In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

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nyker
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by nyker »

Hmmm, "hard" is a bit subjective.

Here are my thoughts.

If by "hard" you mean, longest sustained climbing on Class 3+ terrain, then I'd say The Needle and it's a long day, your need your focus up and down, but it is pretty fun climbing/scrambling on good rock.

Little Bear, with its long approach on the public standard route and then sections where you are "at risk" from rockfall in and around the Hourglass, would make me think that's the most difficult,
especially climbing it dry when rockfall would be unfettered. In consolidated Spring snow would be better to reduce rockfall risk but then you have the deeper snow on
the approach, postholing and steep ice/snow higher up as well as the need to carry more gear which makes for a long tiring day albeit safer in my opinion than when dry.

If you have any fear of exposure and heights, then I'd say Capitol, since going up parts of K2 and the Knife Edge could tie your stomach in knots, is a long
day from the TH and has a decent amount of sustained climbing where you are in a no fall zone for a while and exposed to weather coming in with no fast/easy way back.

Note though that a peak's difficulty is linked to its ease of which you can stay on route or the ease of which the "route" is easy to follow and the consequences
of going off route. Capitol and the Bells are quite unforgiving of route errors for those who get off route and often find themselves cliffed out and the terrain on the Bells is dangerously loose in many spots.

I'd add that whole most of the climbing was on steep but grassy slopes/ledges, North Maroon was the only peak I recall feeling scared due to the silent rockfall we experienced,
as a half dozen microwave sized widowmakers came careening down, often silent until you heard it whiz past your head and when they bounced once or twice off the ground it was often
on the grassy sections making no sound.

The most overrated peak, for me was Pyramid. This was my first harder peak and in contrast to Longs which was my first (and before I knew of any online resources, ignorance is bliss),
I had by then become aware of many sources of information on these peaks much of which was hyped up so my expectations were blown out from reading about it before going.
It was hard and challenging, but seemed more doable than many of the opinions I had read back then would lead one to believe.
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Barnold41
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by Barnold41 »

IMO Pyramid can be kept at class 3 even on the green wall. You can definitely make it class 4 if you want, though. That is still the "hardest" one I've done and I have no experience on the Bells, LB, or Capitol. A friend who has done Capitol said it was easier than he thought it was going to be and he doesn't do well with exposure. He camped at the lake and made a two day trip of it.

One question about Snowmass: is the gulley going up from the lake the "hard" part? I've only attempted it from the west side, which was fun until it was whiteout.
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by highpilgrim »

Barnold41 wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 10:31 am is the gulley going up from the lake the "hard" part?
Don't stay in the gulley too long and it's not hard. If you stay in it, it sucks, especially while wet, which it would be usually. You want to cross the gulley to the climbers right and there is a reasonable use trail there that is MUCH easier.

The upper mountain is standard third class and fun, but as you know from the west side, be careful nonetheless. Sometimes big rocks move on that mountain.
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by Sglm14 »

Snowmass S ridge was my finisher and the hardest one for me.
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Matt
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by Matt »

Well, the experts at Out There Colorado must have seen this thread. They have spoken at this link.

While I agree that Handies via American Basin is the easiest of all, they rate Sherman, Cameron, Bierstadt, and Bross as more difficult than Pikes.
Interesting...
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by Jon Frohlich »

Matt wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:24 pm Well, the experts at Out There Colorado must have seen this thread. They have spoken at this link.

While I agree that Handies via American Basin is the easiest of all, they rate Sherman, Cameron, Bierstadt, and Bross as more difficult than Pikes.
Interesting...
Surely you meant "experts" in quotes right?

I know we all rely on Out There Colorado for definitive guidance on ....well....hopefully nothing.
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by k_fergie »

Matt wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:24 pm Well, the experts at Out There Colorado must have seen this thread. They have spoken at this link.

While I agree that Handies via American Basin is the easiest of all, they rate Sherman, Cameron, Bierstadt, and Bross as more difficult than Pikes.
Interesting...
I can't see their list because I have blocked my browser from allowing that trash website into my life, Pikes is most definitely significantly more arduous than all of those others you listed. It was my finisher and I can say that I was surprised how tired and beat down I was by the end of it
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by CaptainSuburbia »

Pikes is class 1 and the others are class 2.
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by hellmanm »

CaptCO wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 4:45 pm I’m assuming because people say hiking from Devils Playground is a legitimate way to summit..?
I mean, it is legitimate. It's not impressive, but it's still legit. IMO (and I know this is subjective+controversial), if you touch the top (hand or foot), you've summited. I don't think it counts if you, say, skip the summit block on sunlight -- the last part is still mandatory. But if someone wants to drive up pikes/evans and walk for 10 seconds, it still technically counts.
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by Chicago Transplant »

It seems they have several of the peaks as Class 2 like Sherman, Bierstadt and DeCaLiBron despite those having trails the whole way. I am guessing by their logic, Pikes is the hardest Class 1 and Sherman is the easiest Class 2? Only problem is there aren't really any truly class 2 14ers except for Culebra, the rest either have a trail the whole way, or have a trail until they change to class 3. :-D

Also, I think some of their pictures are a bit out of whack... Oxford is a lovely picture of Emerald, Iowa and Missouri taken from Belford, Missouri is of Harvard (possibly from Oxford?) and Crestone Peak is definitely of the Needle. Huron's pic appears to be LaPlata's south side from the hike of Huron and a few others are from obscure vantage points.
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by hellmanm »

Chicago Transplant wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:02 pm Only problem is there aren't really any truly class 2 14ers except for Culebra, the rest either have a trail the whole way, or have a trail until they change to class 3. :-D
Summit pitch of Harvard?
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Re: In your opinion, what is the hardest 14er?

Post by Chicago Transplant »

Anyway, back on topic...

If you go by single move, I would say Sunlight's summit block is the hardest single move. Given it's remoteness and length of approach, I would put it a little higher on the list of hardest than most. Maybe 3rd or 4th? Top 5 would be Capitol, Little Bear, Sunlight, Needle and Wilson for me. Agree with those who say Pyramid is not as hard as advertised, it was class 4 going up because it was harder to follow the easiest route, but our descent was class 3.
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