This page lists my log of the Colorado 14'ers. Since I've climbed them all, I figure that entitles me to the right to rank them. I do so based on exertion level and fear factor (i.e. exposure). Following this list are trip reports for some of the recent 14ers I've climbed.

General comments on 14ers:

1. What mountain to start with: I cannot count the number of people that talk to me about starting to climb 14ers by climbing Longs Peak. I also cannot help myself from encouraging them to start on an easier one. If you're new to 14ers, you don't have to start on Grays and Torreys with the hordes. Check out my log below to find one that suites you.
2. Guides: When I started climbing the tougher peaks, I decided to use a guide on a few. My decision was based on 1) route-finding, and 2) the reputed difficulty of the peak and my inexperience on such a mountain. I hired a guide for 1) the Maroon Bells traverse, 2) Pyramid and 3) Capitol. I've often thought, after completing all 14ers, if I would hire a guide again, or if I needed to hire a guide in the first place. For me, it was the right decision at the right time. If I were to do these 4 mountains again, I would hire a guide for the traverse of the Bells. The reason is that it is very complex route finding. I wouldn't need a guide on Capitol or Pyramid.
3. Difficulty ratings and the 14er marketing blitz: So many books and logs I've seen attempt to rate the difficulty of the peaks without really giving the meaning of difficulty. Part of the "marketing blitz" / commercialization of the 14'ers even goes so far as to categorize them into what skiers will recognize - double black diamond for very difficult, black diamond for difficult. You cannot judge a 16 mile hike and climb of a 14,000+ ft. peak as you would a 1500' ski run.  For one person, difficulty may mean how long it took to climb the mountain and how tired they were at the end of the climb.  For others, difficulty is not so much the exertion of the climb, but the fear factor of exposure (i.e., climbing in an area where the result of a fall would mean injuries, at best). Therefore, I'm attempting to rate both exertion and fear in my log...keep in mind, these are still subjective :-)

I can't resist listing my "difficult peaks" - ones that are above and beyond the others. If you are new to climbing, my suggestion would be to first tackle some of the ones other than these listed below:

# 1  Maroon Bells with connecting ridge. North and South Maroon with the ridge takes the cake hands down for exposure / fear. It is also a difficult day on the exertion scale. Route-finding on the ridge, and on S. Maroon, is extremely complex and the implications of a wrong choice can be deadly. We hired a guide with 20 years of experience on the "Deadly Bells"...best decision I ever made.

# 2  Pyramid Peak - OK, so this one gets an entry on the exertion level.  Nearly all of it is as steep as you will find.  The last part includes some "thrilling" exposure that leaves you wondering "How in the heck am I going to get back down this mountain?".  For some reason, the trip down wasn't nearly as bad as the trip up for me.

# 2  Capitol Peak - Definitely ties with Pyramid Peak as second only to the Bells.  In general, the rock is better than the Bells or Pyramid, but not always.  You have to test every single hand and foot-hold.   Several areas from K2 on to the summit are very exposed.  This was my "break-through" climb on exposure.  I felt very good on this one, and am much more comfortable with exposure.  This mountain is very, very awesome to look at and nothing to mess with in bad weather. 

# 4 Kit Carson - A new entry to my top list, based solely on exertion. I've been quite proud of my ability to tackle peaks above 14,000 ft. and not be that affected by the exertion. However, this mountain is massive and the route that we took (S. Colony Lakes) meant climbing above 13,000 ft. for 8 hours. Very, very impressive mountain that is certainly doable, but do yourself a favor before doing the S. Colony Lakes route - exercise your butt off! (note: Kit Carson climbed with Challenger from the Willow Lake approach is substantially easier).

# 5 El Diente - Another great climb in a great location. Much snow work was necessary on July 9, 1999. The constant switching between loose rock, snow on top of rocky slabs, and exposure make for necessary caution. The summit is one of the smallest I've been on!

# 6 Mt. Wilson - A very fun climb and, as is typical in the San Juans and San Miguels, beauty from the top was unparalleled. The climb is strenuous, if done from the Silver Pick Basin trailhead. The last 200 ft. is quite exposed, and nothing to be messed with in bad weather.

# 7 Mt. Eolus - Intimidating just to look at.   The "Sidewalk in the Sky", with a 1-5 ft. width and 600 - 800 ft. of cliffs on either side isn't the worse.  It's when you get beyond this that the real climb starts.  This one is nothing to mess with in less than perfect weather.

