Tolls for the Pikes Peak Highway: $10

A ticket on the Pikes Peak Cog Railway: $32

A doughnut at the Summit House: $1

The view from the top of Colorado’s most famous peak: Priceless.

“Priceless” is how mountain lovers have long rated the experience of climbing one of the state’s 54 peaks above 14,000 feet, known as fourteeners. But a new study by a Colorado State University professor has established a dollar amount for how much people spend to climb one, and how much they value the experience.

The answer: $107.18, on average, is what a hiker spends per day.

CSU natural resource economics professor Catherine Keske hopes the research shows how valuable these mountains are to the state and the communities they tower over.

“The fourteeners do indeed provide more value than your typical hiking place, so why not get more resources allocated to take care of them?” Keske said.

Volunteers handed out surveys last summer at 11 mountains, including Pikes Peak. Based on the responses, researchers factored in costs associated with the trip, including equipment, groceries, restaurants, gas, camping, hotels and car rentals.

Some areas were higher. Visitors to the three fourteeners near Alma, mounts Lincoln, Bross and Democrat, spent an average of $191 within 25 miles of the peaks, which Keske attributes to higher hotel rates in Breckenridge.

“When you look at the average amount, I really feel comfortable about our results,” Keske said.

Researchers did not calculate an average expense for a trip up Pikes Peak.

Local hikers were divided over whether they spend $107 to go up Pikes Peak or any fourteener.

“We sleep in our cars or we sleep on the ground, and we carpool and we try not to spend large sums of money on this hobby,” said Lisa Heckel, chairwoman of the local chapter of the Colorado Mountain Club.

“I’ve never spent anything approaching that to climb a fourteener,” said Bill Brown, a Colorado Springs hiker and a board member of the Colorado Mountain Club.

“Most of the people on Pikes Peak are locals, and they don’t spend more money climbing the peak than they would have otherwise,” Brown said.

Take Joshua Baron. He and his family hiked Pikes Peak on Thursday and spent an estimated $15 on food at the top, but nothing else.

“I would like some better gear, shoes and a backpack, but that costs a lot,” Baron said Thursday in the parking lot of the Barr Trail in Manitou Springs, the main hiking route up the mountain.

“I spent six bucks getting there, because I got some energy bars and a bottle of water,” said Steve Luce of Colorado Springs, who was in the same parking lot.

Although locals represent a good portion of the people climbing Pikes Peak, those who come from out of town may spend more than the average Keske calculated.

“It seems to me like their number is low,” said Mary Burger, president of the Friends of the Peak organization, of the per-trip spending estimate.

There’s little camping in Colorado Springs, so out-oftown hikers may be more apt to stay in hotels and eat at restaurants, as well as those who come here for races, such as today’s Pikes Peak Ascent, Sunday’s Pikes Peak Marathon and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, held every July.

Some visitors even buy their gear here, after deciding on a whim to climb the mountain. And many don’t spend enough money for their own good.

“A lot of people on vacation here see it as a last-minute thing, like, ‘Hey, let’s do that,’” said Brent Botts, district ranger for Pike National Forest. “Unfortunately, the searchand-rescue people go up there a lot.”

Still, most of the people who visit Pikes Peak didn’t hike there. According to officials with the Pikes Peak Highway, 260,000 people come up the toll road each year and another 230,000 come up the Cog Railway. Officials estimate the annual number of hikers at 10,000.

Researchers found train riders said they’d be willing to pay much more than they did for the experience, $188, than those who came up the highway, $74, or hikers, $39.

Said Keske, “People who hike or run up Pikes Peak spend lots less money and put lots less value on it than someone who takes the cog or takes a vehicle.”

The study says, “It appears as though the presence of automobiles and hundreds of Cog Railway riders at the summit reduces the sense of accomplishment of climbing a 14,000-foot peak into just another long hike.”

Brown, the hiker, disagreed. “The tourists say, ‘Did you really walk all the way up?’ I think some people really get a kick out of that,” he said.

Keske said she hopes the report draws attention not only to the value of having these mountains, but to the wear and tear on them by so many hikers, some of whom cause erosion problems by walking off-trail and cutting switchbacks.

“The high use these mountains are sustaining is causing a lot of damage to the high alpine region,” Keske said.

Although she doesn’t advocate particular course, she said one idea that has been discussed is charging fees at trailheads for popular mountains on high-use days, such as summer weekends.

There’s no discussion of that for Pikes Peak, at least for now.

In 20 or 30 years, if traffic on the trail continues to grow, that could change, said Dan Cleveland, director to the Trails and Open Space Coalition.

The Forest Service denies requests for more marathons or commercial tours on Barr Trail because it is “at capacity,” Botts said.

PIKES PEAK ASCENT SCHEDULE

Today 5:30-7:15 a.m. Packet pickup in Mansions Park; sweat check adjacent to start 7 a.m. First wave starts (runners No. 1-1099), toll road opens 7:30 a.m.

Second wave starts (runners No. 1100-2499) 9:10 a.m.

First male finishers 9:45 a.m.

First female finishers 11:45 a.m.

First shuttle bus from summit arrives in Manitou Springs 1:30 p.m.

Finish line closes for first wave 2 p.m.

Finish line closes for second wave Noon-3 p.m.

Post-race celebration, Mansions Park 5 p.m.

Awards presentation, Memorial Hall in City Hall

PIKES PEAK MARATHON SCHEDULE

Sunday 5:30-6:45 a.m. Packet pickup in Mansions Park; sweat check adjacent to start 7 a.m. Start 10:35 a.m.

First male finishers 11:40 a.m.

First female finishers Noon-3 p.m.

Post-race celebration, Soda Springs Park 3 p.m.

Awards, Soda Springs Park 5 p.m. Finish line closes

ABOUT THE SURVEY

Volunteers handed out surveys last summer at 11 mountains, including Pikes Peak. Based on the responses, researchers factored in costs associated with the trip, including equipment, groceries, restaurants, gas, camping, hotels and car rentals.