City: Colorado Springs, CO

Category: Annual Events & Festivals

Description: Anyone out banging pots and pans to ring in the new year is lit from above—with fireworks. Since 1922, the Pikes Peak AdAmAn Club has ushered in the new year with a brilliant fireworks display ignited on the summit of Pikes Peak. And they didn’t drive up; they hiked the Barr Trail, often accomplished on icy and snow-swept slopes with wind chills of -­50 degrees.The AdAmAn Club started with five men who had the idea to add only one new member each year. Thus, the name AdAmAn (add a man). Each year, members choose one new member from a list of applicants, which can be quite long, and now includes women. Most successful new members have joined the AdAmAn Club after several previous years as a guest.The climbing party of members and guests leaves the trailhead of Barr Trail on December 30, with an overnight stay at Barr Camp. On December 31, they flash mirrors from their location at timberline, and by evening they’ve made it to the top. There are years when storms preclude the event. But when skies are clear, the fireworks are a magnificent sight that can be seen for hundreds of miles along the Front Range of the Colorado Rockies and deep into the eastern plains.