Toughest 14ers to go down

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doggler
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by doggler »

49ersRule wrote:Little Bear Southwest Ridge, worse descending than ascending.
QFE. I cannot believe I made it to the bottom of page 3 before finding this one mentioned.

One of the few climbs I've ever done where the descent took as long as the ascent.
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Kevo
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by Kevo »

For me, I'd say Challenger might have been the most frustrating descent I've done- it's pretty steep and loose, and more talus than scree. The rocks are big enough where you really have to be worried about pulling down larger pieces that could hurt someone.

I'd add that IMO, Crestone Peak is much more difficult than Holy Cross- ascending back to Broken Hand Pass and then down to South Colony is much, much harder than Holy Cross via Half Moon Pass. Also, there was water running down the red gully on Crestone Peak when I was there, and it made things awkward and slippery.

Others that were tough-

-Crestone Needle- it was wet and slippery and sustained for pretty long time. The needle freaked me out more than any other 14er I've done, including Capitol and Pyramid.
-Descending into Pyramid's amphitheater was tough
-Yale
-For whatever reason, I found Missouri to be a difficult descent, maybe because I linked Bel-Ox-Mo together in a day and was tired, but I remember that it required a lot more attention to detail and care than I thought it would before the climb.
-Bross was a pain, but definitely small enough scree that you can kind of ski it.
-La Plata just seemed to go on forever. My knees were not happy.
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ChrisinAZ
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by ChrisinAZ »

I think I'd have to give my vote to Mt. Wilson too. Coming down off the traverse, not knowing where the exact best route was (maybe they're all equally crappy?), and going down steep dirt with large, loose rocks abounding, and crossing the occasional snow-choked gully with bad runout with only one axe between my partner and I...not terribly fun in my book.

South Bross--descended down the side to Kite Lake. Insane scree-fest and loose as hell. At least you could sort of surf and kick steps in, so it went quickly enough.

Challenger--doing this with snow on the upper half of the mountain may or may not have improved things, I don't know. It was tedious and messy, but not the worst thing I've ever descended

S Maroon--this one wasn't that horrible for me. I think two major factors contributed to it being tolerable: trekking poles, and taking the trail option further to the south that seems to be more solid and less steep. Still not a picnic, but no worse than the Thousand Feet of Suck on Pyramid...
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Craig Cook
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by Craig Cook »

wildlobo71 wrote:I personally hate long (4+ miles) gradual descents when you are already tired from the ascent and Elvis knee (or my personal nemesis, the rolling of the ankle,) is more apt to strike on surfaces that you'd otherwise think were safe and "gentle". These are peaks and mounts like Pikes Peak...
I definitely have to agree with Bill. The first 14er I ever did was Pikes via Barr Trail - all 26 miles in one day. The last half of that descent, from Barr Camp to the parking lot, was excruciatingly painful on my ankles, knees, hips, etc.

However, in my limited experience, the winner in the "sheer annoyance" category is Bross. There is absolutely nothing fun about that scree mess, and as Silverlynx would put it, I biffed it once on the way down.
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doggler
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by doggler »

Craig Cook wrote:
wildlobo71 wrote:I personally hate long (4+ miles) gradual descents when you are already tired from the ascent and Elvis knee (or my personal nemesis, the rolling of the ankle,) is more apt to strike on surfaces that you'd otherwise think were safe and "gentle". These are peaks and mounts like Pikes Peak...
I definitely have to agree with Bill. The first 14er I ever did was Pikes via Barr Trail - all 26 miles in one day. The last half of that descent, from Barr Camp to the parking lot, was excruciatingly painful on my ankles, knees, hips, etc.
.
That's what running is for. Why deal with a whole day's worth of pain when you could be down Barr in seventy five minutes? :mrgreen:
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by CarpeDM »

doggler wrote:
49ersRule wrote:Little Bear Southwest Ridge, worse descending than ascending.
QFE. I cannot believe I made it to the bottom of page 3 before finding this one mentioned.

One of the few climbs I've ever done where the descent took as long as the ascent.
I'm guessing that's because relatively few people on here have done it. I didn't mind that one as much as the descent from S Maroon. That was probably the worst of the 14ers for me. Most others are just "also rans." Sneffels was too long ago, but I remember it being bad. And I have bad memories of Como Road. I nearly lost toenails coming down Snowmass's standard approach - but that was my fault for wearing boots small enough for a 10 year old.
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by maxmark7 »

although i had a very difficult time descending between Columbia and Harvard after getting a little off route, my all time least favorite descent is airplane gully on navajo peak. I don't think there is a solid rock the entire way down! I distinctly remember rocks the size of refrigerators rocking and shifting under my weight.
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by wildlobo71 »

doggler wrote:
wildlobo71 wrote:I personally hate long (4+ miles) gradual descents when you are already tired from the ascent and Elvis knee (or my personal nemesis, the rolling of the ankle,) is more apt to strike on surfaces that you'd otherwise think were safe and "gentle". These are peaks and mounts like Pikes Peak...

That's what running is for. Why deal with a whole day's worth of pain when you could be down Barr in seventy five minutes? :mrgreen:
I have "run" some trails that are very class-1 - like Handies at American Basin, and Huron for a while, but I can't sustain it for miles. Running, for me, is too much of a threat to my ankles, alone, that already roll and sprain on the flats when I am just walking. Some people are born to run, like you, or Bruce, and some force it on themselves - like even I do from time to time... but trail running down 14ers combines two of my least favorite things in terrain - long descents and running.
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by FireOnTheMountain »

doggler wrote:That's what running is for. Why deal with a whole day's worth of pain when you could be down Barr in seventy five minutes? :mrgreen:
Registration for Pikes Ascent/Marathon is today folks!!
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by broncotw »

I have not done any of the Elks yet so I cannot compare Maroon Peak and N. Maroon with Mt. Wilson...

The descent on Mt. Wilson was NOT fun at all....

That has to be my worst descent......
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by WillV »

Maroon peak (standard route). From the ridge down to Maroon Creek I recall it being quite painful on the knees and toes. I remember grunting the whole way down, claiming I was getting old and occasionally bitching to my partner during that descent. I got a bruised toenail as a result in boots I've never had issues in (got rid of them after that) that is still growing back. The somewhat aggressive goat that stalked us half way down didn't help either.
This was, of course, after doing N. Maroon the day before. So you have to make allowances...
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Re: Toughest 14ers to go down

Post by DeTour »

OK, I'd like to stick up for a couple peaks that have been beat up pretty bad in this thread. I personally didn't think Lindsey or Challenger were that bad on the descent. On Lindsey's standard route, the gully itself may have been a pile of crap down in the bottom, but much of the route had relatively solid options along the sides of the gully. We took on a little modest exposure as being well worth the price of avoiding that rubble below.

Challenger - maybe I was so braced for the worst from all the nasty things people have said about it, but just didn't seem that bad to me.

Clearly the answers to the OP, like so many opinions here, depend a great deal on outside variables like how we felt on a given day, getting off-route or weather. Descending Eolus was fun in the sun, but I'm sure it would be a whole different story in the rain like DrewR experienced.

So maybe someone else wants to add an "aw, c'mon, it wasn't that bad" for a peak or two. Or maybe not - maybe we'd just rather complain.
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