John Daley/CPR News A pair of climbers descend Mt. Lindsey, a Colorado 14er in the Sangre de Cristo range.

Colorado’s celebrated 14ers, the 58 notable peaks that stand over 14,000 feet tall, claimed a record 10 lives in 2017. Mountain safety experts say a combination of factors explain that death toll, but one troubles them most.

Many of the deaths occurred because climbers got in over their heads.

Philip Readle, who has climbed all the 14ers, has some insight into one accident. Readle was at a campsite the day after a man fell to his death on Capitol Peak.

“What I heard from his friend was he was exhausted,” and short on food and water, Readle told us in response to our online question about close calls.

Regarded as among the hardest of 14ers, five out of the 10 alone died on Capitol.

Climbs in the Elk Mountain Range can push even a seasoned mountaineer to the limit. They are long, technical, physically demanding and mentally taxing. Long portions have exposure (a high risk of injury if one falls because the terrain is so steep) and sheer drop-offs while shifting rock requires intense concentration.

“He probably wasn’t even in the right mental state to be able to make smart decisions about how to get down,” Readle said. “Understanding yourself enough to know when to turn around,” is key for anyone attempting these peaks, he said.

John Daley/CPR News Capitol Peak, in the Elk Mountain Range, is among the deadliest 14ers.

Mountain safety advocates have a goal for 2018: Make sure climbers know what they’re getting into before they reach the trailhead, especially in the Elk Range. They established a new collaboration, the Elk Range Mountain Safety Coalition, to spread that information.

The hope is “more members of our community and visitors to our area receive the information they need to stay safe and return home,” said Pitkin County Sheriff Joe DiSalvo.

On a recent evening, Amos Whiting, the owner and head guide of Aspen Expeditions Worldwide, ran through a slide show and talked about safety to a couple dozen people at a Boulder brewpub. He explained that climbers need to be ready to cope with rotten rock, violent weather, and tricky routes. His main message: “the more you can learn, and the more you can prepare, the less likely you are to get into trouble.”

Nederland resident Kate Yzquierdo, a fit 28-year-old, was at the event to pick up some tips. She’s climbed a number of 14ers but “didn’t know of all the fatalities that had occurred.”

John Daley/CPR News Karen Schroyer, District Ranger with the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District, in her office in Carbondale.

In her time on the trails, she’s seen some poor decision making with fellow hikers “in blue jeans and in flip flops and I’m turning around because there are clouds coming in,” Yzquierdo said. “And they’re like ‘We’re going to make it to the top. We drove here from Wyoming.’”

Karen Schroyer, District Ranger with the Aspen-Sopris Ranger District in Carbondale said faulty route-finding was a factor for the climbers who fell on Capitol Peak in the last summer.

“That’s my understanding, that all five got off-route at the Knife’s Edge.”

It’s one of the most famous, and often shared, features of Capitol: a spectacular, adrenaline-pumping, but for some, nerve-wracking 100-feet stretch of ridge that drops off sharply on both off sides. In the Elk Range, Schroyer said “in some cases, especially with Capitol Peak, when you get off route you can die.”