Watch midnight fireworks fired from the summit of a fourteener
Climbed up every year since 1922
A fireworks display fired at midnight on 31 December from the top of a fourteen-thousand-foot mountain, by a club that walks up to light it.
Why it's unique
Every New Year's Eve since 1922, members of the AdAmAn Club have climbed Barr Trail over two days, in winter, to set off a fireworks display from the 14,115ft summit of Pikes Peak at midnight. The display is visible from across the city below, and the tradition has not been broken in more than a century.
The original five went up in 1922 in hobnail boots, sheepskin coats and silk stockings worn as face masks, and burned railroad ties for a bonfire at the top. The club still adds roughly one member a year, by invitation, sometimes a third-generation climber. The fireworks themselves travel up on the last cog railway train of the season and wait in the summit house for weeks.
Before you go
You cannot join and you do not need to climb. This is something you watch from the city, and almost anywhere with a clear western view works, so the practical question is warmth rather than position.
It is a Colorado winter night at altitude and you will be standing still outdoors near midnight. Dress far more heavily than you would for a city New Year. If you want the history first, the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum downtown holds the club's records and is free.