Mountaineers To Host Talk On ‘Climbing The Centennial Peaks In Colorado’ By Toni Taylor Tuesday Sept. 24

View climbing Trinity Peak in Colorado. Courtesy/LAM

Los Alamos Mountaineers

At the Sept. 24 Los Alamos Mountaineers meeting, Toni Taylor will describe her journey to climb the Centennial Peaks in Colorado. These are the 100 (actually 101) highest peaks in the state, ranging from 14,438-foot Mt. Elbert to just above 13,800 feet, and stretching from just north of the New Mexico border to the northernmost summit, Long's Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Long's Peak was in fact Taylor's first Colorado '14er' summit, in 1984. With her husband, Stuart Trugman, she finished climbing all the 14ers in 2002 and continued to reclimb many of these peaks with her children, Anna and Daniel, until they both climbed all of them as well.

Taylor and Trugman then started to climb the Centennials, with Taylor finally finishing the last in September 2023. In addition to lots of photos and stories of these climbs, she will provide helpful tips (mostly learned the hard way through experience) for those considering undertaking this challenge.

Taylor lives in Los Alamos where she recently retired from Los Alamos National Laboratory. She enjoys hiking, climbing, mountaineering, canyoneering, cross country skiing and backpacking. In addition to climbing the Centennials, Taylor has climbed high peaks in Wyoming, Mexico, Ecuador, Bolivia and Nepal. She has been involved with the leadership of the Los Alamos Mountaineers (LAM) for the past several years, including serving as secretary, vice president and president. In 2024, she served as past president and as the coordinator for the Los Alamos Mountaineers climbing school.