Most hated 13er?

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RWinters
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by RWinters »

ALL the 13ers are terrible! Stay away! Nothing to see here.
"It's just right there"
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Peak200
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by Peak200 »

I like 98 percent of the 13ers.
Jones mtn was one miserable loose rotten pos from
The south side
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by tdawg012 »

Type II fun 13er adventures. There are many but these stick out for whatever reasons ( inexperience, stupidity, weather, etc).....a day on any mountain is a day well spent in my opinion!...

1. Bailing off of Holy Cross ridge (13,831) towards Tuhare Lakes with 14ers member Mennoguy. Constant lightning, cold soaking rain and a walmart parka for protection...my first experience with hypothermia. We got a little separated as I ran in fear of lightning and growing numbness in my limbs. I could barely turn the key to unlock the truck once we got back. We went knowing full well the 80% T-storm forecast that day....what is one to do with mountains to visit and a blessed day off from work?? - summer 2008

2. Getting to spend the night (unexpectedly) in Marten Creek basin after a delightful day of peak hopping in Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness (UN13212, Wayah, UN13300, UN13202, UN13026) with Mennoguy and our friend Ben G. Not sure the current status of the Marten Creek "trail" but it was non-existent at the time...as we descended off UN13026 in the quickening darkness, we encountered willows the size of warehouses and boulders the size of buses. Not finding the trail in the basin was disheartening as we traipsed along boggy wetlands.....The full moon was helpful for not impaling ourselves on occasional avy-debris. **all three of us managed to not have any sources of light (besides Ben's matches which we used later after collapsing with exhaustion to make a fire to stay warm until morning light)...we had given up 1/2 mile from the trailhead at 3am, lol. WHY DIDN'T ANY OF US HAVE HEADLAMPS OR BACKUP? i still don't know, le sigh. -summer 2011
Aaron's perspective here: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=10674

3. V0mit's mysterious key disappearance during Wilsons+Diente+Gladstone traverse. There were many "wow" moments on this particular adventure. Gladstone was no joke, easily the mountain that required the most due diligence of the day. The half-ton moving boulders along the north ridge are everything Roach and others say they are, tread carefully! If you don't care to read Will's entertaining report (link below), the spoiler is he discovers he can't find his car keys whilst on the summit of Wilson Peak, our final summit of the day as darkness fell. I immediately began brainstorming what choices we had. Both of us had work the next week and an early season snowstorm was less than 12hrs out. He didn't have an extra key at his car. As we descended into Silver Pick basin, he decided that he wanted to repeat the entire traverse the next day in search of his keys even with the forecast. I was attempting to be the voice of reason (hotwiring, finding a locksmith in Telluride, etc) About a mile from the trailhead in Silverpick Basin, he triumphantly finds his keys in some hidden pocket he doesn't know he has and we both draw the biggest sighs of relief of the day. (there were many previously on the traverse) V0mit's Bada$$ report https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=15722 -late summer 2014

4. West Spanish Peak miscue...My Friend Melissa and I headed up West Spanish peak via Wahatoya camp 4x4 road after deciding it would be better than Cordova Pass given the wind forecast that day. She turned around near the Bulls eye mine and I should have too given our late start that morning. I pushed on in the late November sugar snow as the 70+mph wind gusts attempted to lift me off my feet (which it did a few times on the north ridge). After summiting around 230pm I decided to avoid going down the way I came and instead try to intercept road 442 via one of West Spanish's many north facing dike-ridge slopes. Long story short, i got into probable avy-terrain and went down the wrong dike-ridge and spent considerable time in waist-deep sugar snow correcting my error and having mild panics (the forecast was incoming snow system at 6pm). Snowshoes are no good in sugar powder. Thank goodness I didn't trigger an avalanche or fall into a tree well... Once back on the road by 5:45pm I ran the rest of the road to where we had parked but found Melissa had already left... presumably to find help. So I kept running until I came upon a lit-home, knocked on the door and asked the kind homeowner if I could use their computer to facebook message Melissa to let her know I was ok. She got my msg just before the calvary was activated! She had indeed went to La Veta asking people for help. Having a GPS/smart phone would have helped here but I only had my flip-phone, which didn't have service... -November 2018

