Notable Queer Outdoor Recreationalists and Affinity Groups in Colorado Springs
by Beau Toepfer[1]
Colorado Springs has long been a mecca for outdoor recreation, in particular rock climbing, hiking, and skiing. Colorado College has been a central organization for outdoor recreationalists and has a relatively high proportion of queer-identifying athletes. The access to the outdoors here is some of the best for larger metropolitan areas around the state, and that has been taken advantage of by local organizations hoping to improve people’s connection with the outdoors.
Colorado Springs has a large and connected community of outdoor recreationists in just about every sport imaginable. The city is home to four climbing gyms, several trail maintenance groups, a climbing stewardship organization, and even a historic ski area. Combined with a relatively large queer-identifying population and several high-education organizations, the crossover between queer-identifying individuals and the outdoor recreation community is large. While many queer-identifying individuals utilize the outdoor amenities in Colorado Springs, the literature around this usage rarely reflects people’s sexual identities. Colorado College has been the home of many prolific queer-identifying outdoor athletes.
Jamie Logan
Author: Beau Toepfer
Since the 1970s, Colorado Springs and the front range of Colorado has been a mecca for rock climbers like John Long, Harvey Carter, Stewart Greene, and Jamie Logan.
Logan went to Fountain Valley High School, but noted during conversation that she spent her free time exploring the woods and rocks around Colorado Springs. She also started a climbing club at Fountain Valley High School during her time there. When she was a climber in Colorado Springs in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, there was no outlet to express her queerness, even in the outdoor recreation community. While she had cross-dressed secretly and had thoughts about her sexuality since her teens, she had no outlet to express them.[1:1]
Jamie Logan on top of the Sentinel’s West Face in Yosemite in 1971. Photo Courtesy Jamie Logan.
One of Logan’s most impressive climbing accomplishments was her 1978 first ascent of the 8,000 foot Emperor Face of Mt. Robson, a cutting-edge achievement at the time. Logan said of her ascent of the emperor face, “The real key to climbing the Emperor Face was making the firm decision to try, regardless of the obstacles that nature and our imagination might place in our path,”[2] a quote that I believe sums up her experiences transitioning later in life. Notably while on the Emperor Face, Jamie pulled an M8 move on bamboo ice tools (a difficult move by today’s standards with modern equipment), where a fall would’ve killed both her and her belayer. She later compared transitioning to be scarier than the Emperor Face.[1:2]
Jamie Logan on the Emperor Face - Photo by Mugs Stump.[1:3]
In 2021, Logan was inducted into the Fountain Valley Athlete Hall of Fame.[3]
In 2024, Logan premiered a film, titled Jamie, about their experience as a trans climber who had long felt out of place. The film premiered at Arc’teryx Boulder, but Jamie returned to Fountain Valley High School for a private premier and rock climbing team practice. [3:1]
Community Impacts
Jamie Logan has this to say about the beauty of being a queer climber, which holds especially true in a national environment that is so oppressive of non-heteronormative individuals.
“When I was climbing, I was climbing. There was no gender stuff; there was just the next pitch. When you're on something hard and scary, there's a rule--you gotta take your pitch. You think, ‘How hard is it going to be? Is there going to be protection? What am I going to do up there?’ And gender doesn't make any difference. When I was climbing, I was just climbing.”[4]
References
Madaleine Sorkin
Author: Beau Toepfer
Part of: Notable Queer Outdoor Recreationalists and Affinity Groups in Colorado Springs
Sorkin is an extremely accomplished queer-identifying rock climber who attended Colorado College. Sorkin got into big wall climbing at Colorado College, a form of climbing where climbers scale massive cliffs, often over several days while sleeping on a hanging cot called a ‘portaledge’. She has climbed many cutting-edge traditional climbs where she has to place her own protection to catch her if she falls.[1:4]
Some of her notable accomplishments include Freeline, a 5.13 R rated (an incredibly difficult route with large sections where a fall would result in major injuries or death) route in Eldorado Canyon in Boulder, Free Dunn Westbay Direct, the hardest route on Longs peak getting the grade of 5.14- at over 13,000 feet of elevation, and Free Moonlight Buttress, a 1000 foot 5.12+/5.13- traditional route she climbed with another CC student, Kate Rutherford.[2:1][3:2]
Sorkin on the first female ascent of The Honeymoon is Over, a 5.13+ route on Longs Peak. Photo by Henna Taylor.[4:1][5]
Sorkin and Rutherford also freed (climbing with no falls) Freerider, a 3,000 foot big wall 5.13 route on El Capitan in Yosemite. Rutherford has named her excursions with Sorkin “Princess Cruises.”[6] Sorkin was also a part of an all female team to get the first female ascent and second total ascent of Via Costa Brava, a high alpine 5.12 R (high risk of severe injury or death if the climber falls) route that they re-equipped. Sorkin sent the hardest pitch (5.12 R) in the rain.
