Years ago, the former railroad man Joe Monger walked into a convenience store in Nebraska, took one look at the pretty woman working the cash register and announced "I'm going to marry you."

She wasn't necessarily convinced, but Joe had it right.

"I didn't know her name and she didn't want to tell me," Monger said. "She said her name was Fred. I didn't like that so I started calling her Ralphie. Two months later, I finally talked her into going out with me."

Ralphie - her real name was Deanna - and Joe were married in 1983, raised three daughters and enjoyed 28 years together. Then in 2011, Ralphie passed away and Joe became crushed by grief.

As a way to cope, he began climbing the Incline, the steep mile-long railway bed that surges 2,000 feet above Manitou Springs. It helped ease the pain of his broken heart, but he had given up inside.

"I came here to die," Monger said. "I wanted this mountain to kill me."

Monger's friend Greg Cummings recalls meeting Joe on the Incline. He said Joe was overweight and distraught.

"His emotional state was in turmoil," Cummings said.

But Joe climbed like a wild man, over and over, beating himself up until he could barely move. And then something changed.

"After the first four months I realized the Incline wasn't going to kill me," Monger said. "My daughters are thankful that it didn't. And I began to meet some great people."

Earlier this year he set a goal and promised Ralphie he'd keep it.

On Saturday (Nov. 30), Monger, 55, a gravel-tough flatlander from Ellicott, climbed the Incline for the 500th time in 2013, exactly two years to the day that he lost his wife. He started counting on January 1 and made each of those trips up the Incline in her memory.

At the top, he was met by daughters Kenna and Kasey and about 15 members of his "incline family." It was a bittersweet moment marking the physical accomplishment of a lifetime, and a time to remember loved ones passed.

"They were all cheering," Monger said. "They made me run up the last section. Then they made
me cry."

Monger and his daughters embraced and thought of Ralphie. And the memories that returned at the Incline's summit, a sacred place for so many, were healing. 

"We turned a bad day into a day of accomplishment," Kenna said.

Only Cummings and Austin have touched the Incline's top tie more times in one year. Cummings once hit 601 climbs. Austin is the current record holder with 627 ascents (and counting) in 2013. Cummings had made a certificate to commemorate Monger's 500th climb.

"It was an emotional moment as I presented him the certificate," Cummings said. "That's the kind of guy Joe is ... he wears his emotions on his sleeve; he’s cheerful, kind-hearted, and strong. And he's the kind of guy that makes many of us proud to call our friend."

Austin said Monger's goal to hit 500 was guaranteed the day he made the commitment to do it.

"The Incline is very physical for sure but can be very therapeutic as well," Austin said. "His goal of 500 helped him I suspect. I knew he would have crawled up to finish in honor of his wife."

As Monger began his climb, he received a text from his daughters that read, "Kick ass, Dad."
And then he ascended with Ralphie at his side.

"She carried me up and down on every trip," he said.