Poll: Rank the Colorado 14ers

[mikefromcraig]

How can you see the results without voting?

[mikefromcraig]

You need to define what is meant by "hardest" for the results to have much meaning. Is it overall exertion (total calories burned), total time to completion, mentally difficult (considering the mental toll of gaining/losing elevation), overall average technical difficulty, the most technically difficult section, some combination thereof?

[Ed_Groves]

You need to define what is meant by "hardest" for the results to have much meaning. Is it overall exertion (total calories burned), total time to completion, mentally difficult (considering the mental toll of gaining/losing elevation), overall average technical difficulty, the most technically difficult section, some combination thereof?

I think that it includes all of the above, right? That is why it is so subjective. One person's anathema is distance while another's is technical climbing. Everyone will weight each of the factors differently.

As someone who plans to climb them all, but hasn't, I obviously can't rate them. I have studied the standard routes , and others, on this site to get an idea when I want to do specific 14ers and I have a tentative yearly list planned out. But studying pics of a route and knowing what climbing it truly entails are two very different things.

[peterkfes]

I find myself toggling a lot when trying to compare peaks as their level of difficulty rises. The site list has been quite helpful but I look for more. My focus becomes the route's crux rather than the distance and effort. For me it's less about miles and time and whether it's an overnight trip. All this information is vital, don't get me wrong, I spend January to July consuming every tiny detail about each peak and route. But understanding whether the crux is a single move that's above my skill level, extended exposure and danger, prolonged class 3, or something else becomes my deciding factor.
My questions include the likes of how does Wetterhorn's final pitch compare to Blanca's northwest ridge or Lindsey's northwest gully or how does Mt. Wilson's southwest slope and the west slope of Snowmass compare to other peak cruxes that I've completed. When I make my route outlines and notes it's the cruxes that get described in the most detail. This sounds lazy because all of this information is there to be dug up but having a route crux comparison list would be informative to me.
Lastly, and I don't know where I fall compared to others, as the level of difficulty increases I found a comfortable acceptance if my first attempt on a challenging peak ends in a turn-around shy of the summit. At first it felt like failure if I didn't summit but when a second attempt went more smoothly I embraced how comfortable it was to have spent prior time on the mountain. Makes me think there's a whole new world ahead returning to favorite summits...next time with grand children in tow.

[oldschool]

All well and good...maybe. What is the goal of ranking these mountains?

Some thoughts...as a rock climber the grading system used for that endeavor suffers from the same issues as what is being asked here. A 5.9 in Yosemite is not the same as a 5.9 in Joshua Tree. A 5.10 splitter crack in Indian Creek is not the same as a 5.10 splitter in Squamish.

As people vote their experience, their risk assessment, their level of risk acceptance, and other criteria will taint their vote. Ultimately we end up with a subjective as hell list that bears no relevance except as a passing trivial opinion poll. This has been done time and time (and time) again here on 14ers.com.

My hard is your easy and vis a versa. Go try the mountain. If it gets too hard, turn around. Simple......

Mike

[ChrisinAZ]

It really is an impossible question to answer. As others have mentioned, what others consider in what makes a route "difficult" varies widely. In my case, I'd say two other things throw a big wrench into an accurate rating: experience level, and time of year. My second Colorado 14er ever was Longs, and at the time, the Narrows was absolutely terrifying. On a repeat climb many exposed scrambles later, near the end of my 14er career? It felt like a joke. The other thing being time of year, conditions, etc. There are some 14ers like Harvard and Humboldt that I've *only* climbed in calendar winter, which is obviously going to inflate my sense of their difficulty!

So really, as someone being a perfect average of all 14ers.com site users who has climbed all the 14ers in identical conditions with an identical level of experience on all of them is not realistic...I feel like the old ranked list based on user submissions is the closest thing we're gonna get to a true list.

As a side note, if you want a really brain-bending list to rank, try the 20 APEX county highpoints (20 toughest in the US outside of Alaska)! Some are rock climbs, some are glacier climbs, some have private property issues, grizzlies, and terrible mucky roads...and one is a jungle trek in the wettest part of Hawaii! Even the few people who've done them all have trouble ranking them...

[Jorts]

An aggregation of a large sample of opinions based on somewhat arbitrary criteria would actually be insightful. That’s crowdsourcing.

Some simply can’t summit Sunlight because of the crux. Or others are overly gripped by exposure. Some people don’t do sustained 3rd cl so well. Or they find navigating difficult terrain after a long approach to be overly taxing. Or their route finding sucks so if it isn’t straightforward they get flustered. Point is, 1 person’s opinion is useless, but hundreds of opinions pared down to a statistical conclusion has value.

[Above_Treeline]

I enjoyed the older list. Gave me some idea of the difficulty of different 14ers. I doubt any of these can be 100% accurate.

As an example I thought Huron was about the same as Sherman. Even though I did Huron from 2wd. But I did Huron the day before so I might have been tired. Fatigue matters. I liked Huron better. I'd been there before so that's often easier. All kinds of factors.

To Bill's credit on the new list, the older list roughly aligns along the class 3 class 4 once you get to the top of the list. I'll be interested to see if Elbert is easier than Yale. Both have about the same vert and distance. Ridge harder on Yale I guess but I thought that was kinda cool anyway

[CheapCigarMan]

An aggregation of a large sample of opinions based on somewhat arbitrary criteria would actually be insightful. That’s crowdsourcing.

+1
This is a very true statement, and I think a valid point to this conversation.

Besides, why limit ourselves with just one report / rating / scale or just one way of thinking?
Why not a report or a scale that considers different perspectives?

[Above_Treeline]

An aggregation of a large sample of opinions based on somewhat arbitrary criteria would actually be insightful. That’s crowdsourcing.

+1
This is a very true statement, and I think a valid point to this conversation.

Besides, why limit ourselves with just one report / rating / scale or just one way of thinking?
Why not a report or a scale that considers different perspectives?

Yeah I'm interested in a list based on everyone's opinions.

But some people probably enjoy one type if climbing and not another, so some found LB harder, some found Capitol harder. Never 100% anyway. But, fun to look at when planning. And you realize maybe just try Blanca and maybe don't worry about LB this time.

[Scott P]

But, fun to look at when planning. And you realize maybe just try Blanca and maybe don't worry about LB this time.

Screw that. That would mean hiking the Lake Como Road twice unless you took an alternate route up each.

[TomPierce]

As a side note, if you want a really brain-bending list to rank, try the 20 APEX county highpoints (20 toughest in the US outside of Alaska)! Some are rock climbs, some are glacier climbs, some have private property issues, grizzlies, and terrible mucky roads...and one is a jungle trek in the wettest part of Hawaii! Even the few people who've done them all have trouble ranking them...

And some are rock climbs with private property issues, grizzlies and terrible mucky roads! Ha, ha....

-Tom