People enter into the wilderness for different reasons. Some crave the solitude and slower pace. Others love being out there with friends and talking about life - with beauty as their backdrop. For Pastor Kevin Feldotto, it is a time to be with God - of prayer, meditation, and developing next week's sermon in his head.
Originally from Nebraska, Kevin moved to Colorado Springs in 1989 to help start a church. A few years later, he started trail running and eventually did the Pikes Peak Marathon. And then, he did it eleven more times.
Even after all the trail running, it didn’t dawn on him to start climbing Fourteeners (a 14,000 ft. peak) until 2013. Nine years later, he’s done Pikes Peak 75 times.
As a pastor, he has Fridays off…and while his wife worked, he often would make a quick summit of Pikes. It is one of his favorite Fourteeners as he has met lots of interesting folks on Barr Trail and at Barr Camp.
By summer of 2022, Kevin had completed 48 of the 58 Fourteeners.
At first, he did the easier ones - afraid of those with lots of exposure. But as he honed his skills as a rock climber, he gained more confidence to do the class 3 and 4 Fourteeners. Even as an experienced hiker now, he still does a ton of research on each Fourteener, is careful not to be overconfident, and always takes someone with him on the more difficult climbs.
This Fall (2022), he is taking a sabbatical and hopes to do the rest of the Fourteeners, including the last one with his daughter and son who are in their 20s. When he hikes with others, it is still a rejuvenating time of introspection and enjoying God’s creation. At age 63, he will become one of roughly 1,400 people who have climbed all of Colorado’s Fourteeners.
Kevin is a campus pastor at Woodmen Valley Chapel Southwest.
