Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak is a mountain in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, 10 miles (16 km) west of Colorado Springs, Colorado, in El Paso County. It is named for Zebulon Pike, an explorer who led an expedition to the southern Colorado area in 1806. At 14,115 feet (4302 m), it is one of Colorado’s 54 fourteeners. There is a visitor center with a gift shop and restaurant on the summit of Pikes Peak, and there are several ways to ascend the mountain. The Manitou and Pike’s Peak Railway is a cog railroad operating from Manitou Springs to the summit year-round, conditions permitting. Automobiles can be driven to the summit via the Pikes Peak Highway, a 19 mile (31 kilometer) road which starts a few miles up Ute Pass at Cascade.

blah blah blah…

Drivers race up the mountain in a famous annual race called the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Pikes Peak has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

This road, which is unpaved after the halfway point, was made famous worldwide by a short film featuring Ari Vatanen racing his Peugeot up the steep, twisty slopes as part of the annual Pikes Peak International Hillclimb race. The road has a series of switchbacks, treacherous at high speed, called “The W’s” for their shape on the side of the mountain.

Here’s the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBYR2EYJe_I