attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

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a forest
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attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by a forest »

has anyone ever sat down and attempted to budget out what it might cost to climb all the 14ers (or 13ers). obviously the costs will vary wildly based on your vehicle's gas mileage, how long your trips can be, your eating habits, camping vs hotels, partners to split gas, etc.

a similar question - I wonder what some of the time frames are like for completing the 13ers
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supranihilest
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by supranihilest »

a forest wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:39 pma similar question - I wonder what some of the time frames are like for completing the 13ers
The current record, to my knowledge, is held by Vadim Beliaev at exactly six years. Prior to that the record was seven years, one month. Ten years seems to be a fairly common time among the faster of the finishers, and some have taken decades. The average is certainly well above the ten year mark, which is still an impressive time frame given the absurd amount of work that climbing all 584 ranked 13ers takes!
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by bergsteigen »

When I decided to go for all the 13ers in 2011 (different year than my first one, for the record checkers), I planned on 10-20 years to complete the 13ers. I’m not one to rush the experience.
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by NatDog »

Interesting question. I've done this for my remaining 14ers (30 left). It was pretty simple really:

1. Plan how many trips I need to make from home (Denver metro) to complete the list to get my estimated mileage - I plan on making 17 trips from home to complete the 14ers which will cost about ~$1,500 in gas. Gas is expensive right now and I drive a truck so this was a bit more than I was hoping for. I will have a a partner for many of my hikes to help split gas so call it $1,000 out of my pocket.

2. Plan how many days from home each trip will take based on how many peaks I hope to do for each trip and assume a per diem for food costs. For me this is pretty cheap since it will mostly be snacks, camp food or Subway- I plan to be away from home for approximately 25 days, which counts driving time. Based on my modest per diem I will probably be looking at $600 or so to pay for food.

I won't be staying in any hotels so the only costs I have calculated are gas and food. Grand total is about $1,600. If I splurge on food/drink after some planned big days this summer, this could increase a bit but I will definitely still be under $2,000.
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by blazintoes »

The only aspect I've ever calculated was how much money I spent in gas climbing all the 14ers in winter and computed my driving mileage at 22,338 miles in 50 trips and spent about $5,500 in gas. Oh and I had to buy a new car because I hit an elk going 65 mph on highway 285 on my drive home from one of my trips.
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by cougar »

Factor in knee replacement surgery (and/or hip/ankles), common among the 13er finishers. The driving could be mitigated depending on where you live. For doing them fast may make sense to live close to each range for a year then move on to the next one, but that can have its costs too.
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by bergsteigen »

In 2013 I started using a Subi for ski season, and saved my Taco for summer hiking season. So I did a quick report in my app I use to track expenses. I still have another ~5 years to finish, but here’s a decent idea of costs over 7 years. I typically like multi-day, multi-peak efficiency. So if you don’t do this, it will be much more expensive!
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"Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games." - Ernest Hemingway (or was it Barnaby Conrad?)
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a forest
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by a forest »

Woh! Thanks for sharing otina, NatDog and blazintoes


A gas/cost ballpark estimate I just came up with. This assumes a lot of camping and living somewhere in SW Colorado for the San Juans.

Code: Select all

Gas = $2014
Food = $7000
Gear replacement = $2000
Misc = $2000

Total $13,414


# Trips Boulder to town | 1way miles | total miles

front
1 estes park 37 = 74
4 allenspark 36 = 288
2 nederland 17 = 68
2 winter park 73 = 292
5 georgetown 52 = 520
1 keystone 83 = 166

tenmile-mosquito
5 alma 103 = 1030

gore/sangre
4 silverthorne 74 = 592
3 westcliffe 174 = 1044
3 blanca 240 = 1440

sawatch
3 gilman 116 = 696
4 twin lakes 129 = 1032
5 buena vista 134 = 1340
3 monarch 165 = 990

elk
3 aspen 205 = 1230
1 cb 201 = 402

san juans
1500 miles

total miles = (12,704mi + 5000mi buffer) / 29mpg = 611gal * $3.3 = $2014 gas

~600 peaks about 700 days (some days more than one peak, some days rest)
700 * $10/day for food = $7000
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by Scott P »

Health benefits could cancel out at least some of the cost.
I'm old, slow and fat. Unfortunately, those are my good qualities.
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by cottonmountaineering »

bout tree fiddy
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by a forest »

supranihilest wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:50 pm
a forest wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 4:39 pma similar question - I wonder what some of the time frames are like for completing the 13ers
The current record, to my knowledge, is held by Vadim Beliaev at exactly six years. Prior to that the record was seven years, one month. Ten years seems to be a fairly common time among the faster of the finishers, and some have taken decades. The average is certainly well above the ten year mark, which is still an impressive time frame given the absurd amount of work that climbing all 584 ranked 13ers takes!
That's awesome. Just reread that thread from September.
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Re: attempt to calculate cost of climbing all the 14ers/13ers

Post by justiner »

looking at these estimates, I live on a different planet I’m almost certain.
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