# 8 Little Bear - Hope for a beautiful, warm day and start early. The standard route is short, but involves a dangerous couloir (aka "the bowling alley") that will deposit any rocks from climbers above you right in your face. Distance from this to the summit is short, so if there are climbers above you, back far away and let them finish before you even think about proceeding.

# 9 Crestone Peak - A long day, with tricky routes up all sides of this mountain. For the "easiest" route, try the south couloir. This route has a lot of class 3 scrambling, and much loose rock ... so, be kind to those below you, and be cautious of those above you.

# 10 Crestone Needle - If you're used to Class 3 climbing with exposure, this peak won't bother your fear factor. The holds are bomb-proof and they appear every two feet. The climb itself is not that long. All in all, a very fun climb that is still challenging for the more experienced climbers. My favorite 14er.

Others that deserve noting are below.  These are definitely more difficult than your "standard" 14'er, but certainly are do-able by the average bear.  Not in any particular order:

Longs Peak - 18 miles with some exposure.  My first taste of exposure was on this mountain, and I still don't like it.

Wetterhorn Peak - The final several hundred feet climb to the summit (after the "Ship's Prow" rock) is exposed and all hand and foot scrambling.  We hit it when it was wet, so had to be extra cautious.   The mountain is rugged and a fun climb, then you are surprised by the grassy summit.  Views of Uncompaghre are stunning.

Holy Cross - What a wonderful climb.   This is pretty high on fatigue factor, as you lose 1,000 ft. on the ascent.   And, guess what - that means on the descent, you have to climb that 1,000 ft.  That's just not right on a descent!

My Log

Maroon Bells:  Hired a guide from Dick Jackson's "Aspen Expeditions", which turned out to be a very wise move.  I decided in June to climb the Bells, and hired "Cardo" as our guide.  We drove to Aspen, drove to Maroon Lake (after vehicles were allowed on that road - 5 p.m., I think).  One of my climbing partners stared at N. Maroon and said "There's no way...it can't be done."  This describes the Bells.  They look like an extremely steep version of the Egyptian Pyramids.  To look at N. Maroon, you laugh thinking that the trail up and down is right up the East face.  We met Cardo Friday at 4 a.m.  We started climbing around 4:15 or 4:20.  Cardo decided to take us up Maroon Peak, the southern peak, first because he liked doing the ridge from Maroon to N. Maroon better.  Less exposed, he said.  We climbed up Maroon Creek, then took a direct route up Maroon's east face to an obvious saddle SE of the summit.  Here, we donned helmets and climbed the West side of Maroon Peak.  The west side was made up of considerably more crumbly rock, and had several areas that were exposed.  You have to watch what rock you grab, because it could easily come loose on you.  We climbed for slightly more than an hour, going what I thought was way north of Maroon Peak.   We then shot straight up to its summit.  Then, the fun began.  A nerve-wracking descent down the NE face of Maroon, then a sharp western turn over some really loose rock takes you to "the ridge".  From this point, you see ledges for 2000 ft. down and 500 ft. up.  Cardo led us through this maze.  There were many, many exposed ridges - one that had probably 200 ft. down on our left and about a foot's width at its narrowest.  Fortunately, this was only about 25 ft. long.   There was one part where we climbed a completely vertical section with ample hand and foot holds, but you didn't know where it led to.  I led this section, and thanked God when it came to a wide ledge.  Cardo led us past the traditional summit approach, favoring a very narrow gully where we climbed about 1 ft. apart in case one slipped.   We reached the summit, quite tired.  Coming down was extremely steep, and we roped in for a 25 ft. descent down a rock chute.  It was really amazing, because we were climbing down what my partner had said couldn't be done.  13 hours after our start, we reached our vehicles.  The next day, we were quite sore.

San Luis Peak:  Climbed July 4th, 1998.   This was my first 14'er after my surger in 11/97.  I drove approximately 5 hrs. from Denver to the trailhead, hiked in about half way and set up camp on a Friday night.  This was one of the most beautiful hikes I've ever done, as you stroll along a creek that is one beaver pond after another.  I was even treated to a 5 minute beaver show.  I left camp at 6:40 a.m. the next day, climbed mellow trails for about 45 minutes to the fork in the creeks.  At this point, the trail takes an obvious route up an 800', fairly steep climb, to the saddle between the west summit of Organ Mtn. and a San Luis false summit.  A stroll past the false summit leads you to the summit climb, which isn't that steep.  I reached the summit at 8:50 a.m., 2hrs. and 10 minutes of climbing. 

