Best order to complete all 14ers

[Vart]

I would like to start working towards summiting all of the Colorado 14ers!

I am based in Denver and have only done one 14er (Mt. Elbert) so far. Looking to put together the most efficient approach and hopefully learn from any mistakes you may have made during your process or hear about things you would have done differently.

[-wren-]

I would honestly say just do what sounds fun and try to get multiple peaks in one trip when traveling to further away areas. It totally depends on personal preference. Some people should start with all the class 2s then work their way up in the class 3-4 realm slowly and carefully, but on the other hand I took a solid 5.10 climber from Texas who had never climbed a mountain on Capitol as her first and she had an absolute blast since shes not afraid of heights and was with someone with some experience.

Since I get to make my own schedule with my work this summer, I’ll be staying in the mountains for periods of 5-15 days and living out of my car to finish the centennials. Saves time and money, but doesn’t work for everyone

[derekpetrie]

There are so many variables that there is not a “best order.” I have taken the route of easier —> harder but things like drive time, season, interest, and proximity all matter. I’ve only submitted 15 so far, but it’s highly likely I’ll do several class 3 peaks before I take the time to do handies, sunshine, and redcooud just because of the drive time to get to them from the Front Range. Also will have repeat summits of several front range peaks due to trips with friends, harder variations (Kelso,) and ease of access. Most important part is to enjoy the time in the hills!

[zootloopz]

If you have longer stretches of time off spend them in the San Juans as they are the farthest from Denver.

Make sure to tag the more accessible 13ers on your routes when you have the time / energy.
(Wilson Peak & Gladstone, Jupiter when in Chicago Basin, Huerfano with Lindsey, etc.)

Read trip reports. Spend some time checking out the map and figuring out your possible routes.
https://www.14ers.com/map.php?trailheads=yes

As far as most efficient, reading through the stories from FKT finishers will give you some tips:
https://fastestknowntime.com/route/colo ... teeners-co

Most of all though, do what allows you to enjoy the journey!

[Alpinefroggy]

Efficiency is highly overrated my friend.

I think you should just find the 14ers at first that are appealing and go for them. And then from there, being so hyperfocussed on the big project is also overrated. Just enjoy yourself and take your time, no rush. I slowed down after last year and my attitude this season is going to be pick a few big objectives (Snowmass, bells traverse, CB). And then from there I will do whatever seems appealling. Could be a sawatch peak, could be redoing Longs or Kelseo, could be some sweet 13er route like Bancroft East Ridge or Pagoda, could be a nice half day outing like North Star, or it could be trad climbing in eldo I have just been less and less having a stick up my ass to get them all done and it has made the whole process more enjoyable.

That being said I think there are some obvious 'trips' to do.
Groups of peaks like

Sunshine, Redcloud, Handies, Wetterhorn and Uncompaghre in 3-4 days.
Or the crestones+humboldt+KCC from South Colony utilizing Bear's Playground.

You do start getting into needing to be really fit and comfortable with class 3-5 scrambling though since most weekend warriors like yours truly can only do something like Sunshine and Redcloud+Handies in one weekend before we tap and a lot of the theoretically most efficient ways to do peaks involve traverses like LB-B and Bells. Then once these groups of peaks are understood by you, you start segmenting them into trips. Focus on the faraway peaks when the weather is good like the San Juans and Sangres and Elks and leave the Sawatch and Front and Tenmile for the shoulder seasons since their routes can be a lot easier and they can be daytrips though the sawatch are often pushing what could be considered a daytrip.

[Danger_D]

As some others have said, the key to efficiency is combos (either same day or same trip). There are a lot of groups that you can combine into 2-3 days and save a bunch of drive time. I made the pretty common approach of knocking out a lot of the 14ers closer to Denver first, but that led to the last half of the list having a loooot of driving. It might not affect pure efficiency, but it made for some expensive gas bills and lots of road time.

Some of the obvious combos/trips would be:
-Wilson/Wilson/El Diente (and maybe Sneffels on the same trip)
-Chicago Basin 4
-Handies/Redcloud/Sunshine/Wetterhorn/Uncompahgre (maybe add San Luis in there if you have the time)
-Decalibron
-The Bells and Pyramid
-Oxford/Belford/Missouri (recommend backpacking in) and maybe Huron on that same trip
-Evans/Bierstadt via the sawtooth
-Crestones and Humbolt
-Blanca/Ellingwood/Littlebear

Note: a lot of these include the harder 14ers mixed in with the easier ones. If you want to work your way up to 3rd and 4th class, that will definitely affect your order

[Jim Davies]

I'd go for top-down order - Elbert, Massive, Harvard, Blanca, etc. You would likely be the first ever to do them this way.

[SkiingRio]

I have been doing the 14ers mostly out of order, started with low class ones but sprinkled in harder ones over time as I got more comfortable. I also didn't go in any geographic order, I just went where it made sense to at the time. One way to be efficient is to have flexibility around weather, fitness, experience, and motivation. Optimizing for those variables may mean a very different order of summits for any given person or season.

For example, I wanted to finish last year (I still have 4 left ) but I sprained my ankle mid summer. It was nice to spend a few weekends knocking off the remaining easy ones and maintaining my altitude fitness while I recovered. Things happen, so being flexible is key!

[Ptglhs]

Jbrow? Is that you?

Sounds more like someone wanting all of us to write an article for them on what order to do the 14ers in for a blog post or a newspaper somewhere than a genuine query.

But I'll play along... There's no specific order that you have to do them in. Do the shorter class twos first, then work up to the longer class twos as you build endurance, then start playing around with class three and four stuff as you gain more experience with rock. If you want to minimize time then look at doing distant peaks closer together: a 4 day weekend can get you the lake city 5, or Chicago Basin group, or the Wilson group + Sneffles.

[SchralpTheGnar]

Alphabetical

[Skimo95]

Just do it like everyone else;

Hike the 30 or so your dog can safely do, and then start climbing!

[Aphelion]

Can you summit all of them? Do you even really want to? So far, you've only hiked one, and that's one of the easiest ones. I don't think you need to be concerned with efficiency at this point. Just hike more, and you'll be able to answer this for yourself.