A Colorado Springs man has successfully pushed a peanut all the way to the summit of Pikes Peak with his nose.
Bob Salem, 53, reached the top of Pikes Peak Friday morning. He broke the previous verified record for the feat - completing the arduous task in seven days. The record was eight days.
Salem is the fourth person to summit America's Mountain this way. The attempt comes as part of Manitou Springs 150th birthday celebration.
To avoid the heat — and the distractions — Salem said he did most of his pushing after dark.
"When I did it in the daylight and stuff I'd have to stop every 10 minutes, five minutes, and take some pictures, talk to some people and do all that kind of stuff so it kind of dragged on the trip a little," he said.
He estimates that he used nearly two dozen peanuts throughout the week. Some fell into cracks between rocks on the trail and he wasn't able to retrieve them.
Starting out, the plan was for someone to go along with Salem to carry his backpack and supplies. That fell through, though, so he did the entire trip by himself, hiking a ways and leaving his backpack as far as he could make it, turning around and then doing the trip up again, with his peanut.
"I don't feel sore or anything but I know I lost some weight, " Salem said. "My muscles are fine, it was just doing the back and forth that really took it out of me."
Salem said he ate peanuts, pop tarts, bananas, and crackers for fuel.
"...and I have an old can of survival food from 1964 and there are little carbohydrate candies, and I was eating those," he said.
The hardest part, he said, was dehydration.
As he finished the trek, a representative from the city of Manitou Springs gave Salem a jewelry box to house his final peanut. He also got two plaques commemorating his effort.
Salem says he's ready for shower and a nap.