Redcloud & Sunshine: I climbed these July 19th, 1998.  My family and I drove from Evergreen down to the trailhead and camped out the night before - a 7 hr. drive with two small children.  The next morning, I hit the Silver Creek trailhead at 6:25 a.m.  Approximately 2 hours and some change brought me 4 miles to the saddle just before Redcloud's summit.  Then, it was a slog up steep, very loose, very small scree.  I summited at 9:20, and was treated to a gorgeous view of the San Juans, especially Wetterhorn, Uncompaghre and Matterhorn to the North.  The book said it was 1/2 mi. to Sunshine, but it looked 1 1/2 at least.  I did the traverse to Sunshine in 1 hr.  While on that summit, I noticed a small cloud had built up quite high.  I hurried off the summit, and was "treated" to 4 claps of thunder as the cloud built and built.  Had to re-summit Redcloud to get down.  Breathing a bit easier off of Redcloud's summit, at 13,000 ft. I encountered 3 groups totaling 15 people.  All but one were going on to the summit, despite the darkening skies.  This was by far the fastest build-up I had ever seen, and reminded me of the most significant danger of climbing 14'ers.  All in all, this was a gorgeous hike and totaled probably between 12 and 15 miles in 7 hours.   Well worth the 14 hours of driving!

Humboldt Peak:  This was my first peak off of the South Colony Trail.  There are 4 14'ers off of this trail, and 3 of them are considered quite difficult, Humboldt not being one of them.  So, I got a good look at these other three - ones that I have left to do.  I did this one with a friend.  We spent about 5 hrs. driving down to the road, and then spend about 1.5 hrs. driving 7 miles on one of the toughest 4-wheel drives in the state.  Reaching the end of the road, we began our climb at 6:45 a.m.  You climb to the S. Colony Lakes, and there are 2 routes to get to them from the road.  The first is just before the creek crossing.  The second is after, at the end of the road.  I recommend the latter, as the first is usually quite wet, and really a creek itself if it's just rained.  1.25 miles gets you to the lakes on the 2nd route, and there an obvious trail leads up to the saddle of Humboldt's west ridge.  From here, you have about an hour left to gain the final 1,000 ft. to get to the summit.  Avoid the temptation (and following previous routes!) to go on the North side of the West ridge.  This can deposit you near some cliff's on the peak's northern side, and leave you cussing.   Stick to the ridge proper, and you will scramble over boulders for some fun climbing to the summit.  Trail to summit for us was just under 3 hrs.  We encountered some rain and some pretty good snow near the top.  As is usual, descend the ascent route.  The view of the Crestones and Kit Carson is phenomenal from Humboldt.  Bring a camera, and use it often.

Capitol Peak:  Hired our Aspen Expeditions guide for this trip. Backpacked to the Capitol Lake (~9 miles from the trailhead), then climbed Capitol the next day.  The climb from the lake is about an hour and is steep.  From the saddle there, you go around the back side (east) of the ridge and cross several snowfields.  Then, climb W up K2.  Here you will find some of the most extreme exposure on the climb.  This is where you strap your helmet on.   K2, while short, is exposed.  Don't miss the hole in the rocks just before exiting off of K2 - you can see several hundred feet below you - yippee!  We moved on to the Knife Edge - this is about 150' long, and is very, very thin.  The exposure here isn't as bad as the 1st part of K2, nonetheless you want to do it and get done with it!  I straddled the knife edge about 1/2 the way, then used the good holds the other 1/2.  After the Edge, we chose a traversing route to the climber's left, avoiding the direct route to the summit which was more exposed. However, we traversed several couloirs that were very exposed and did a lot Class 3 and 4 climbing.  The final approach to the summit is also quite exposed.  All in all, this is the most beautiful mountain I've ever seen in Colorado.  If you love mountains, by all means backpack the nine miles to Capitol Lake.

