New Year's Eve Colorado Style

Members Garrett and MacDonald of the AdAmAn Club pose with fireworks including rockets and bombs with fuses, on top of Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. They wear tall lace-up boots and fur collared parkas.

Garret & MacDonald, Ad-A-Man

[between 1935 and 1950?]

While you're sitting in your cozy home sipping champagne with your loved ones this New Year's Eve, imagine what it would be like to be sitting on the peak of one of Colorado's tallest mountains with a bottle rocket in your hand.

Snow blows by seven members of the AdAmAn Club as they make their way up a steep incline of the Pikes Peak Cog Railway tracks on Pikes Pike, an annual mountaineering trek to the top of the 14,110 foot mountain to set off fireworks on New Years Eve, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. They carry backpacks, walking sticks and a camera tripod.

Windy Point, -20 degrees, Ad-a-man Club climbing Pikes Peak on N. Y. day

[between 1922 and 1941]

The Adaman Club has been scaling the summit of Pikes Peak since 1922 in order to set off fireworks to celebrate the new year. The original members, the "Frozen Five," started the tradition out of a desire to do something different and unique to celebrate the holiday. The name was formed by the decision to add a new member, add a man, each year, which they have done since the club's creation.

Adawoman

1983

Traditionally, whether it was intentional or not, the Adaman group only added men each year, and a mock group formed in 1983 calling themselves the AdaWoman Club. Looking at their member roster, it appears the first woman was added to the Adaman Club in 1997.

Silhouettes of members of the AdAmAn Club show in the illumination of fireworks on top of Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. Annual club festivities include a trek to the top of the 14,110 foot mountain to set off fireworks on New Years Eve outside the Cog Railway Terminal and observation deck.

Fireworks display set off by AdAmAn Club in celebration of New Years

1959

So, if you are in the area, be sure to look to Pike's Peak tonight at midnight for the fireworks show! For more about The Adaman Club, check out the photo gallery below or stop by to peruse The First Fifty Years of Adaman, 1923-1973. Happy New Year!

Photo Gallery