After unprecedented numbers during the 2020 pandemic, crowds on Colorado’s highest mountains continue to thin, according to a new study.

The droves of 2020 led land managers and local law enforcement to establish restrictions and regulations across some of the most popular 14,000-foot peaks reached by Front Range populations. Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) points to those actions as largely lending to a second straight year of “hiker use days” declining in its annual analysis.

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Based on infrared counters spread across some of the state’s 54 fourteeners and other data sources such as 14ers.com, CFI estimates 279,000 hikes were made on the mountains in 2022. That’s 8% down from numbers tracked in 2021 and 32% down from the record 415,000 hikes reported in 2020.

Last year’s 279,000 estimated hikes are short of the 288,000 count in pre-pandemic 2019, when extreme snowpack and avalanche debris kept climbers away for much of the early season.

The recent numbers are the lowest observed in more than seven years, said CFI Executive Director Lloyd Athearn. He attributed the drop to parking restrictions and enforcement at Quandary Peak and Grays and Torreys peaks.

In 2021, CFI noted Clear Creek County ticketing people who parked along the road leading to the Grays and Torreys trailhead — “forc(ing) many people to park near I-70 and hike the 3.5-mile long road,” according to CFI.

The organization estimated that contributed to as many as 10,000 fewer hikes year-to-year in 2022. Over the past two years, CFI estimates hiking on the two peaks has dropped 39%. 

The drop is believed to be even greater for Quandary.

For years considered the most-hiked fourteener, CFI’s report for 2022 counts fewer than half the record 49,000 Quandary hikes logged for 2020. The latest report puts Mount Bierstadt as the busiest fourteener, with estimated numbers between 30,000-35,000 last year.

CFI, the leading nonprofit steward of summit trails, started suspecting the effects of new management in 2021.

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While Quandary remained the most-hiked fourteener in the study that year, CFI noted a 29% decrease in hikes from 2020 as agencies rolled out a paid parking and shuttle system.

The system was meant to prevent unsafe congestion at the trailhead, where cars lined Colorado 9 and reportedly blocked or hampered search and rescue missions. The system continues this summer, with visitors needing to reserve a paid spot at the trailhead or park in Breckenridge and pay for a shuttle ride.

CFI has worried the measures could have a discriminatory effect. 

“How do we get underrepresented communities outside? Going to this pay-to-play model is just gonna go the opposite direction,” said Brian Sargeant, CFI’s development and communications manager. “It’s gonna only further restrict use to probably wealthy, mostly white individuals.”

The limitations and reported decrease in hikers have not slowed Summit County Rescue Group. Quandary remains among the most in-demand fourteeners, with an estimated 22,000 hikes last year.

According to data from the team, 21 calls for help came from Quandary in 2022. That was slightly up from the reported record hiking year in 2020. The record year was well outpaced by 31 calls in the first year of shuttles in 2021, according to the data provided.

It’s been a busy start to 2023, with 13 calls made before the end of June.

“I think what you’re seeing is a major COVID spike in 2021 (that did not appear to be impacted by the shuttle/parking system), and then a return in 2022 to our typically ever-increasing numbers,” Summit County Rescue Group’s Anna DeBattiste said in an email.

She added: “I don’t know that we had any expectation that the shuttle system would decrease our calls. It certainly wasn’t a conversation we had. But as far as trying to limit calls, we are working with the Town of Breck right now on some education (material) to be in the shuttle.”

CFI’s hiking counts have swung also with access in the Mosquito Range. 

Last year, “the overall (hiking) number would have been even lower had the Decalibron loop been closed for part of 2022 as it was in 2021,” Athearn said.

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That loop refers to mounts Lincoln, Democrat and Bross, where private landowners have long worried about liability. Closures returned earlier this year, with no reopening in sight.

“No trespassing” signs have also been posted along Mount Lindsey, where the summiting path crosses private land.

After mounts Bierstadt and Quandary, CFI estimates Mount Elbert saw the most people last year with hiking numbers between 20,000-25,000. Mount Evans, Longs Peak and Pikes Peak reportedly saw somewhere between 10,000-15,000 apiece.

Numbers on those mountains and ranges farther west “have stayed for the most part generally flat,” Sargeant said. Other than big drops due to restrictions, “I think we’re just kind of returning from this crazy pandemic use in 2020, and things are kind of getting back to normal,” he said.