Mt. Sneffels:  We did the Yankee Boy Basin approach.  From Ouray, take the Camp Bird Mine / Imogene Pass road and follow it to Yankee Boy Basin.  If you're 4-wheeling it, drive to the sign for the Blue and Wright Lakes trails.  Climb about 1 - 1.5 miles on this trail, pass Wright Lake and follow the sign to the Sneffels trail.  Here, you climb the obvious Lavender Col to the saddle, swing left and climb a steep, fun gully to the summit saddle.  Here, you will probably say "Where do I go now?".  The answer lies in dropping about 30' before the final saddle and climbing a route to your left.  There are a few routes, and the 2nd to last one contains the least exposure.  You'll see about 20-30' of air below you, but you've got excellent hand and foot holds.  From here, climb the obvious short route to the summit.  A gorgeous mountain with an impressive view!

Wetterhorn:  We climbed the Matterhorn Creek trail.  This was about 3 miles of 4-wheeling off of the Engineer Pass road.   Do NOT miss a stay in Lake City...see if you can find the bones that Alfred Packer left behind.  The climb goes into the stunning Matterhorn Basin, where you don't see Wetterhorn for a few hundred feet.  Don't miss the trail to your left that takes you off into the depths of the Basin.  Follow this to the south ridge of Wetterhorn, and climb the ridge, or traverse its gullies, to the Ship's Prow, a huge stone block that cuts the summit ridge.  Do a couple of pull-ups here and get prepared for some excellent hand and foot scrambling.  This gully was wet for us, but the rock was good.  Be careful as some of the rocks can be loose.  Also, watch for moisture and climbers above you.  A false step on the climb to the summit up this ridge is not advised, as the exposure is better viewed than experienced.  Three hours to the summit.  All in all, one of my favorites!

Handies:  Climbed from the American Basin, off the Cinnamon Pass road.  We climbed from the Basin trailhead, up to near the lake, then the South ridge to the summit.  The trail is obvious, and tops you out with some gorgeous views to the South.  One of the best views I've had.  We did this one after Sneffels that a.m., then driving Cinnamon Pass from Ouray.  We started at 4:50 p.m. with great weather, summited at 6:45, and returned to our vehicle at 7:55.  This is the first time I've ever climbed late in the afternoon.  We would have stayed for the sunset, but the clouds to the South were starting to produce moisture and electricity.   Incredible views - some of the best!!

Crestone Needle:  8/28/99. Brian Schultz of Minnesota and I hooked up for our first 14er climb together. We had met via the Internet on abovethetimber.com. We chose the wonderful (not!) South Colony Lakes road as our start, and hooked up the night before to camp at the end of the road. We got a pretty early start at 5:45 a.m. The prior night had seen much, much rain and the skies were overcast but not threatening. We set off at a good clip for Broken Hand Pass and reached it at 7:35 a.m. The start of the climb is at 11,060 and Broken Hand is 12,900. From Broken Hand, we swung North (right) along a well-defined trail and in 30 minutes, we reached the small level area where the South-facing couloirs begin. There is a big stone arrow below where you stand, so keep an eye out for that to mark the obvious start of the couloir climb. Most route descriptions say to start in the 1st couloir and climb it until it steepens into a corner, then cross to your left into the 2nd couloir. Well, our visibility was about 30-50' and to tell you the truth, we just went up.

We had heard that climbing the 1st one is quite feasible. And, I think that is what we did. From the arrow, directly above about 20' you see a small cairn. We went past this to a more prominent set of cairns and the black-stained rock. We went up this route, and for the first 200' or so, it wasn't that steep. It definitely steepened and we did see an exit to our left, but we were feeling pretty good about our route and continued on up. Handholds on the Needle couloirs are extremely good. If anyone has climbed in the Elks, you will almost feel that the Needle's rock is like an octopus grabbing on to you! The previous night's rains made dry conditions close to non-existent, but we were careful when using wet rock. The water that stains the rock reaches a crack here, and we went right up the crack. There were a couple of leverage moves required that weren't so great, and we determined that we should find a way around these on the more treacherous descent. We then topped out above the water, and this is where (I believe) the 2nd couloir joins from the left. We angled slightly left and mostly up, then topped out on the summit after 30 or 40 feet of scrambling. Summit time was 9:05 a.m., translating to a climb time (to summit, of course) of 3 hrs. 20 min. and a couloir climb of 1 hr.

