Tales of Refinishing

[Boggy B]

For those of us who've decided to touch up our lists based on LiDAR results, I'm curious:

How much fun did/do you have to re-finish?


Since my personal goal was the ranked/soft/named 13k+, I ended up "losing" a ton of peaks that were formerly soft-ranked (though I'm not sure I've ever regretted a summit).

For me, 6 peaks were added. Apart from the newly-ranked Sangre UN 13656, the remaining 5 were promoted high 12ers: Peak 8 (Tenmile), 13003 (Hinsdale County), Overlook Point, Peak R, and 13002 (Holy Cross Wilderness).

I did them in that order and had more memorable days on Peak 8, where the baby had his beauty sleep interrupted by the early drive and screamed directly into my ear for a solid 30 minutes during the hike, ruining several other parties' outdoors experience before he passed out; Peak R, which involved an interesting new (to me) route via Pitkin Lake and adventurous scrambling on Q with a good partner; and 13002, where I was not completely soaked for a grand total of 5 minutes of the hike, but pushing through a small darkthirty navigational error was treated to uncommon views of wispy clouds pouring into surrounding basins over the rugged nearby ridges.

[Eli Boardman]

Well, with the addition of Miriam to the ranked Wyoming 13ers, I obviously wanted to climb that one ASAP. I did so via an awesome, memorable, one-day solo crossing of the Wind River Range from Elkhart Park Trailhead/Titcomb Basin to Dinwoody Creek/Trail Lake Trailhead, something I'd always wanted to do anyway. It was a phenomenal route, about 40 miles and 9k ft., connecting two of my favorite trails (Elkhart Park to Titcomb and the Glacier Trail) via the famous Bonney Pass, which somehow I'd never actually climbed over before. The short scramble to Miriam (which has exceptional views of all the core 13ers) was just icing on the cake.

The problem, though, was a bit bigger than just refinishing the list. Back in 2020, I'd made the claim to be the first person to climb all the ranked 13ers in one year, and now <technically> that wasn't true anymore. Soooo...I had to re-climb all 35 other peaks just to add Miriam this time, all just so that I could be the first person to do something that I'd already done.

[Furthermore]

I thoroughly welcomed and enjoyed re-finishing the list. The 13ers were a large part of my free time and I've missed that. Twelvers are just not as much fun and driving more than 8 hours to new exciting peaks sucks, especially solo. It's also been fun to visit areas of the state I haven't been in for over 10 years bringing back old memories.

The updated Colorado 13er list added 12 new summits for me – most of which I enjoyed. I think Peak Ten, Peak Eight, and Point 13,656 (at least the route I climbed) are fantastic additions. I'm sad to see Milwaukee (one of my favorite Sangre summits) and Lightning Pyramid depart the list; however, I'm not sorry to see Lomo Liso Mountain go! My least favorite of the new peaks was Point 13,002 in the Sawatch, not because the peak was terrible but because the bushwhack from Strawberry Lakes down Lime Creek was so awful. Perhaps Josephine Lake or Missouri Lakes could have been better options.

As for the county lists, I'm not as excited to re-finish those lists. The additions in Jefferson County don't thrill me due to access issues. I suppose Douglas County additions aren't as bad – North Noddle Head was fun. Also, I'm pretty excited to see the new 5th class summits, although that "list" was and is impossible to finish.

[12ersRule]

Great topic. Boggy B, I thought you would've had all your bases covered having checked every 13er box on this site. I guess there were quite a few promotions from 12ers to 13ers.

I can mostly only speak to County lists or RMNP peaks. RMNP - not too thrilled about the Wescott promotion since I've heard that one is a nightmare bushwhack. Was going to do it anyway since I'm going after named/ranked/soft-ranked in RMNP, but I didn't necessarily want that one as the last ranked one.

Larimer County - some great additions to the list with a new ranked 11er in the Comanche Peak Wilderness, and Noel's Knob, which is probably now the 2nd hardest ranked peak in the county.

Until LiDAR, I had never really given the soft-ranked peaks a second thought, but ever since then, I've been much less discriminating about prominence and have been climbing a lot of soft ranked and named peaks that hadn't even been on my radar. It's been great to have local objectives again.

The additions in Jefferson County don't thrill me due to access issues.

I don't know what Ralston Buttes is (closed open space?) but that looks fun.

[lukePlumley]

Also, I'm pretty excited to see the new 5th class summits, although that "list" was and is impossible to finish.

Impossible? There have been some creative solutions already on this list. There are certainly a handful that appear doubtful!

