🏔️ Vail Doctor Summits All 14 Peaks Over 8,000 Meters

Good morning, Stoke Crew. The alpine lakes are unfrozen, the wildflowers are blooming, and your group chats to start planning adventures are in full affect! PS: Sorry I missed Tuesday's letter, I was busy exploring and lost track of time. It will not happen again :)

In today's report

• Vail Dr. summits all 8,000 meter peaks
• Keeping our public land
• Goldstone goes 3 in a row

Today’s Stoke Story

🏔️ Vail Doctor Summits All 14 Peaks Over 8,000 Meters

The Report: In a story that redefines what it means to conquer mountains, 50-year-old Vail doctor Tracee Metcalfe has become the first American woman to summit all 14 of the world's 8,000-meter peaks after a remarkable journey through addiction recovery, career crisis, and personal tragedy! Metcalfe's decade-long quest culminated on Shishapangma in Tibet on October 4, 2024, exactly one year after she witnessed the devastating avalanches that killed fellow Americans Anna Gutu and Gina Rzucidlo as they raced each other for the same record.

Tracee's path to this achievement included overcoming severe acrophobia with medication and therapy, battling opioid addiction following a 2014 hip replacement that forced her to temporarily leave medical practice, and spending $350,000 of her retirement savings to fund expeditions across the world's most dangerous peaks. Starting as a mogul skier in Breckenridge who summited her first Colorado fourteeners in 1993, Metcalfe methodically worked through increasingly technical climbs before eventually pursuing her own 8,000 meter dreams. Her final year included an incredible push through five peaks, including summiting three Pakistani eight-thousanders in just 17 days while climbing on an artificial hip, failing knee, and using daily steroid inhalers for asthma.

Metcalfe's achievement represents both a mountaineering milestone and a powerful story of perseverance through personal struggles that many people face. Her approach, prioritizing safety and completing the project over speed or style, offers a refreshing contrast to the competitive dynamics that have led to tragedies on high peaks. The story also highlights how commercialization of extreme mountaineering has made these achievements more accessible while raising questions about what constitutes a "pure" climbing accomplishment in the modern era.

Local Stokelight

Keeping Our Public Lands - For Now...

In a major victory for outdoor advocates, Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled that a proposal to sell up to 3.3 million acres of public lands across 11 Western states violates Senate reconciliation rules and cannot be included in the Republican budget bill! The controversial provision, championed by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee of Utah, would have mandated the sale of between 0.5% and 0.75% of all Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service lands - roughly four times the size of Rhode Island - making over 250 million acres potentially eligible for sale to generate revenue for tax cuts.

The proposal sparked fierce opposition from conservation groups, outdoor recreationists, Colorado's Democratic delegation, and even some Western Republicans, with critics calling it "the gravest threat to public lands we have ever seen moving through Congress." Lee had pitched the land sales as a housing solution, but opponents argued the vague language left the door wide open for sales to wealthy private interests with virtually no safeguards on what land could be sold or for what purpose.

This ruling represents a crucial win for public lands protection at a time when over 250 million acres of beloved outdoor recreation areas, wildlife habitat, and hunting grounds were at risk of privatization. The proposal would have affected popular recreation spots in Colorado and across the West, including wilderness study areas, roadless areas, and critical wildlife corridors. While the parliamentarian's decision blocks this specific threat, conservation groups warn that efforts to dismantle public lands protections continue through other legislative channels.

Mountain bikers and hikers can finally return to Virginia Canyon Mountain Park in Idaho Springs as the Colorado Mountain Bike Association announced the reopening of 14 miles of trails following a construction closure that began in April! The highly anticipated reopening comes after months of heavy construction work on the Mighty Argo Gondola forced the 400-acre park to close for public safety due to deep excavations and helicopter operations installing gondola stanchions above the historic Argo Mine and Mill.

Riders will find the newly completed trail system featuring technical challenges like the "Drop Shaft" trail with its blue/black rating, large berms, and jumps. The reopening represents an 8-year vision that gained serious traction when the Trek Foundation provided $250,000 in 2023, enabling professional trail crews to build bike-specific trails, with the full 28-mile system planned for completion over the next two summers alongside the gondola project.

This reopening delivers fun mountain biking infrastructure to the Front Range, creating quality trails just 30 minutes from Denver. The integration of the upcoming Gondola will establish Colorado's first major lift-served mountain bike park outside of ski resorts!

I rode Virginia Canyon the past two days with some buddies, it exceeded my expectations. The trails are really well built, I would highly recommend checking it out! My favorite trails are Hopper and the bottom of Drop Shaft.

Events

🚲 Goldstone is Dominating the DH World Cup

Canadian downhill sensation Jackson Goldstone just made history by claiming his third consecutive World Cup victory at Val di Sole, Italy, becoming the first rider to achieve this feat since Danny Hart's legendary 2016 streak! The 21-year-old Santa Cruz rider ate up the competition on the notorious "Black Snake" track, winning by a massive 2.42 seconds over Australia's Troy Brosnan. Goldstone's perfect run on one of the most technical and physically demanding courses on the World Cup circuit moved him into the overall series lead, overtaking previous leader Loic Bruni who could only manage sixth place. The victory caps an incredible comeback year for Goldstone, who missed the entire 2024 season due to a knee injury but has returned stronger than ever with wins at Leogang, Loudenvielle, and now the legendary Italian venue.

Watch race highlights here

Name That Nature

🔍 How to Identify Sulphur-flower BuckWheat

Welcome to the Name That Nature section! I take a photo of a wildflower in Colorado and we learn its name and how to identify it. This one was taken at Virginia Canyon bike park in Idaho Springs, Colorado.

🌸 Flowers

• Bright sulfur-yellow, often fading to orange or rusty red with age
• Flat-topped clusters (umbels), very tight and compact.
• Each flower is tiny, but there are many of them in a dense clump.

📏 Plant Size

• Usually 4–12 inches tall
• Bare flower stalks rise from the basal leaves.

🏞️ Grows in

• Sagebrush scrub
• Open meadows
• Dry rocky slopes

Trailhead Trivia

How many national parks does Colorado have?

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Answer!

Colorado has 4 National Parks: Rocky Mountain, Mesa Verde, Great Sand Dunes, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.