If you could do it over again...

[CUaaron25]

I wouldn’t do the bell cord as my first snow climb. And I really would not have rented the crampons the night before from REI and trusted the guy who was working there when he showed me how to mount them to my boots (backwards). Climbed the whole thing with the crampons on backwards.

So I guess that and I’d have started alpine lake fly fishing much sooner if I could go back.

[davevanwicklin]

Better snacks, more partners/more solo peaks, more snow climbs, different routes, more backpacking adventures, more belt buckles, bring a 4' ladder up Grizzly A, and more appreciation. Oh, wait, there's still time! Guess I'll keep going back.
Oh and definitely East Crestone, which I already went back for/shared it with friends. Now for NE. Looked harder than c4 to me. Guess I'll have to study daways better.

Oh crap, NE? Looks like another pre-dawn patrol up Colony!

[Ed_Groves]

Well, I am still doing it the first time but I have already regretted that I didn't climb some 13ers near some of the 14ers I have completed. And I definitely regret not beginning this journey until I was 59.

Perhaps my only regret is not saving a logistically easier Cent to finish on so I could've invited a bunch more friends and my girlfriend. Luckily Ben Loftin came all the way out to the San Juans for me still!

I personally do not regret not knowing to combine peaks while tagging early 14ers. Gives me an excuse to come back and enjoy the area all over again with different eyes. Besides, I probably wasn't fit enough to do that at the beginning anyways, the 14ers really helped up my fitness. It also helps I don't have aspirations to finish the 13ers since I don't live in CO anymore

I also agree with these comments. If I didn't start really, really early, or include an extra day or two in my trip, some of the additional mountains would have been difficult for me to finish without hiking into the dark hours. I think I will enjoy coming back to these areas to tag them if my body holds up long enough.

[MORE COLORADO PEAKS]

Best thing that could have happened to you! Here's your chance to catch a few top 200 peaks on the second time around (especially in the San Juans)

Have fun!

[Kiefer]

There have been a lot of Finishers of all sorts lately...

I was curious... For those of you who have completed the 14ers, (or 13ers, or Cents, etc..) If you could do it over again, what if anything would you do differently starting fresh?

For me, if I were magically able to go back in time to do them over, I'd pay attention and try and do more 13ers around the 14ers. Due in part to my ignorance and time constraints and limited vacation days, when I did my first 14er climbs I mostly just did them alone not doing any 13ers while in those areas. In some spots, like Chicago Basin or others in the San Juans doing some at the same time would have saved a ton of time in the future to go back.

I've been thinking for a while in how to answer this. The problem, is that hindsight is screwing up an easy answer.

If I could go back to 1991 and start over with 14ers and other mountains, after a few years, I'd stop. I wouldn't let the mountains or peak-bagging get in the way of my higher education. I'd stay the course, leave Colorado and 'hopefully' end up with a dream job working with viruses, level 3 & 4 diseases and doing antibiotic research somewhere back east. It's something I still dream about that depresses me because that ship has sailed.

But since I DID become entranced by the 14ers, peak bagging and the mountains in general, if I were to change anything, I'd tell the the younger version of myself to: not be afraid to move overseas, take low-paying jobs at guiding companies to support a climbers life and especially, I'd take more chances. I've never stood atop a 14er or 13er and looked over at another, lower mountain and thought, "Nah, it's not worthy." That makes absolutely no logical sense. And if anything, the 14ers, 13ers, etc. opened my eyes to what else I was missing because I was too focused on the summit. They've made me step back and better appreciate the small things underfoot. I'm just as content now, watching newborn deer graze with their mom, reading animal tracks in the dirt & pine needles or observing the types of hoar that form in the snowpack. The mountains have given me with some terrific memories, some fantastic friends & some truly unique experiences. So, with hindsight being what it is, I'd say mountains made for a pretty damn good substitute [for medicine].
Oh, I'd probably go easier on Cheferl (if you know, you know )

[d_baker]

^ chefrel isn't/wasn't a bad guy in person. I think he certainly derailed his online persona by his mishaps, but to me, he seemed competent when I introduced him to ice climbing. Even did W ridge of Atlantic in winter with him!

Mtnman Eddie....surely you must regret not placing more Republic of Texass sunmit registers??!
And thanks for the dates on those peaks we did together!

