Biking to and climbing Colorado's “fourteeners”

There are 54 mountain peaks surpassing 14,000 feet elevation in Colorado, and Andy Henrichs plans to bike to each and every one of them this summer then trudge to the summit.

The athletic trainer for Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale is setting out on the quest to raise money for World Bicycle Relief's Project Zambia. He hopes to raise enough money to supply two bikes to the project each peak he climbs.

At Henrichs' website, where he's accepting donations for World Bicycle Relief, Henrichs estimates the journey will involve bicycling some 1,400 miles on his Xtracycle-equipped mountain bike and hiking over 350 miles. He expects the trek to take 52 days; that's like 1 summit a day.

WBF

World Bicycle Relief grew out of the efforts of SRAM and Trek to get bicycles to survivors and aid-givers in the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2005.

Now World Bicycle Relief is working with a USAID-funded, World Vision managed coalition of organizations to address the HIV/AIDS outbreak in Zambia. The goal is to supply 23,000 bicycles to health workers and educators to enable them to reach far-flung villages where help is needed.

Part of the program is training 400 mechanics and bike assemblers throughout Zambia. The assemblers are paid about $1.50 per bike and can assemble 4 or 5 a day; the mechanics are paid for making tune-ups and repairs.

Transparent

Project Zambia estimates each bicycle costs $109 each, which includes purchase, delivery, maintenance and spare parts. Henrichs figures he'll have to raise $11,772 to pay for two bicycles for each summit.

Henrichs told the Glenwood Post Independent that he settled on World Bicycle Relief because:

“I looked at the developing countries and what a huge step up it is for many people in these countries (to get bikes). I settled on World Bicycle Relief because I liked the transparency of where all the money goes, where each bike goes.”

Henrichs's preliminary plan is to head west toward Minturn, then south down the Sawatch Range, then up to Breckenridge and the Front Range. Then he heads south to the Sangre De Cristo range, then the San Juan Mountains before completing the Elk Range.