5. Off route on S6 (don't get off-route on S6 :-D ). Started at Blue Lakes TH then up and over the pass between S5 and S3. Finding the correct west-facing ascent gully on this glorious pile of rocks was hard for me for some reason. Mears leered at me as I stumbled up a horrendous slot north of the proper one. It had taken a good 40min to delicately climb up and I had no interest in losing another hour or so to fully descend and find the right one. As I descended the slot I kept trying sketchy ramps on my left until I found one that went about 70ft down from the ridge proper. Folks who decide to traverse from S6 to Mears or vice versa may find this little passage helpful but I don't Strava or GPS my tracks so I can't advise you properly. In general, that traverse would be silly. I am still annoyed I went off route as I had OnX and several offline reports to aide me for this mountain on my smartphone (see, I learned from West Spanish trip!). Exhaustion, smoke, heat and lack of concentration were likely candidates for my missteps. Summer 2021 was smokin' HOT

lessons learned from these 5 amusing trips: BETTER RAIN GEAR, HAVE YOUR HEADLAMPS+BACKUP LIGHT SOURCES, KEYS+BACKUP KEY, COMMUNICATION/TECH, GOOD ROUTE FINDING
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DArcyS
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by DArcyS »

I think the answer is statistical in nature. Take a look at the folks who have climbed hundreds of 13ers and see which ones they haven't climbed. That speaks to what people like and don't like.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by mennoguy »

tdawg012 wrote: Sun Nov 28, 2021 8:48 pm Type II fun 13er adventures. There are many but these stick out for whatever reasons ( inexperience, stupidity, weather, etc).....a day on any mountain is a day well spent in my opinion!...

1. Bailing off of Holy Cross ridge (13,831) towards Tuhare Lakes with 14ers member Mennoguy. Constant lightning, cold soaking rain and a walmart parka for protection...my first experience with hypothermia. We got a little separated as I ran in fear of lightning and growing numbness in my limbs. I could barely turn the key to unlock the truck once we got back. We went knowing full well the 80% T-storm forecast that day....what is one to do with mountains to visit and a blessed day off from work?? - summer 2008

2. Getting to spend the night (unexpectedly) in Marten Creek basin after a delightful day of peak hopping in Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness (UN13212, Wayah, UN13300, UN13202, UN13026) with Mennoguy and our friend Ben G. Not sure the current status of the Marten Creek "trail" but it was non-existent at the time...as we descended off UN13026 in the quickening darkness, we encountered willows the size of warehouses and boulders the size of buses. Not finding the trail in the basin was disheartening as we traipsed along boggy wetlands.....The full moon was helpful for not impaling ourselves on occasional avy-debris. **all three of us managed to not have any sources of light (besides Ben's matches which we used later after collapsing with exhaustion to make a fire to stay warm until morning light)...we had given up 1/2 mile from the trailhead at 3am, lol. WHY DIDN'T ANY OF US HAVE HEADLAMPS OR BACKUP? i still don't know, le sigh. -summer 2011
Aaron's perspective here: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... trip=10674
Thanks for bringing up some good memories, surprised you didn't mention the freak hail/sleet/graupel storm we encountered on the Cupid Grizzly traverse at like 8:00 in the morning. I couldn't feel my fingers for a while after that one. Another one that stuck out to me was last summer when I found the trail down Jackass Basin and you didn't. You had some real type II fun that day. But to take the cake of pure misery was the descent off of 13300 to the Lake Hope pass, every rock was microwave sized and moved. I can't say too many good things about that 13300.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by supranihilest »

Hard to say after climbing so many since they blend together, but a few come to mind. I haven't climbed a few of the universally reviled ones like Finnegan or the Middle Cimarron, so take this with a grain of salt. In no particular order...

"Huerfanito": insane pile of garbage. Steep and every step causes small rockslides. Probably dangerous and I spent half the time on my ass on the descent. I might have to climb it again because I think the accepted summit changed due to the LiDAR findings.
Mears Peak: The real Choss King. Took two attempts and the south face is probably the most horrible thing I've ever attempted to "climb". Endless steep scree over hardpan. The ridge from "S 7" is much better.
San Joaquin Ridge: pile of s**t.
Gilpin Peak: north face is a nightmare of dinner plates.
Hanson Peak: there's a road on the west face of it. Wait, no there isn't.
Gibbs Peak: deadfall city and then an extremely long boring talus ridge with views that make even the most boring person yawn.
"Corbett Ridge": absurd deadfall and then a steep ridge of rounded rocks that roll with every step. Roly poly slip'n'slide on the way down, and then a reversal of the deadfall. Short, thankfully, but misery from start to finish.
"V 9": another pile, this time with sketchy, very loose scrambling with exposure. Literally nothing is attached to anything else.

