What's new?
- Trip Report:
09/03/2010 - 09/06/2010:  Jupiter Mountain, Pigeon Peak, Turret Peak
A Long Beautiful Trip in the Weminuche

- Pictures:
08/13/2011:
Mount Meeker via the Iron Gates

Welcome to my mountains page
If you close these windows, you can use the map below. This map shows "all" of the 14ers in Colorado, and by clicking on a mountain's icon, you can learn more about the peak, including elevation, rank, whether I've climbed it, etc. In addition, you will find a picture of the peak (click to enlarge) and links to picture galleries and trip reports for select peaks. If you'd like to jump straight to a list of pictures or trip reports, use the links at the bottom of the page.

Click here for an easier to use textual version of this page.

What do I mean by all?
The number of 14ers on any list varies depending on how you define a separate peak. The standard criterion is 300 feet of vertical rise from the saddle with a higher peak (prominence) and a separation of .5 miles or greater. By this criteria, there are 52 14ers. The traditional list of Colorado 14ers recognized by the Colorado Mountain Club has 54 because it includes El Diente Peak and North Maroon Peak out of tradition, though neither of which meets the vertical rise criterion.

Because it is ranked, I add Challenger Point to the standard list, which is prominent enough, but is only 400 yards (.22 miles) from the summit of Kit Carson Peak. I might change my mind on this once I climb Crestone Peak and see it from afar, but for now, this makes sense to me. There are four pseudo-fourteeners which don't meet the criteria. Mount Cameron and Conundrum Peak are included on the map, North Eolus and North Massive are not, though some lists include all four. When I look at them, they don't seem significant enough to be called separate mountains, though I've climbed North Massive and Mt. Cameron.

Things get really dicey when you include Sunlight Spire, a jagged pinnacle on the ridge of Sunlight Peak whose elevation was placed at exactly 14,000' by the recent adjustment of the data used to calculate elevation (elevations included on the map are the traditional values). Sunlight Spire is a 5.10d climb in a high-altitude environment, and if it's included, almost no one has completed the 14ers. Its prominence and separation both don't meet the criteria, and from the pictures I've seen, it doesn't seem like a separate peak to me.

Ultimately, climbing is about personal goals, so which list you follow doesn't really matter.