For the descent, we angled more southerly - which is to your left on the way down. This was nice, albeit a bit steeper than the ascent route. However, we completely avoided the running water down the crack and thus the two tricky moves. We stayed completely left, which deposited us above the afore-mentioned arrow back on the ridge to Broken Hand peak. This was quite a bit steeper than our initial 200' on the ascent, but not scary at all. In retrospect, our route choice was near-perfect. We arrived back at the truck at 12:45, meaning a total climb time of 7 hrs. This mountain was extremely fun climbing and not as daunting as I had read. For anyone used to Class 3 climbing, it doesn't get much more stable or fun than the Needle.

Uncompaghre:   September 18, 1998 brought myself and a friend to the summit of Uncompaghre.  We drove from the Denver area to the trailhead (5.25 hours) of Nellie Creek.  This trail is about 4 miles west of Lake City on the Engineer Pass road.  Moderate 4-wheeling for 4 miles from the Engineer Pass road gets you to the Nellie Creek trailhead.  We climbed the next morning on an obvious route to Uncompaghre in 2 hours, 15 minutes.  Uncompaghre Peak is the peak that comes into your view nearly directly ahead of you - to the northwest of the trail.  On your left (SW) and right (NE) are much lower peaks.  The trail is quite obvious - don't take the trail over the saddle to the Big Blue Wilderness.  The summit is large, and yes, the views from this peak (as the tallest peak in the San Juans) are for miles, miles and more miles.  We could spot nearly every fourteener in the state, save those like Long's Peak and Pike's peak.  This was one of the milder 14'ers as far as exertion and fear factor, but very rewarding!

Wilson Peak:   We drove from Denver to the Silver Pick Basin trailhead, just outside of Telluride, June 5th - a 6.5 hr. drive. Enduring a mosquito swarm that night, we climbed Wilson Peak on the 6th. We chose the route up the West couloir, which was filled entirely with snow. The Silver Pick Basin trail had several snow crossings as well. The couloir up to the ridge was hard snow, so we had to be careful to kick solid foot steps into it. We were thankful for having our ice axes with us - this route could not have been done without them. The last 50' out of the snow couloir was slightly exposed and contained weak rock that necessitated careful hand and foot climbing. We summited after about 3 hrs. of climbing, then enjoyed a fine glissade that dropped us back down into Silver Pick Basin.

Mt. Wilson:   We did this peak from the Silver Pick Basin trailhead as well. We left the trailhead at 5:45 a.m., climbed up and over the Rock of Ages saddle and traversed around the Navajo Basin to Wilson's north couloir. From here, we traversed the snow up to the rock rib in the middle of the two substantial couloirs. We took the right (west) of this rib but should have taken the left (east) of it. The rock is loose and dangerous. At the top of the rib, the trail on the climber's left is very well defined and puts you right smack dab at the crux of the climb - the backside of Mt. Wilson (the south side). While intimidating to view, its exposure does not rival the 1000' + ft. found on many 14'ers - merely a couple of hundred (OK, so the result of a fall would be the same). It is a careful scramble using good hand and foot climbing technique up the ledgy rock, but only for a 150' or 200' elevation gain - about 10 minutes. We summited after 6 hrs. of climbing, then "enjoyed" a 4 hr. slog back to camp.

El Diente:   For some strange reason, I hadn't heard that this peak was nearly comparable in difficulty to Mt. Wilson. Just goes to show you - don't believe anything you hear, nothing you read and only half of what you see. The half that I saw convinced me that this peak deserves as much, if not slightly more, respect than Mt. Wilson. We again left the Silver Pick trailhead at 6:10 a.m., crossed the Rock of Ages Saddle, then dropped 900' elevation into Navajo Basin to the northern face of El Diente. As Louis Dawson recommends, we picked our snow line from the Rock of Ages saddle view, then committed it to memory. The snow was less than ideal - in general, it was too soft to give you that stable foot-hold. The last crossing below the infamous "Organ Pipes" dropped us out onto a slab of smooth rock underneath snow - yuck. A tricky friction move was required to clear this hurdle. From here, it was largely a traverse well-marked by cairns around the north side. There is some exposure on scree and taulus, so be careful. After nearly 6 hrs of climbing, we reached the summit. Fortunately, there were only two of us - there wouldn't have been room for anymore on top. Instead of Mt. Wilson's 4 hr. descent, we thoroughly enjoyed a 5 hr. return trip to the trailhead - the best part of which was gaining that 900' back to the Rock of Ages Saddle!

