DENVER (AP) — Hikers who climbed a Colorado mountain got more than just a sweeping view at the top. A man in an ice cream cone costume unexpectedly was handing out frozen treats.
No one seemed to know the man who carried ice cream sandwiches and bars and dry ice in a 60-pound (27-kilogram) pack up Huron Peak over the Labor Day weekend. But word of him spread quickly to hikers still making their way up the more than 14,000-foot (4,267-meter) mountain that's one of Colorado's tallest.
Blaine and Katie Griffin were about three-quarters of the way up Huron Peak when other hikers told them about the man. They worried he would run out of ice cream by the time they got there.
“Eventually we got up to the top of the mountain and, tired, hot, thirsty and didn't know it, but ice cream was just kind of what we wanted,” Blaine Griffin said.
He and his wife enjoyed their ice cream sandwiches, which still were surprisingly very cold, with some leftover pizza they carried with them.
Christopher Whitestone said his two children, Olivia, 11, and Owen, 8, went straight to the ice cream man as soon as they reached the top of the mountain, considered a relatively moderate climb among Colorado's more than 50 peaks over 14,000 feet.
"It definitely leaves a lasting impression for my kids as a very positive experience,” Whitestone said.
But he warned them not to expect that every time they climb a mountain.
Photos on social media show the man in a camping chair, a beer nestled in the armrest, wearing sunglasses with a fake mustache attached to it. Members of a Facebook group for people dedicated to climbing the state's “14ers” called him a hero, with one declaring him "legend dairy.”
Some also marveled at his ability to climb the mountain with such a heavy pack at elevations where the thin air can make it hard to carry just your own body up.
Blaine Griffin said the man later zoomed past them on the way down the mountain, this time without his costume, making him think he had climbed it many times.
The ice cream had just run out by the time Ric and Sara Rosenkranz of Las Vegas made it to the top. But Ric Rosenkranz said he was just happy to be able to witness the quirky stunt, which he said was a good antidote to the tendency to focus on racking up achievements in the outdoors.
“He provided a nice reminder of just enjoying the moment,” Rosenkranz said, “just really making it fun, not taking it more seriously than it needs to be and just spending time with his fellow hikers.”
