Saturday, September 19, 2026

The Ascent starts in Manitou and finishes where the air runs out

1956 · Manitou Springs to the summit of Pikes Peak

On this Saturday in 2026 the Pikes Peak Ascent starts at 7 a.m. at Manitou City Hall and climbs 13.3 miles and about 7,800 vertical feet to 14,115 feet. The parent race began in 1956 as a Florida doctor's dare to smokers. In 1959 a Colorado Springs gym owner finished it and quietly became the first woman to complete a sanctioned marathon in the United States.

Zebulon Pike looked at the mountain in 1806, turned around in waist-deep snow, and left the impression that nobody would ever stand on top. The punch line is that people now line up for the privilege of doing it on a clock.

The modern race starts with a 1956 letter. Dr. Arne Suominen of Delray Beach, a former Finnish marathon champion and a militant anti-smoker, wrote the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and offered to race cigarette smokers up Barr Trail and back down. Eleven nonsmokers and three smokers answered. Monte Wolford, a former Mr. America contestant, won the full out-and-back in 5:39. The Chamber had wanted a 150th-anniversary stunt for Pike's expedition. It got a race that is still here.

Women were never banned. In 1959 Arlene Pieper, who owned a Colorado Springs health studio with her husband, ran the whole marathon in dime-store tennis shoes, a knotted white blouse, and 9 hours 16 minutes. She drank from a stream. Two days later every toenail left. Kathrine Switzer would make the Boston start line famous eight years later. Pieper had already finished America's Mountain and gone home to work.

By 1981 the one-way climb had so many entries it became its own Saturday race, the Ascent, with the Marathon left on Sunday. That split invented the double: run up on Saturday, run up and down on Sunday, then spend Monday wondering who you used to be. Matt Carpenter of Manitou later treated both courses like a private driveway — eighteen wins, a 2:01:06 ascent split in 1993, a 3:16:39 marathon the same day. Rémi Bonnet finally took the ascent record down to 2:00:20 in 2023 and still missed a bonus for breaking two hours.

Today's field is the usual mix of locals who train on Barr Trail in January and visitors who discover at Barr Camp that 10,200 feet is not a vibe. The finish is the summit house. The prize is a medal and a view that Pike only got as a rumor.

Sources: Colorado Encyclopedia — Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon · Pikes Peak Marathon — official history · Wikipedia — Pikes Peak Marathon · Colorado Sun — Arlene Pieper, 1959

Colorado Springs keeps the country's fire-fighter wall in the shadow of the Peak

1986 · Memorial Park, Colorado Springs

The International Association of Fire Fighters put its national Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial in Colorado Springs in 1986. The ceremony still lands on the third Saturday of September. In 2026 that Saturday is today: the 40th anniversary weekend, 288 new names on the granite, Pikes Peak in the background.

Colorado Springs Local 5 asked. The IAFF said yes. In 1986 the union planted its memorial in Memorial Park, a few miles east of the mountain the Ascent is climbing this morning. The bronze centerpiece, Somewhere, Everyday, is a firefighter coming down a ladder with an infant. The first granite Wall of Honor went up in 1989 with names from 1976 forward. A second wall was dedicated at the 2001 ceremony, days after 343 New York firefighters were killed on September 11.

The date is not a coincidence of the calendar so much as a habit. Every year since 1986, with the pandemic years excepted, the third Saturday in September belongs to families, honor guards, and a pipes-and-drums corps that takes Tejon Street the night before. Local 5 still meets planes at the airport. Tracing paper is still handed out so relatives can rub a name off the wall and take it home.

This year's list is 288 names of IAFF members who died in 2025 or whose occupational deaths were recognized late. One of them is Colorado Springs Capt. Patrick Rogacki, who died Aug. 1, 2025, of toxic exposure after working the 9/11 recovery. The park was rebuilt in 2014–15 with money the membership raised. The mountain does not move. The wall gets longer.

If you are in the Springs today for the race, the airshow, or the aspens, Memorial Park is on Pikes Peak Avenue. The memorial is lit at night. That is the other half of this Saturday.

Sources: IAFF — Fallen Fire Fighter Memorial · The Gazette — 2026 ceremony preview · The Gazette — memorial history

The same date owns a 96-degree high and a 20-degree low

1971 · Denver

Sept. 19 is one of Denver's split-personality dates. The official record high is 96 degrees in 2010. The official record low is 20 degrees in 1971, the morning after the city's heaviest first snow. In 1876, six weeks into statehood, the Denver Times said the Front Range woke up white.

Yesterday's brief left the Forrester troupe in the rain at Guard Hall and the hills due to frost overnight. The Denver Times confirmed it: on Sept. 19, 1876, the Front Range was white with snow. The first state elections were two weeks off. Campaign speeches moved indoors. Colorado has been pretending September is trustworthy ever since.

1971 did not pretend. The storm of the 16th and 17th dumped 15.6 inches at Stapleton, 12 of them on the 17th. Official September 1971 snow finished at 17.2 inches, still the month record. The 19th was the leftover cold. The National Weather Service date record for Denver is a minimum of 20 degrees that morning. Colorado Springs bottomed at 25. Leaves were still on the trees. That is how a first snow becomes a municipal event.

Then the other column. On Sept. 19, 2010, Denver hit 96 degrees, the hottest the date has been in the official book. 1980 reached 93. 2022 reached 92. 1955, quietly, put 0.2 inches of snow on the same calendar square, one of the ten earliest measurable snows in the city record.

If you are watching the Ascent from Memorial Park this morning, the mountain will decide which version of Sept. 19 you get. Pack a jacket anyway. Colorado already filed the paperwork for both.

Sources: NWS Denver climate normals for Sept. 19 · Extreme Weather Watch — Denver Sept. 19 records · Colorado Newsline — 1876 snow on the Front Range · Westword — earliest Denver snowfalls