By COLLEEN SLEVIN
DENVER (AP) — Hikers who climbed a Colorado mountain last weekend got more than just a sweeping view at the top. A man in an ice cream cone costume was handing out frozen treats.
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No one seemed to know the man who carried ice cream sandwiches and bars and dry ice in a 60-pound pack up Huron Peak on Aug. 31. But word of him spread quickly to hikers making their way up the 14,006-foot mountain.
Blaine and Katie Griffin worried he would run out of ice cream by the time they got there.
“Eventually we got up to the top of the mountain — tired, hot, thirsty and, didn’t know it, but ice cream was just kind of what we wanted,” Blaine Griffin said.
Christopher Whitestone said his two children, Olivia, 11, and Owen, 8, went straight to the ice cream man as soon as they reached the top of the mountain. “It definitely leaves a lasting impression for my kids as a very positive experience,” Whitestone said.
He warned them not to expect that every time they climb a mountain.
Photos on social media show the man in a camping chair, a beer nestled in the armrest. In addition to the costume — a sort of hooded sleeveless tunic — he wore sunglasses with an attached mustache. It apparently wasn’t a marketing stunt; he wore no logos, and the ice cream novelties were a store brand.
Some commenters marveled at his ability to climb the mountain with such a heavy pack at elevations where the thin air can make it hard to carry just your own body up. Huron is the 55th-highest peak in Colorado (by the accounting of the U.S. Geological Survey) and is considered among the easiest to summit of the state’s mountains over 14,000 feet. Among its Sawatch Range neighbors, though, are the tallest in the Rockies: Elbert, Massive and Harvard.
Blaine Griffin said the man later zoomed past them on the way down the mountain, this time without his costume, making him think he had climbed it many times.
The ice cream had just run out by the time Ric and Sara Rosenkranz of Las Vegas made it to the top. But Ric Rosenkranz said he was just happy to be able to witness the quirky stunt, which he said was a good antidote to the tendency to focus on racking up achievements in the outdoors.
“He provided a nice reminder of just enjoying the moment,” Rosenkranz said, “just really making it fun, not taking it more seriously than it needs to be and just spending time with his fellow hikers.”