I have others I've rated "ZERO" stars (out of 5) in the spreadsheet I keep but those ones are the ones that were so horrible (negative stars, really) that I remember them vividly.

I should balance this out with one I absolutely loved and that was Pilot Knob. I was apprehensive about it given its fierce reputation but it was easier than expected and more fun than you can shake a stick at. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I feel like I should also comment on Gladstone Peak: climb the east face with snow. I thought the east face as a snow climb is borderline Classic territory. It's a loose pile otherwise.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by climbingcue »

supranihilest wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:56 am I feel like I should also comment on Gladstone Peak: climb the east face with snow. I thought the east face as a snow climb is borderline Classic territory. It's a loose pile otherwise.
I have done Gladstone Peak twice from the Wilson Peak ridge, and I did not think it was bad either time. Not that much fun, but definitely not bad at all. Pigeon and Turret sucked much more in every sense, no fun climbing through the endless trees with no trail and it was as steep as a good snow climb without any snow.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by Boggy B »

Hate is a strong word to apply to something you do voluntarily, and I find the reward proportional to what was overcome in the doing. Maybe it's applicable in cases where the doing is unmitigably unsafe, but I'm not sure any of the CO 13ers can't be made relatively safe by climbing in a different season, better conditions, with (more) appropriate experience, fitness, timing, equipment.
supranihilest wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:56 am peak name here Peak: climb the aspect here face with snow.
Few of the ranked 13ers involve terrain too vertical to be overcome by snow that can be cruised in early summer when avalanches are no longer a major hazard. This applies to such repeatable classics as Mears N face, Gilpin N face, Gladstone W face, Hagerman E face (the traverse E to Snowmass Peak is a different story), Potosi N face, S6 N face, to name just a handful that tend to get hate.

I appreciate the mention of V10 and 13060B as they're top contenders for worst choss by the usual routes and in the conditions I chose to endure. 13060 would have been fixed by snow (the N gully was all mud/scree over ice in mid-summer), and V10 I think can be taken ridge direct to avoid the heinous dogleg onto the S face, if not by a better route with snow.

I'm averse to slogging, but if I were more fit I'd probably like it. And the views at 13k are always nice.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by CaptainSuburbia »

climbingcue wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 10:21 am
supranihilest wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 9:56 am I feel like I should also comment on Gladstone Peak: climb the east face with snow. I thought the east face as a snow climb is borderline Classic territory. It's a loose pile otherwise.
I have done Gladstone Peak twice from the Wilson Peak ridge, and I did not think it was bad either time. Not that much fun, but definitely not bad at all. Pigeon and Turret sucked much more in every sense, no fun climbing through the endless trees with no trail and it was as steep as a good snow climb without any snow.
Gladstone from Wilson Peak is fantastic! You gotta stay ridge proper or you might come to a different conclusion.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by rijaca »

While I don't hate the peak, climbing "T0" from Mill Creek was awful.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by supranihilest »

Boggy B wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 pm Hate is a strong word to apply to something you do voluntarily, and I find the reward proportional to what was overcome in the doing.
Agreed very strongly with this. I haven't hated any peak yet (something I should have mentioned in my original comment), I just have some that weren't fun. I think it would take loss of life and limb for me to hate a peak.
Boggy B wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 pmMaybe it's applicable in cases where the doing is unmitigably unsafe, but I'm not sure any of the CO 13ers can't be made relatively safe by climbing in a different season, better conditions, with (more) appropriate experience, fitness, timing, equipment.
Boggy B wrote: Mon Nov 29, 2021 12:15 pmFew of the ranked 13ers involve terrain too vertical to be overcome by snow that can be cruised in early summer when avalanches are no longer a major hazard.
Agreed with these sentiments too, especially in regards to snow - as you mentioned many of Colorado's most notorious 13ers have snow climbs that significantly change the nature of the peak and thus people's opinions of them. For example on your list having done Gladstone's east face and Potosi's north couloir with snow, but Mears' south face (as opposed to your north) and Gilpin's north face without, I can say my opinions of the former are high and low for the latter. If I had reversed the conditions I'm sure my opinions would follow.
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Re: Most hated 13er?

Post by gb »

Given that I'm a skier I might have to save this thread and make sure I ski any peak that gets mentioned. Most of the ones mentioned so far are exceptionally good ski descents, like Potosi.
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