Colorado Getaways

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CBS4) ― Ethan Ormes, 3, set a quick pace for this hike in the Rampart Range above Colorado Springs. When he trips on a branch in the middle of the trail, his father Nick helps him up with his grandfather Jonathan looking on. Ethan is soon back on his feet, continuing up the trail, deftly negotiating rocks he finds in his way.

"He's quite a climber and he loves to go hiking and loves the outdoors," said Nick. "I'll be lucky if I can keep up with him in a few years."

The determination is in his genes. Ethan's great, great grandfather was the first to make a map of the trails in the area. It was published in 1914.

"This map was made by my grandfather Manly Dayton Orrmes who was originally from Michigan," explained Jonathan.

Manly Ormes arrived in Colorado Springs in 1880. At the time of his death in 1929, he was working on "The Book of Colorado Springs". It was finished by his wife, Eleanor. This was one of the most complete histories written about the city at the time.

Three generations of Ormes are now getting close to the top of this climb. As the youngest of the Ormes clan to ever set foot on this mountain, Ethan leaped ahead to the summit of what was once called Red Mountain. In the early 1930s, it was re-named Ormes peak for Manly Dayton Ormes.

Colorado mountaineer Robert Ormes, son of Manly, father of Jonathan, grandfather of Nick and great grandfather of Ethan, fills out the family tree.

"Guide to the Colorado Mountains" was first published by Robert Ormes and the Colorado Mountain Club in 1952. Over the span of ten editions, it has been the gateway to all of the state's mountain ranges.

"For many, many years, his book was the bible," said Jonathan. "Lots of people have looked at this book. Now his great grandson is looking at this book."

By the time he began writing this book, Bob Ormes' prowess as a climber was well documented.

John Devitt joined the hike up Ormes peak. He met Bob Ormes in 1951 and continued hiking with him for the next four decades. He wrote a tribute to Ormes in the 9th and 10th editions of the "Guide to the Colorado Mountains".

"One of his pet peeves was that so many mountains in Colorado were named either bald mountain or old baldy or something like that and he said 'We've got to do better than that'."

Bob Ormes is known to have named quite a few peaks in Colorado over his career and his most enduring advice, Devitt said, was how to handle climbing the rotten and crumbling rock of Lizard Head Peak near Telluride.

"In Bob's 1952 book, the very first edition, he said as his instruction for it, 'Take photograph and go away'."

In addition to his guide book, Ormes also kept the family map-making tradition alive when he published this "Pikes Peak Atlas" in the late 1950s.

Robert Houdek became his partner and continues to update the "Pikes Peak Atlas" today. He remembers Ormes as an energetic hiker.

"He was always just spanking uphill," said Houdek. "He clamored up without a second thought. He designed the first guide book to just whet peoples' appetites, give them a little something to go on to get their curiosity, but not by any means be definitive.

"It was what a mountain guide book was supposed to be. A little guide book that fits in your shirt pocket so those first editions were just shirt pocket editions."

The Ormes family saved press clippings about Robert for years, including a big spread published by the Colorado Springs Gazette in 1985. A headline in the Denver Post announced his death at the age of 90 in 1994.

"There were some people that he came on in the mountains and they were reading his guide book and they asked him if he was lost and he said 'I certainly hope so.' So he liked to be lost. That was a good adventure."

As Ethan leads us back down from the Summit of Ormes Peak, it's clear we're a long ways from the last chapter of the Ormes family legacy in Colorado.

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