[climbingcue]

I was happy Lightning Pyramid was dropped, saved me from having to do that one. I did get lucky with the centennial list when it changed, I had already done all the new additions. I will have to go back and do the new summit point on Buckskin, but I would like to snowboard it. So that will have to wait until it is that time of year. My big push for the bicentennials has been this year, so I just worked on the Lidar list from when it came out.

[blazintoes]

Sometimes you're the screaming baby.

I was having a conversation yesterday about the difference between 'listers', 'peak baggers' and 'gridders' listed in order of obsession. Being a former, reformed, mildly obsessed lister and spending time with super obsessed peak baggers and occasionally with gridders, LiDAR is merely the new obsession and down the rabbit hole I went last winter.

Because of LiDAR DadMike and I finished the winter centennials on Middle Trinity in March and what an honor to finish that list together!

Sharing your obsession is better together.

[attachment=0]m.jpg[/attachment]

[rijaca]

Ha!

No refinishing for me! With the post-LIDAR Centennial list excluding Dallas and Teakettle, I now completed the Centennial list in 2016 on Jagged rather than 2018 on Teakettle (I had done Arrow and the Trinities years ago). And in an ironic twist, my partner that day on Jagged (and Dallas) completed the pre-LIDAR list on Dallas in 2017, but has yet to climb Trinity. So does that mean, I get to move up the List (and past him)?

[Tornadoman]

I was happy Lightning Pyramid was dropped, saved me from having to do that one. I did get lucky with the centennial list when it changed, I had already done all the new additions. I will have to go back and do the new summit point on Buckskin, but I would like to snowboard it. So that will have to wait until it is that time of year. My big push for the bicentennials has been this year, so I just worked on the Lidar list from when it came out.

Same, Lightning was one of the peaks I was most frightened of on that list.

I added the new Buckskin summit which was a 'fun' day in typical nonsense Winter Mosquito winds (a little frostnip spot from that day). I figure I will consider myself finished with the Cents when I complete both the historic and new lists. It's going to take me a long time to get these done but I'll keep plugging away. The Bis are going to be my final 'big list'.

[aholle88]

Sometimes you're the screaming baby.

I was having a conversation yesterday about the difference between 'listers', 'peak baggers' and 'gridders' listed in order of obsession. Being a former, reformed, mildly obsessed lister and spending time with super obsessed peak baggers and occasionally with gridders, LiDAR is merely the new obsession and down the rabbit hole I went last winter.

Because of LiDAR DadMike and I finished the winter centennials on Middle Trinity in March and what an honor to finish that list together!

Sharing your obsession is better together.

m.jpg

Arguably the most badassery RE finish of all.

I was pretty upset to find Pink peak became ranked in the Eagles nest wilderness after having a quality day with Jchem finishing the ranked list on the Elephant a few years back. My end game was always to do all the unranked peaks anyways though so I guess it’s not that big of a deal. Just another pointy point atop a mountain after all.

[Chicago Transplant]

I've still got one more 13er to refinish that list (13656 in the Sangres) but was able to refinish the other lists. I actually had all of the 12ers that were promoted to 13ers before I finished. Eight and Ten were both really cool, was able to get those with other backpack trips I had planned to go in for centennial repeats with a friend of mine that was working on that list.

I finally had my hand forced on North Maroon and got that one just a few weeks ago. I also refinished Eagles Nest and Summit County of "Pink". Bald Eagle in Lake/Mt Massive Wilderness is a cool summit rock on a high 11er then refinished those lists on the 13er behind Twining. Refinished Eagle County TWICE this year, and fourth time overall, I guess that makes me a 4-time first completer of that list now? 11126 was added despite its original 261' of prominence so I missed it when I got the Eagle soft ranks previously and then I discovered that after all these years there is a hidden higher summit on one of the 9ers that I had never wandered over to before and John confirmed after that it was indeed higher by LiDAR. Its not visible from the old summit because of a grove of trees blocking the view.

Its been fun going to revisit old places, and to follow everyone's re-finish progress.

My least favorite of the new peaks was Point 13,002 in the Sawatch, not because the peak was terrible but because the bushwhack from Strawberry Lakes down Lime Creek was so awful. Perhaps Josephine Lake or Missouri Lakes could have been better options.

Unfortunately a big avalanche hit Lime Creek in 2019 and wrecked that trail, it was much nicer the first time I did that loop. Missouri Lakes is how Kevin and Sarah did it, they ran into you on the summit I think?

[osprey]

I found Lightning Pyramid to be a quiet reasonable peak done as a snow climb and was bitterly disappointed when it was downgraded.

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