{"id":2456459,"date":"2020-03-28T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T04:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/weather-virus-force-aspens-eric-sullivan-to-postpone-nolans-14-ski-attempt\/"},"modified":"2020-03-28T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-29T04:32:00","slug":"weather-coronavirus-force-aspens-eric-sullivan-to-postpone-nolans-14-ski-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/weather-coronavirus-force-aspens-eric-sullivan-to-postpone-nolans-14-ski-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"Weather, coronavirus force Aspen\u2019s Eric Sullivan to postpone Nolan\u2019s 14 ski attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Aspen’s Eric Sullivan, who goes by Sully, had planned to ski the Nolan’s 14 route but was forced to postpone his attempt due to weather and ongoing coronavirus concerns.<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

After weather forced an initial postponement, Eric Sullivan was regrouped and ready to dive into the Nolan\u2019s 14 route beginning Monday. But he had a last second change of heart amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the statewide stay-at-home order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to leave anybody with a bad taste in their mouth,\u201d Sullivan said Saturday. \u201cI had to make the tough call, but I think people will respect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Aspen endurance athlete, who goes by Sully, was hoping to ski the Nolan\u2019s 14 route, named after famed Colorado climber Ken Nolan, a series of fourteeners in the Sawatch Range from Leadville down toward Salida. It\u2019s considered to be an incredibly challenging feat, with only a handful of people having completed it during the summer, including Aspen\u2019s Ted Mahon.<\/p>\n

Prior to his initial start date on March 13<\/a>, Sullivan believed no one had ever completed the course on skis. However, he\u2019s since pointed out there are at least two known finishers in the Leadville husband and wife duo of Rohan and Anna Lauer Roy, who skied the 14 mountains over 14 days<\/a><\/i> in 2014.<\/p>\n

Sullivan was hoping to complete it in around 100 hours and do it without a support crew, a change from his original idea to have help along the way.<\/p>\n

He delayed his original trip two weeks ago because of recent storms and dangerous avalanche conditions. The new coronavirus then put an end to his second attempt this coming week. He had planned to go solo, which would certainly adhere to the social distancing practices that are in place, but he didn\u2019t want to put any added pressure on first responders should an issue arise and decided to call it off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll at least wait until the quarantine is done, but then who knows what the conditions will be like and how long it will take,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cSo it\u2019s on the backburner, but everything is ready to go if need be. But it\u2019s been nice. I\u2019ve just been able to shut the brain off and relax the last couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should the Nolan\u2019s 14 attempt not come to fruition this season, Sullivan said he\u2019s far from done with it. It\u2019ll be something on his mind until he\u2019s able to give it a realistic go, whether that be in the coming months or next winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll never quit dreaming about it until I get it done,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cA lot of people can run 100 milers and stuff like that, but to just finish this thing is a huge task and it\u2019s just medieval. There is no easy way around it. It\u2019s all in your face all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of delivering orders for Big Wrap in Aspen, Sullivan is a local coach who specializes in mountain adventures and endurance endeavors. He\u2019s spending his free time working on expanding his business to different clientele.<\/p>\n

A devoted mountain biker, Sullivan has turned his sights on taking part in the 500-mile Colorado Trail Race this summer, should it happen.<\/p>\n

He said his sponsors have been understanding of the situation regarding the delayed Nolan\u2019s 14 attempt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were all very respectful of my choice. They thought it was a good call. I didn\u2019t want them to think I was bailing out on trying or anything, so they understood,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI\u2019ll just focus on something else. There is plenty of stuff to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen’s Eric Sullivan, who goes by Sully, had planned to ski the Nolan’s 14 route but was forced to postpone his attempt due to weather and ongoing coronavirus concerns.Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times After weather forced an initial postponement, Eric Sullivan was regrouped and ready to dive into the Nolan\u2019s 14 route beginning Monday. But he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2456459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 07:12:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}