Sorkin’s accomplishments have not gone unnoticed in the climbing community, and she has functioned as somewhat of a mentor to another strong queer climber, Lor Sabourin. Sabourin noted that Sorkin has “{paved} the way for a generation of queer climbers to pursue what they loved on their own terms." [7]
Community Impacts
Madaleine Sorkin has been an influential mentor to other young and aspiring queer climbers like Lor Sabourin. Her outward advocacy has helped to make queer or questioning climbers feel more comfortable about their place in the community.[7:1]
References
Rosemary Barnes
Barnes, a lesbian-identifying CC alumni worked in healthcare focusing on patients of AIDS during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, prepared psychological opinions for court to petition for same-sex relations, and provided civil litigation for sexual assault and harassment cases. Rosemary is also an avid outdoor recreationalist and hiked the Camino Santiago Compostela.[2:3]
Kathy Adelsheim
Adelsheim, a gay-identifying CC alumni, notes that she has lobbied for gay rights and acted as an election judge. Adelsheim was an avid skier while at CC and after she graduated. She worked as a ski patroller for several years in multiple states after she graduated before working as a program director for the American Lung Association.[2:4]
Organizations and Events
Gays and Theys Mountain Days
Although this Pikes Peak Pride event just started in March 2026, it was a success and brought members of all ability levels into the outdoors. They plan on hosting hiking, trail building/cleanup, rock climbing, and ziplining meet-ups, and other ways of getting people outside based on feedback from the community.[3:3]
They hope to go out every third Saturday of the month, weather permitting, and hope to foster more community and access to the outdoors.[4:2]
A poster made to advertise the event.[5:1]
The Wednesday Ride
The Wednesday Ride runs a bike ride around Colorado Springs every Wednesday at 6 pm, hoping to “Make the cycling community more inclusive and less elitist.” In June, they hosted a “Pride Ride,” which was supported through subsidized fees from Pike Ride and Pikes Peak Pridefest. [6:1]
Rosie’s Run 5k & Colorado Springs Marathon
Rosie’s Run is an annual five kilometer run during Pikes Peak Pride fest.[7:2] It includes age categories, but is segregated into two genders.[8] The Colorado Springs Marathon, however, allows racers to enter as non-binary. [9]
Trail Pride
Trail Pride is an organization that focuses on getting LGBTQ+ identifying people out and giving back to nature through trail and park cleanup. They provide all the necessary tools for the work they do. They also take feedback on spaces that the community thinks need cleaning up. Like many other local LGBTQ groups that are active in the outdoors, the majority of organizing and information dissemination is done over Facebook.[10]
Gay Colorado PrideGuide
PrideGuide Colorado offers resources on different regions of Colorado, including major metropolitan areas like Colorado Springs. One of the major things represented in the “About the Area” sections of the different regions is what outdoor amenities are available to recreationists, including the hiking, outdoor recreation, and city parks around Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Canon City, and the Eastern Plains. In large part this is likely because of how large of an industry outdoor recreation is in Colorado, and how many tourists visiting Colorado plan on utilizing the state’s outdoor access.[11]
References
This article was written by Colorado College student Beau Toepfer as a part of Dr. Rushaan Kumar's LGBTQ+ Social Movements class. Some formatting and edits were made by Nico Wilkinson to fit the formatting of the website. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Adelsheim, Kathy, and Rosemary Barnes. “Colorado College Class of 1970 Keepsake Directory FIFTY Year Reunion.” Colorado College, October 2020. https://www.coloradocollege.edu/other/homecoming/reunions/1970/Class of 1970 Keepsake Directory website.pdf. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Pikes Peak Pride, “Gays & Theys Mountain Days - First Hike : Mount Cutler,” Facebook, March 21, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/events/933480689057439/?acontext={"event_action_history"%3A[{"surface"%3A"external_search_engine"}%2C{"mechanism"%3A"attachment"%2C"surface"%3A"newsfeed"}]%2C"ref_notif_type"%3Anull}. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Pikes Peak Pride, “Gays & Theys Mountain Days - First Hike : Mount Cutler,” Facebook, March 21, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/events/933480689057439/?acontext={"event_action_history"%3A[{"surface"%3A"external_search_engine"}%2C{"mechanism"%3A"attachment"%2C"surface"%3A"newsfeed"}]%2C"ref_notif_type"%3Anull}. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Pikes Peak Pride, “Advertisment Poster,” Facebook, March 13, 2026, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=931428536136102&set=gm.933480732390768. ↩︎ ↩︎
The Wednesday Ride. “Pride Ride.” Instagram, June 10, 2025. https://www.instagram.com/p/DKvwqsKNzcS/?img_index=1. ↩︎ ↩︎
The Editors of RUN, “Run with Pride! Celebrate Pride Month with One of These 5ks,” run, June 7, 2024, https://run.outsideonline.com/news/pride-run-5k-races/. ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
“Rosie Run 5K Course Records.” Pikes peak road runners, 2026. https://pprrun.org/course-records/Rosie-5K-LegacyLoop-1. ↩︎
Lindsey, “These 200 Inclusive Road Races Allow Nonbinary Runners,” QUEER ADVENTURERS | LGBTQ+ Travel, March 25, 2026, https://queeradventurers.com/inclusive-road-races-lgbtq-travel/. ↩︎
“Trail Pride, CO Springs.” Facebook, May 10, 2025. https://www.facebook.com/pridefest. ↩︎
“PrideGuide Colorado - GayColorado.” GoColorado.com, 2026. https://www.gaycolorado.com/. ↩︎