugden recalls.
He then talked to fellow classmate Ray Hunt and they decided in February that they would make the trek this month. Sugden said he started walking on his treadmill about that time to try and get conditioned for the almost seven mile climb that would cover more than 4,000 feet.
Visible for hundreds of miles, Pikes Peak forms a stunning backdrop for Colorado Springs, Woodland Park, Fort Carson, Garden of the Gods, Cripple Creek and many other regional cities and attractions. More than a half million people reach the summit every year.
With an altitude of 14,115 feet above sea level, Pikes Peak ranks 31st among Colorado's 54 'fourteeners' (mountains with peaks 14,000 feet or more above sea level.) It is also the farthest east of the big peaks in the Rocky Mountain chain.
Pike's Peak's summit is at 14,115 feet, with the Devil's Playground trail head at 10,000 feet. Sugden said they started at 5:40 a.m. "We calculated that we could do a little less than a mile an hour and there is a daily thunderstorm at that elevation about 2 p.m. We wanted to avoid that. It was 37 degrees with a wind chill of 27 when we left Devil's Playground."
They hiked the trail, which is marked but still steep and rocky, making the six and five-eighths mile climb in six hours, 21 minutes. We got there at 12:01 p.m. The temp was 36 degrees at the top. We made better time than I had estimated, which was great," Sugden said.
He added that there were other hikers on the path, some experienced and some not. He said that they helped each other along the way, as well as encouraging others. Bill's wife, Diane, met them at the top to drive them back down.
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