You are hereMeet the Author: Mountain Geographer Dr. Jon Kedrowski

Meet the Author: Mountain Geographer Dr. Jon Kedrowski

Start: 08/27/2012 6:30 pm

End: 08/27/2012 7:30 pm

Mountain Geographer Dr. Jon Kedrowski and Meteorologist Chris Tomer joined forces in 2011 for a groundbreaking project. Kedrowski slept on the summit of all 55 Colorado 14ers from sunset to sunrise in 95 days. Tomer joined Kedrowski for many of the bivys and provided realtime weather analysis and forecasts throughout the project. 99.99% of climbers start predawn to avoid afternoon thunderstorms, but Kedrowski and Tomer did just the opposite actually hiking during the stormiest part of each day in order to make the summits before sunset. It's never been done before.

Their story is being published by Westcliffe Publishing in a full-color coffee-table style book, Sleeping on the Summits: Colorado 14er High Bivys. The book contains high resolution photography of every summit, sunsets and sunrises, harrowing stories of rogue storms, bear attacks, and peak-specific discussions of meteorology and geography from Tomer and Kedrowski, experts in their respective fields. It's a story about teamwork, taking risks, and climbing the proverbial mountain of life. Many of the lessons read like a blueprint for success in business as well.

Sleeping on the Summits includes a special Foreward by Colorado icon John Fielder, as

well as comments from mountaineering legend and author Gerry Roach, North Face athlete and inspiration Diane Van Daren, Baylor University Mens Basketball Coach Scott Drew, and ultra-running Grand Slammer and author Dr. Bob Boeder.

Kedrowski said, "This is the most difficult accomplishment of my life so far, and I expect it to be even tougher than climbing Mt. Everest this May. Linking eight 14ers on consecutive nights required me to dig deeper than ever before - talk about draining. Even with Tomers' excellent forecasts I was still nearly killed by lightning on Mount Harvard."

Tomer said, "This is what it's all about. I'm not interested in coasting to the finish line -

I wanted to raise my meteorological skills to the next level. We wanted to see what we're made of. It took us three attempts to sleep on the summit of both Little Bear Peak and Capitol Peak because of epic thunderstorms. Success was much sweeter after that."

Book List