Kit Carson:   WOW! This is one monster of a mountain. We chose the more difficult route from S. Colony road - not because it was more difficult, but because that was where we did the Needle from the day before. Brian Schultz of Minnesota and I hooked up for our 2nd climb together and we got an early start. Much like the day before, it rained the previous night and we were greeted with overcast skies with a cloud ceiling at 13,000 ft. We started very early at 4:55 a.m. because we knew we had a long day.

After a good pace of ascent to the saddle of Humboldt / Crestone Peak (we chose the couloirs above Upper S. Colony Lake, not the Humboldt trail), we topped out at 13,140 at 7:35 a.m. Here, we found the cloud ceiling and visibility was 30' at best. We had chosen a more westerly couloir because the rock was more firm. However, this puts you out closer to the Crestone Peak North Couloir route trail, and it is a good drop down into the Bear's Playground. Since neither one of us had been here before, and we could only see about 30', we didn't know where the Playground was. We knew it was flat, thus we were concerned when we saw things quite steep. Well, we hunted around for 30 minutes trying to find it, and finally Brian found the flat of the playground to the east. We got a bit of brief clearing, enough to see the point 13,799 in part of its glory, but nothing behind it.

So, we went for that point and ended up summiting it for Roach's extra credit. We couldn't find the cairns to its left ridge (which avoid about 400' of elevation gain) due to poor visibility, but we managed to follow the ridge down to the saddle and the first sub-peak of Kit Carson - I believe they call it Kitty Kat Carson. You run up this guy until you nearly reach its summit, then shoot NW, descend slightly, then over the western shoulder of another ridge, which I believe is still part of this sub peak. Then, there is a scramble on over to Kat Carson, where you come out on a well-marked cairn route about 100' or so below its summit. Here is where the climb is supposed to really start with Class 3 "blocks". This turned out to be much less daunting than we had imagined. Careful climbing along well-marked cairns puts you a couple of hundred feet lower to an obvious gully with some water running down it. On your right, you see the saddle between Kat and Kit, and below you you see the gully leading to another gully that goes to this saddle. We chose this route, encountering cairns dropping immediately into another very, very airy gully. I looked over and said "no way, don't know why these cairns are here" and we continued down to a 15' plateau. One tricky move drops you into the gully.

From here, you have two choices. Go pretty much straight to your left to a grassy ledge or go up to the notch between Kat and Kit. Both take you to trails that lead you into the Class 3 gully climb to the summit. We chose the notch. We climbed the steep rubble to Kit's ridge and summited at 11:45 - 6 hrs. and 50 min. from our start! We were both in pretty good shape, but being above 13,000 since 7:35 really was taking its toll on our stamina! We followed our ascent route back, reaching the Bears Playground at 3:30. We had been running above 13k for about 8 hours. We dropped back down and reached our vehicles at the end of the road at 5:35 - a total of 12 hrs. and 40 mins! This mountain just put itself very high on my list of tough ones - and, unlike all my other tough ones, it did it only on exertion level! Impressive mountain!

Snowmass:   The last of my 14ers in the infamous Elk Range, I climbed this one with a friend on June 17th, 2000 and was left with a great sense of accomplishment. I'd heard from many people while climbing the Bells or Capital how Snowmass was easy. Compared to those mountains, I suppose it was. However, there are several friends that I would not suggest they do this one just because it still had plenty of that Elks scrambling to it.

We had tried Snowmass last year, but 1999 was a tough climbing summer - especially early. Lots of late snowfall made the going slow and strenuous the last 2 miles on the pack into the lake. Then, we spent 1.5 hours navigating the edge of the lake - all on snow. This year was different. Two 5-10 ft. snow crossings around the lake, and 20 minutes after our start brought us to the couloir - which was completely void of snow. A slog up that, then we were on relatively solid snow - considering the mid 60s temperature. Then, a steep grunt to the ridge. Peeking on the west side of the ridge, we were quite surprised to see our "easy" jaunt to the summit ahead of us. It is steep, sometimes exposed, but yet very, very fun class 3 and 4 scrambling. Sitting on top of the summit at 11:30, 4 1/2 hours from our start from the lake, we were basking in 72 degree heat. We chose the NE ridge to find a couloir for a glissade, but this was cut short as the snow was getting quite soft. Packing out that day, we realized we had done 21 miles in 29 hours, 16 of them with 45 lb. packs. Yes, the hot tub felt good that evening.

