Maria and I went to Denver, Colorado for 8 days, May 20-28. There were 3 tornado warnings, one of which led to tornadoes. We were hailed on three times, blizzarded upon once (in the mountains), and rained upon many times.

In May 2009, some buddies and I were able to hike two 14,000 ft. mountains (Mt. Elbert and Quandry Peak) in early May with minimal snow cover. This year, however, Maria and I found all the big peaks to have snow cover from the trailhead to the summit, making most hikes pretty treacherous. We summited Mt. Bierstadt on May 22, but were unable to find any other peaks that we felt comfortable hiking. My suggestion would be to wait until June/July to climb the peaks in Colorado if you want the best chances of summiting. Also, I’m sick of hail.