[ekalina]

If I could go back to 1991 and start over with 14ers and other mountains, after a few years, I'd stop. I wouldn't let the mountains or peak-bagging get in the way of my higher education. I'd stay the course, leave Colorado and 'hopefully' end up with a dream job working with viruses, level 3 & 4 diseases and doing antibiotic research somewhere back east. It's something I still dream about that depresses me because that ship has sailed.

A thought-provoking answer. Not trying to minimize the satisfaction of a career like that, but do you ever imagine a parallel timeline where you're a famous virologist back east, dreaming about what it would have been like to stay in Colorado and become a kick-ass mountaineer?

[oldschool]

If I could do it all over again...I'd change nothing. My path from beginning to end was so organic. The people I met. The stories, the mentoring from people like Steve Gladbach, Keifer, Jim DiNapoli, Britt, and others. Maybe, as previously stated, I'd do more 13er's while in the area when I did 14er's.

[12ersRule]

If I could go back in time, I'd take State!

UncleRico.png

[HikesInGeologicTime]

...I'd try to talk myself out of it, or at least convince myself that there's nothing wrong with only doing the Class 1-2s, or just the Front Range/the ones within two hours of Denver. I did wind up causing permanent damage to myself in pursuit of The List of Fourteeners, and while I feel fortunate that it wasn't a whole lot worse (I was absolutely certain, once I started tumbling backward on Pyramid, that it was going to result in a recovery rather than a rescue), I'm starting to feel domino effects of basically having some degree of a limp all the time along with legs that are no longer the exact same length.

Plus, even before the accident, scrambling was more of a means to an end than something I truly enjoyed, although I suppose in the early days I thought it could be an activity I would grow to appreciate on its own merits. After the fall, though, it really took on the quality of what ScottLovesRMNP mentioned about feeling like a job, and I'm pretty sure I have likened the Class 3-4 fourteeners to a chore list in my eyes, and not even a chore that has immediate payout, like doing laundry when you're out of clean clothes or mopping the floor when it gets noticeably sticky. This felt more like spending the entire day reorganizing your closet and dresser by color and material because a parent/partner/roommate has Issues and insists that they're going to have a stroke if you keep putting your clothes away all willy-nilly, even if they could avoid the issue by just...not looking at your clothes.

Since my own mental issues compelled me to finish no matter how much fun I was(n't) having, I wound up putting in some long days, upwards of 20 hours in a few cases, just to check a box next to a peak name on a website or two. And since I knew I'd be putting in long days that would leave me above treeline well into the afternoon, if not after sunset, I blew off a lot of other projects and interests in the last few years I was listchasing to make sure my schedule would be free so I could pounce on perfect weather windows whenever they came up, thus leading me to also channel Kiefer in wondering how different life would be if I'd focused more on my own intellectual/academic interests.

Given, however, that I think I would've always found some way to procrastinate productivity no matter what form the procrastination and the productivity took (see: this post vs. the open Google doc in another tab staring blankly whenever I switch back to it), there's an excellent chance that the best-case scenario I could hope for is that I'd compromise with my younger self and at least get them to agree to make sure to go with someone who has a rope and gear, whether a professional guide or a friend with the proper equipment, for at least the Class 4s.

I also think I could probably convince Younger Me not to get sucked into side quests like the Cents, or at least finish the fourteeners before deciding to also take them on, because Teakettle and Dallas were awful peaks that really made me feel like I wasted outstanding weather windows I could've used climbing fourteeners (well, okay, only in Dallas' case...the day I was on Teakettle was a Heinz 57 Flavors of Precip type of day), and I was especially peeved about having done them once LiDAR revealed that they were not, in fact, Centennials.

And I definitely would've chosen a better finisher - maybe Humboldt, if it were still to be in the South Colony Lakes group; Handies; or maybe even Quandary, to start and finish a whole range's fourteeners with a no-brainer as a grand finale - that would've been more of a stroll where I could truly relax and savor the experience. Crestone Peak(s?) was (were?)...not that. Sure, it could've been worse, since Maroon Peak was also in the year of my Final Four and therefore when I stopped caring what order I got them done in as long as I got them done, but Crestone Peak, while not quite a 20-some-hour day, was still one in which I started AND finished in the dark despite having gotten a ride up to the 4wd TH from my friend and partner for it, so it was definitely A Choice (That I Would Neither Repeat Nor Recommend).