Lindsey:   The only concern I had on this peak was getting lost in the forest around the river. This didn't happen, as the route described by Roach and Dawson was really straightforward. Jeff and I hooked up with 2 guys we met, one from my hometown of Evergreen, the other from Denver. The four of us started around 6:45. The views of Blanca's north face were spectacular. After a couple hours of climbing, you reach a saddle with a view of Lindsey's north face and false summit. From here, it looks very, very steep. We chose a route up the couloirs instead of the ridge, but ended up cutting halfway over to the ridge because of the rubble in the couloirs. This turned out to be a much more pleasant scramble to the summit at 10:30. Due to building clouds, we came back to the saddle quickly and had lunch.

All in all, a short climb with some fun scrambling. Highly recommended as a warm-up for those that don't want to, or haven't, tackled some of the exposed Class 3/4 climbs.

Culebra:   Culebra peak, which was on the Taylor Ranch, was closed in the summer of 1999 to climbing when the ranch changed hands. The Colorado Mtn. Club negotiated for 1 climb of 30 members in 2000, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the 30. The traditional route up Culebra was to drive to 11,500 ft., and then you had an easy 2 mile climb to the summit. We had to park at ranch headquarters, and begin our climb from there. So, a 5,000 ft., 13 mile day! It really was fun to experience the beauty of the ranch. The climb was uneventful, and we were at the summit by 10:45. Fun coming back down the 5,000 ft. was another story. The ranch manager proved to be very nice, and I hope that others will be able to enjoy this pristine 14er. Now, there are only 2 left.

Little Bear:   For some reason, this one really had me apprehensive, and that ticked me off. For logistical reasons, it was going to be one of my last (it is up the worst 4-wheel road in the state). On August 3, 2000, 2 friends and I drove to 10,000 ft. and hiked for 1.5 hours to above Como Lake. We started the next morning at 5 a.m., panicking because we saw 2 headlamps going towards Little Bear. We had all read how you should not do Little Bear with others above you, due to rock fall danger. By 5:15, we caught up with a father and son, and we all agreed to climb together. Nobody else was in front! We reached the saddle by 5:50, moving at a great clip. We were at the base of the infamous hourglass by 6:30 or so, and noticed a rope a hundred or so feet above. One climber asked if I thought that was the rappel at the top of the hourglass, and I replied that it couldn't be that short of a climb to complete the hourglass.

Within 5 minutes of class 3 scrambling, we were at what was the obvious Class 4 section. There was a constant, but small trickle of water coming down the middle. We split going right and left of the water for another 5 minutes, then climbed to the anchor, where it was obvious we had just completed the class 4 section. I couldn't believe it. All that fear and reputation of the infamous hourglass, and it was completed in 10 minutes with no fear. Granted, this has been an extremely dry and hot summer, so no ice and very little water was encountered. At 7:50, we summited Little Bear, having favored going left after the hourglass. If you continued straight up after the anchor at the top of the hourglass, you'd get into some pretty hairy stuff and be right of the summit. Round trip, we were down in 6 hours, which included 30-40 minutes lounging on top.

All in all, a gorgeous climb that proved to be much easier than its reputation. Keep in mind that we had all things going for us: 1) an early start, 2) nobody in front of us, 3) warm weather and 4) no ice or significant water coming down the hourglass. Even though we had no problems, I can easily see why this one has killed and injured several people at the base of the hourglass - any, any rock loosed from above goes through an 8-10 ft. wide slot and gets going very fast. And, there is a lot of loose crud above it that can be kicked down. If you do this one, heed the advice - wait it out if there is anybody above you (after you move to the side). Be patient - it's a short summit from the top of the hourglass.

Crestone Peak:   # 54 ... the last required trip up the dreaded S. Colony Lakes road! My brother from Nashville extended his stay to climb with me on my last peak, and it was his first time in the Crestones. Two things are certain in the Crestones: incredible scenery, and at least one day with bad weather. After enduring lots of rain in the afternoon, we awoke to mostly clear skies Saturday a.m., yet with those all too familiar clouds ringing the summit of the Needle and the Peak.