Colorado
14ers
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
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Colorado
14ers Frequently Asked Questions |
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14,000 foot Colorado Mountains Q: Are they dangerous? Do people die on Colorado 14ers? Q: What are the most popular 14ers? A: From the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative hiking estimates for 2019
Getting Started : Q: Where do I begin if I have no climbing experience at all? A: Get out there! Start with the easy 14'ers with class 1 routes (see my Fourteeners page). Bierstadt, Quandary, Grays or Torreys are all great first climbs. They do not require special gear but do require good conditioning and common sense. If you want to do more serious routes or mountains, I suggest joining a climbing club. There are many in Colorado and in most cities around the world. These clubs usually welcome beginners and organize local or far away trips. Do a google search for climbing clubs and your state or city. Pete and Ed's Books have a listing of clubs. Check out the Yahoo listings. Finally, the American Alpine Club is an excellent resource. The only way to learn about climbing is to get out there! Q: What kind of climbing do the 14'ers offer? A: You can do all the three major types: rock, ice and mountaineering. Rock includes climbing on boulders (aka bouldering). For rock, you usually climb with a partner roped together and use special gear to secure the rope to the rock. My pages on climbing the Flat Irons covers this type. Ice is similar and includes frozen waterfalls and steep mountain sides. Please see my Ouray page for an example. Mountaineering usually means high altitude and snow. This is not the same in Colorado as it is in Alaska or on Rainier but a winter climb to a 14'er will test every mountaineering skill you have. My Longs Peak pages, especially in the winter is a good example of 14'er mountaineering. Q: Are there age limitations to climbing 14'ers? A: Not really. It is common to see kids aged 10 or less with their parents on 14'ers as it is to see wise men and women in their 70's. For children be careful about pushing them too hard and for everyone if you have never tried a 14'er make sure you are in good health. Climbing is a dangerous sport, even on those "easy" 14'ers, so don't take chances. Q: How long does it take to climb a 14'er? A: Obviously it depends on which mountain you are climbing. An easy mountain like Bierstadt can take as little as four hours for those in great shape while a technical route with a long trek to the mountain base can take two days or more. Longs Peak is representative in taking 8 to 14 hours depending on your conditioning. Q: Money? What does it cost ? A: For the simple climbs all it costs is time, gas and simple gear. For the technical climbs, it obviously cost more due to the equipment involved. All but one 14'er is on public property so there are no other costs involved. Culebra is on private land and they charge $100 per person for access to the mountain. A few, like the Maroon Bells, are within an area that charge for parking. Q: What kind of gear do I need and how much does it cost? A: Starting with the simple climbs you need non-cotton clothing, a pack for your food, water and rain gear and some good shoes. The right type of clothes is important since the weather can change at a moments notice on these mountains and cotton clothes do not dry quickly enough to prevent you from getting cold and possibly suffering hypothermia. This is a serious consideration and every year people die or need to be rescued by ignoring this fact of mountaineering. Synthetic clothing is best and is inexpensive. You can buy what you need at REI or similar store. For rock you need shoes, harness, rope and helmet. A nice pair of rock climbing shoes cost less than $80, a harness - $35, the helmet - $40. Then you need the technical tools. A starter 'rack' of tools and the rope, about $300. Ice climbing requires boots and crampons that will run about $400 plus warm clothes. Alpine mountaineering is a big step. In addition to all the gear required for rock and ice, there is cold weather camping: down sleeping bags, down suits, large packs and more. These items can easily run over $1,500. Take a look at my gear page for a list of what I use. It is updated for 2013. For details on my expedition communications, please see this tutorial. Building Skills Q: OK, I'm ready to get started. What first? A: Get an experienced buddy who will teach you the basics or join a club. Climbing can be dangerous. You can be killed. This is serious. So be smart. The best way to start is with the class 1 routes. There is a strong temptation to skip climbs to get harder and higher. DON'T. If you want to do serious climbs you must learn the basics. You not only put your own life in danger, but that of others as well. Climbing is usually a team sport so you must be a team player. Q: What role does fitness or conditioning play in climbing? A: While you do not need to be muscle bound, you do need to be in excellent shape to attempt any mountain. The most important areas are lungs, heart and muscles. It is interesting that if you look at the best climbers in the world, they are not particularly tall. They do not have huge arm muscles. They are thin and their bodies are well balanced. They also have great lung capacity. Q: How do I get to that level of fitness? A: The absolute best way is climbing! But most of us have jobs and cannot climb every day so a combination of climbing on the weekends and aggressive exercise during the week will get you there. Focus on building lung capacity and heart strength with aerobic exercises such as running, cycling or treadmills and ellipse machines. Build your core muscles (stomach and back) with sit-ups and medicine ball exercises. Work on your heart with interval training. And finally build some overall muscle strength with reasonable weight training. Gaining
Experience Q: Any suggestions for a first 14er close to Denver? Torreys/Grays - great combo All of these are very straight forward and are great first 14ers but also have some crowds. But here are some others for investigation: La Plata - beautiful and remote Of this list, I would rank them as follows in terms of challenge, scenery and crowd factor: A List: B List: C List: Another idea is to climb Pikes Peak from the east side via the Barr Trail and spend the night at the Barr Camp either going up or down. Challenging ClimbsAs for more difficult climbs, these are the best in my opinion:
Q: What about altitude? |
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