Ah, the freedom of the 1970s!
Ever since U.S. Army Capt. Zebulon Pike discovered the peak in 1806 that now bears his name, the 14,115-foot mountain has inspired a lot of folks–including, of course, Katherine Lee Bates, who wrote America the Beautiful after her trek to the top in 1893. The southernmost of the fourteeners of the Front Range of the Rockies, this mountain has been referred to as “ultra-conspicuous”—a good description, sitting as it does about 15 miles southwest of downtown Colorado Springs and towering 8,000 feet over the city. From the high plains to the east, it is usually visible for at least 50 miles—much farther, perhaps as much as 100, if you can find a little rise to stand on. From an airplane on a good day, it is visible for several hundred miles.
In 1977, Albuquerque balloonists Gary McCauley, Ben Abruzzo, Max “Maxie” Anderson, and Howard Wolfley decided to be the first to fly hot air balloons over the peak. After a careful study of the winds that fateful morning, the intrepid balloonists and their crews drove to the outskirts of Victor, Colorado, which lies a dozen miles southwest of the summit at about 10,000 feet above sea level. They released a helium balloon and watched it soar off toward the peak. The sky was clear and the wind looked perfect, so they unpacked and inflated their two balloons. McCauley and Abruzzo climbed aboard McCauley’s balloon with a picnic basket full of fried chicken and champagne and made ready to cast off.
In the other balloon, Anderson and Wolfley were also ready to depart. Up, up and away went the two balloons, burning propane at a prodigious rate to climb high enough to get over the peak. The early morning was perfect, the view awesome, and, that day in early September, the temperatures benign.
The balloons climbed quickly and drifted toward the peak. When the adventurers were high enough, they leveled off and stood in the baskets bucked with life as the breeze carried them toward the summit house. Right toward it. Talk about luck! They went directly over the thing at an altitude of 50 feet.
The few people in the parking lot and at the overlooks early that morning waved mightily. McCauley and his pals waved back. Then they drifted off to the northeast.
They let up on the bursts of burner and the balloons settled, down, down, down the rugged flanks of the great mountain toward a reservoir. “We did a splash and dash,” he said, “and ended up on the reservoir beach. By the time my wife, Jan, and the rest of the chase crew arrived three hours later, we were out of chicken and champagne.”
The adventure went so well that the friends were inspired to do it again. Now it was the Great Pikes Peak Balloon Race, circa 1978, and they had champagne bottles labeled to celebrate the occasion.
The two hot air balloons were made ready. McCauley and Abruzzo piled into their basket and Anderson and Wolfley into the other as the sun peeped over the Earth’s rim.
Up, up, up—and McCauley realized that the wind was pushing the balloons along faster than it did the last time. The ride was rougher; his balloon shook. By the time they reached the summit, he and his friends were astounded at their groundspeed, which he estimated at about 100 knots. They shot over the summit house and into the air beyond. Anderson and Wolfley began descending immediately, but McCauley thought perhaps he could get a little farther down the mountain so Jan could find him more easily this time. He continued on for a minute or two, and, to his horror, the balloon began climbing again, caught in a rotor off the mountain.
Fifteen thousand feet, 16, 17…he and Abruzzo were going northeast at a prodigious rate. They were out over the high plains, still climbing, riding a chip adrift in a maelstrom of rising, turbulent air.
“We topped out at about 19,000 feet,” McCauley said. “The air was very cold and turbulent. We hadn’t been using the burner, and now the mouth of the balloon began to close. And we began sinking.”
They were on the ragged edge, and knew it. “I thought about pulling the rip [line] to get us down faster, then setting a corner of the balloon on fire, but we were almost three miles above the Earth. The balloon was completely out of control; we were in the grasp of an invisible monster. We thought we were going to die.”
They knew they had to get heat into the balloon. “Ben climbed up the lines and held the mouth of the balloon open as I fired the burner, which could be swiveled a little bit. I tried not to burn him. Blasts of hot air slowed our descent and brought the balloon upright and under control again.”
As they descended they went through a wind shear and began drifting southwest, back toward the city and the peak. They went back fast, just the way they had come out. McCauley knew he had to get the balloon down before the wind carried it into the foothills. They landed on a street in the residential section of the Air Force Academy campus. It was quite a while before Jan and the rest of the chase crew arrived.
Nineteen seventy-eight was the last time any of the four ever attempted to balloon over Pikes Peak. Maxie Anderson became the first man to cross the Atlantic in a balloon, on his second attempt, and the first to cross North America nonstop. He and his co-pilot, Don Ida, were killed in West Germany in 1983 in a helium balloon accident. Ben Abruzzo died in an airplane crash; Howard Wolfley died a natural death.
Both Anderson and Abruzzo made huge contributions to the sport of ballooning. They are memorialized in the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum in Albuquerque.
And Gary McCauley? Retired and living in Colorado Springs. Occasionally, when the wind begins to blow, he looks at Pikes Peak and remembers.
Novelist Stephen Coonts owns a Cirrus SR22. His latest novel is Saucer: Savage Planet.
10 romantic flying movies
Yes, you can mix aviation and romance
Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday this year, so the two of you could spend a romantic afternoon with a good aviation movie and, for many of these films, a box of Kleenex .
Always. An aerial firefighter flies one last mission in a surplus Douglas A–26 bomber. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, and John Goodman.
Amelia. Love triangle between Amelia Earhart, her husband, and a director of air commerce—yes, really. Starring Hillary Swank, Richard Gere, and Ewan McGregor.
Flyboys. U.S. fighter pilots form the Lafayette Escadrille in World War I. Starring James Franco, Jean Reno, and David Ellison.
Forever Young. A 1939 pilot wakes up in 1992. Starring Mel Gibson and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Hanover Street. During World War II, a U.S. bomber pilot is on a secret mission with his English lover’s husband. Starring Harrison Ford, Lesley-Anne Down, and Christopher Plummer.
High Road to China. Two 1920s biplanes fly into China to save the heroine’s father. Starring Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong.
An Officer and a Gentleman. A U.S. Navy officer at Aviation Officer Candidate School gets his wings—and the girl. Starring Richard Gere, Debra Winger, and Louis Gossett Jr.
Pearl Harbor. Boyhood friends become pilots and fall in love with the same girl at the start of America’s involvement in World War II. Starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, and Kate Beckinsale.
Six Days, Seven Nights. Intense magazine writer flies with a down-and-out pilot in the South Pacific; they crash. Starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche.
Top Gun. Hot-shot pilots at the Top Gun Navy Fighter Weapons School earn their wings. Starring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, and Anthony Edwards.
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