Hiking Colorado (or other) 14ers

[chassis]

Who has, or does, hike 14ers in Colorado, or anywhere else? In meters that is 4,267m.

Planning to hike three fourteeners in the next couple of weeks. First time hiking this type of terrain for my wife and I. Last year we hiked the Dolomites in Italy and Austria and maxed out at 2,800m / 9,200ft.

Fires in CO seem like they won’t prevent the hikes, although smoke will be present to a greater or lesser degree.

Let’s hear about mountain high places!

ps I searched and didn’t find a thread for this.

[9M71]

This has been on the bucket list for me - we do a lot of hiking but never anything close to a "14er". Subscribed for pictures and recommendations!

[chassis]

Originally Posted by 9M71

This has been on the bucket list for me - we do a lot of hiking but never anything close to a "14er". Subscribed for pictures and recommendations!

9M71 Good stuff! We plan to do Grays, Torreys and Quandary. Alltrails is a great app with a lot of recent reports. 14ers and summitpost are also good but less real-time/social media interaction.

There have been reports of smoke in the area but it doesn’t seem objectionable. Grizzly Creek and Pine Gulch fires seem to be getting more contained. The big fire farther west shouldn’t affect our plans.

[Noneya]

I've done a few. If you can afford to acclimate I would highly recommend spending a few nights at 9k+ before heading up. I've had altitude headaches and have seen people have it much worse than that, especially when coming doing very fast.

And start very early in the morning planning to summit and start heading down before noon. Thunderstorms are very common after noon, and can be quite dangerous once you're above the treeline.

[happyjack]

i used to own a chunk of dirt (6 acres) at 11,200 ft under the summit of mt bross in alma. we hiked bross, cameron, lincoln, and democrat all in one day!

bagged a few other 14'ers around the durango area where my sister-in-law lives.

there's a ton of variation in terms of technical climbing vs. simple hiking. all trails is a great app and worth paying for the premium service to download the maps an trail notes if you're going to make this a regular hobby.

as Noneya mentioned, altitude sickness is common at these altitudes. we're sea-level dwellers, so we always tried to stay the first 2 nights in denver before heading up to high elevations. then a third night in the 9k-10K range before going higher. this approach generally seemed to work for me: avoid fatty, salty foods, pre-hydrate, and take a single regular strength tylenol before you set out. carry as much water as you're able, and drink it constantly.

[chassis]

I forgot to update this, thanks for the comments.

Agree on everything said. AllTrails is great, we used it extensively for researching the mountains and trails. 14ers.com and summitpost.org are also good.

We "acclimated" for 36 hours, which was not enough. We both had headaches, but were able to summit Grays Peak on our schedule. The plan was to summit Torreys Peak after Grays, via the saddle connector trail. But the previous night brought about 2 inches of snow, which was getting packed from hikers making the trail slippery. Plus the wind was howling and temps were in the upper 20s at the summit, so we bailed on Torreys and descended back to the trailhead.

We gave ourselves a rest day after Grays, then summited Quandary Peak. Conditions were perfect in the morning, and at the summit. Clear skies, 37 deg F at the trailhead and in the 50s at the summit with almost no wind. The downclimb was pretty warm because of clear skies, although the temp was only in the 50s. I was parched and tired when I got back to the vehicle.

We hiked during the week, and during the school year, so while there were plenty of other hikers, it didn't feel crowded. I would not do this on a summer weekend during school vacation.

Colorado is a great place from an outdoors point of view. I lived there for a short while, and have skied several times. Lots to like.

Photos:
1. Parking lot at the trailhead of Grays Peak. The 2.6 mile access road is notoriously bad. The M-B handled it well.
2. Grays summit
3. Grays summit showing ever changing conditions with wind, snow, fog, clouds and sun
4. Pre-sunrise moon on Quandary ascent
5. Moonset part way up Quandary
6. Quandary summit

p.s Blast (again) this photo uploader! This is the only forum I use that fails to upload in the proper orientation.

[happyjack]

chassis great pics! you were right there in my old stopping grounds. we've done a couple of hikes on quandry. the property i used to own was just over hoosier pass in alma.

if you go back to that area, you can bag four 14-ers in one day just above alma: mts bross, cameron, lincoln, and democrat are all right in a row there.

[chassis]

Originally Posted by happyjack

chassis great pics! you were right there in my old stopping grounds. we've done a couple of hikes on quandry. the property i used to own was just over hoosier pass in alma.

if you go back to that area, you can bag four 14-ers in one day just above alma: mts bross, cameron, lincoln, and democrat are all right in a row there.

happyjack Yes I am familiar with Hoosier Ridge, having seen it on maps during our scouting. We spoke with a guy at the TH of Quandary who had attempted the four peak circuit. I think he got three of them, because he was pinned down for two hours by snow and wind. This was two weeks ago, a day or two before my Grays photo above. The weather did a quick dip into the nasties, then back to blue skies.

We are not technical climbers, so whatever peaks we hike would need to have little to no exposure, approx the same as Grays and Quandary. We have also hiked the Dolomites in Italy and Austria, for reference. Challenging, but not too dangerous.

[LaVitaEBella]

Originally Posted by chassis

I forgot to update this, thanks for the comments.

Agree on everything said. AllTrails is great, we used it extensively for researching the mountains and trails. 14ers.com and summitpost.org are also good.

We "acclimated" for 36 hours, which was not enough. We both had headaches, but were able to summit Grays Peak on our schedule. The plan was to summit Torreys Peak after Grays, via the saddle connector trail. But the previous night brought about 2 inches of snow, which was getting packed from hikers making the trail slippery. Plus the wind was howling and temps were in the upper 20s at the summit, so we bailed on Torreys and descended back to the trailhead.

We gave ourselves a rest day after Grays, then summited Quandary Peak. Conditions were perfect in the morning, and at the summit. Clear skies, 37 deg F at the trailhead and in the 50s at the summit with almost no wind. The downclimb was pretty warm because of clear skies, although the temp was only in the 50s. I was parched and tired when I got back to the vehicle.

We hiked during the week, and during the school year, so while there were plenty of other hikers, it didn't feel crowded. I would not do this on a summer weekend during school vacation.

Colorado is a great place from an outdoors point of view. I lived there for a short while, and have skied several times. Lots to like.

Photos:
1. Parking lot at the trailhead of Grays Peak. The 2.6 mile access road is notoriously bad. The M-B handled it well.
2. Grays summit
3. Grays summit showing ever changing conditions with wind, snow, fog, clouds and sun
4. Pre-sunrise moon on Quandary ascent
5. Moonset part way up Quandary
6. Quandary summit

p.s Blast (again) this photo uploader! This is the only forum I use that fails to upload in the proper orientation.

Wow, it seems like both of you had fun. The views looks amazing.