Colorado 14ers

[Jay H]

Tmax and I spent some time in Colorado baggi...hiking 14ers around the Leadville->Buena Vista stretch of the rockies... Not having hiked in CO to this date, I'm not terribly familiar with the 14ers til now and having dived into another state and some more peaks, just wondering if any of you know a bit of the interesting list-maintainers of what counts as a 14er..

http://www.14ers.com/photos/photos_14ers1.html

*To be ranked, a peak must rise at least 300 feet above the saddle that connects it to the nearest 14er peak (if another exists nearby). This guideline has been in use in Colorado for some time. The following peaks are not ranked because they do not fit this criteria, but they are on this 14er list because they are named and recognized on USGS maps:

Strange enough, in the various tourist postcards, posters, shirts, I see anywhere from 53 to 56 14ers and I haven't looked closely enough to see which peaks they are leaving out or including. I think Gerry Roach's book lists 54, yet the website 14ers.com lists 53.

Also, having climbed Mt Elbert on friday (reports to come), I took the southerly approach from Black Cloud creek over "south elbert" which only has a roughtly 200ft drop between Elbert proper. However, it does have a register on it, in the form of an ammo box with a registry list in it. this doesn't even appear on the 14er list, perhaps because it isn't an official USGS named peak... I've seen it refered to just as a hump on the tourist map for the leadville area as to approaches to Elbert.

And we think the 46rs have issues with the non 4k peaks on the 46r list

Jay

 

[Tom Rankin]

They have their own 'little' debates, just like all hiking clubs seem to. The link you quote actually lists 58 peaks, with 5 having an "*". So what's a body to do? Just hike 'em all!

 

[Jay H]

They have their own 'little' debates, just like all hiking clubs seem to. The link you quote actually lists 58 peaks, with 5 having an "*". So what's a body to do? Just hike 'em all!

I'm working on it!

Jay

 

[Craig]

Hey Jay,

I'm in Leadville this week working on the 54
Great weather so far. Hope it's not a nightmare flying out of Denver on Sunday.
Looking forward to your TR.

 

[Jay H]

Cool, we car camped at White Star in Twin Lakes during our stay in the northern Sawatch range, nice place, busy on weekends though. Really close to the Black Cloud Creek trailhead for Elbert and the S.F. Lake Creek trailhead for La Plata. Good luck on your 14ers! We didn't get a chance to do Massive though. Our flight out of DIA on the 24th went fine, it was though at 6am so we missed most of the volume. They did have some burly armed men in Priuses on the road entrance to the airport doing random vehicle checks though and a lot of blue shirt security folks at the gate security.

Jay

 

[sweeper]

Climbed Mt Elbert back in '79 as part of a recon team. I was stationed at Ft. Carson and my company commander had this hair ball idea to hike the company up Elbert and then around to Massive, IN FEBRUARY!

I knew that wasn't going to happen but signed up for the recon climb. We even got a Huey ride around the two mountains the day before.

The 14 you want to climb is Pikes Peak. It's lower and a lot more people but has 7000'+ vertical elevation and 13 miles one way. Nice day hike.

 

[Motabobo]

South Elbert is such nice a walk, avoiding the crowds and hardly a trail, heck a cairn, on the ridge to follow. Awesome canister as well (I wish we had those here, the canister bandit would think twice before removing one ) I think it didn't make it on the list because of the col ?!

 

[Jay H]

I think it didn't make it on the list because of the col ?!

yeah, the 14ers list a 300ft drop requirement on the col and there is hardly any drop from So. Elbert to the col for Elbert proper, like 200ft, if that if I remember.

It also appears not to be named by the USGS topo at least when looking at the terrain on Google maps...

But it is a beautiful little summit, actually when I summited Mt Elbert, it was about 10:15am and way too early for me to eat lunch and kind of starting to get crowded so I returned to So Elbert and ate lunch and sat/lounged there for like 45 minutes, it's got about 95% of the views with a bigger and less crowded summit, and like you said, a cool ammo box "canister". And it is closer to my favorite 14er so far, La Plata Peak.

Jay

 

[blacknblue]

North Maroon Peak (near Aspen) is often not counted as a true 14er, though it is one of the finest climbs to any 14,000 point -- much more so than the 'real' 14er, South Maroon Peak. Just another reason peakbagging lists should not determine your to-do list. Especially in Colorado.

 

[ColdRiverRun]

The 14 you want to climb is Pikes Peak. It's lower and a lot more people but has 7000'+ vertical elevation and 13 miles one way. Nice day hike.

Yeah Jay, just run the the Pikes Peak marathon one day, that way you'll have time to bag something later in the day!

 

[ColdRiverRun]

You might also really enjoy reading Cave Dog's page on his 14ers record. I consider his 10 day 20 hour trip through them all one of the most amazing feats of physical skill and planning I have ever heard of. He lived in the mountains including sleeping in a cave for a long time (where the nickname came from) and climbed them all I believe like 5 times in two years before the attempt. He had filled an entire notebook on recon and trail thoughts related to the record chase.

 

[Jay H]

CRR: I remember reading about that when that was on... It is very cool, also considering how spread apart the 14ers are. The Sawatch contains the most of them, i.e. 15, but there are pikes and long's peak that kind of sit out by themselves. Now Long's Peak looks like a real cool peak to do, but seems pretty popular so perhaps a weekday would be good for that one. We (Tmax and I) stayed at a friend of a friend's place in Woodland Park, who has a view of Pike's Peak out the window except when we were there it was socked in a cloud. They had the marathon up Pikes on a pretty bad weather day... I think it was Aug 16th this year.

There are a lot of 13rs that looked really interesting, for sure, if I lived there, that is what I would probably do on the weekends rather than the bigger peaks.

Jay

 

[rup]

Long hike, big vertical, and at altiude. Must really suck wind on these.

 

[Jay H]

Pictures and a short report are up!

Jay

 

[albee]

I just did Longs and Elbert last week, too. No problems with the weather but I'll admit I was feeling the thin air. One thing I noticed was that there are lots of free places to camp near the trailheads - wish it was that easy back here in the east!

Another note on peakbagging in Colorado - the "purists" supposedly only count a peak if you have climbed at least 3,000' vertical to get to the summit. For "ridge runs" like the Lincoln group, you would have to start 1,000' below the trailhead, and do 3 separate hikes in order to count the 3 peaks!

 

[Jay H]

Re: the campsites, yeah, there are a lot of nice camping opportunities at the trailheads. BLM land is free and there are also some other primative spots that are listed in the guides and stuff. We did a mixture of free camping and car camping we were there, staying at Twin Lakes for 2 nights while by Leadville.

Jay

 

[nartreb]

Another note on peakbagging in Colorado - the "purists" supposedly only count a peak if you have climbed at least 3,000' vertical to get to the summit. For "ridge runs" like the Lincoln group, you would have to start 1,000' below the trailhead, and do 3 separate hikes in order to count the 3 peaks!

Not quite; you're forgetting part b):

(link)
1. The Colorado Rule:

a) one must ascend at least 3,000 feet in absolute elevation gain on foot from the base of the first peak of a series.
b) foot traverses of less than 3,000 feet are allowed between peaks through traverses.
c) one must descend on foot at least 3,000 feet in absolute elevation loss back to the starting point or end of a traverse.

Correct about descending below the usual trailhead for the Lincoln group though.

 

[Craig]

You’re both right…

What albee is referring to is the pursuit of the 54 – 14ers. The purists of this pursuit have a 3000’ elevation gain per peak rule.

The rule cave dog mentions is for the 54 – 14er speed record.

Different rules for different games.