14ers.com

This is addressing both first-timers and the people with out-of-towners:

Elbert is pretty easy, but 3 hour drive each way and 9 steep hiking miles round trip is a lot for a first hike. Definitely doable though, and the view from the top can't be beat. (Really, I should just shut up, since my first attempt was Long's...before I knew what was up. THAT didn't go very well as I recall)

I'd agree with Bierstadt, Quandary, Democrat, Sherman, Grays...BUT, if you're concerned at all with aesthetics, Sherman is SO UGLY. I saved Sherman for a winter climb and it was still ugly. Unless you are enthralled with the history of CO mining, Sherman is a dump. I wouldn't take visitors there...

Gray's is a good introduction I think, close to home, a few driving thrills on the dirt road up to the TH, easy route finding. Reasonably scenic. Bierstadt is good too, but there will be 1000 people there on any given day. Democrat is nice, cause then if you feel good you can take a jog around the loop, or at least go check out Lincoln. The Dem, lincoln, bross, cam loop is also a pile of mine tailings...so keep that in mind...

Give the flat-landers a day or two to acclimate before you haul them up high. Have fun! You'll do fine on whatever you pick. :D

Sherman may not be as pretty as the others eay 14ers, but it's by far the easiest 14er in Colorado hands down.

headeulogy wrote:Hey everyone, I'm new here, and thinking about doing my first 14er this weekend. This thread brings up a questions for me. Since I am not experienced, I figured I would start with the Mountains on this 14ers site that are grouped by difficulty. http://www.14ers.com/routes_2.html If this site is saying that Mt. Elbert is the easiest, are you all saying that this is wrong? Or is you reasoning for easiest hike combination of the views, difficulty of the hike, how far away it is from Denver/Boulder?

Mount Elbert is not necessarily more difficult than those mentioned above, however, it is the 4,300 feet of elevation gain and loss, along with the 9.0 miles roundtrip that separates Elbert from others.

Mount Elbert is a few miles from leadville to answer your other question.

Longs Peak was my first fourteener and my favorite climb thus far! If you are one who is not afraid of heights and are in relatively descent shape, I would recommend Longs!

I didn't think Quandary was anywhere near as easy as Sherman or Bierstadt. Haven't done Grays and Torreys yet.

MC.Ikema wrote:Sherman may not be as pretty as the others eay 14ers, but it's by far the easiest 14er in Colorado hands down.

I almost forgot Sherman is also the shortest of the easy 14ers being ranked 45th whereas Grays, Torreys, Quandary and Bierstadt are 9th, 11th, 13th and 38th. Plus there's a cool old mine you can check out while you're up there.

I can think of prettier mountains than Sherman, but I think it is getting a bad rap. The views from the summit are pretty darn good and if you want to give a title to the ugliest mountain, I'd give it to Bross. This photo of the northern Sawatch peaks is from the summit of Sherman.

Northern Sawatch from Sherman.

I'll throw Antero into the mix (assuming you have a 4x4).

For anyone viewing this discussion out there that's brand new to hiking, you would do well to know that while this topic discusses these moutains in terms of easiest, they aren't really that easy if you haven't hiked much.

smoove wrote:...I've taken four 14ers newbies up...two of them said it was the most difficult physical thing they'd ever done...

I think it's fitting to call these the 'least difficult' 14ers, as opposed to easiest, if you know what I mean. If you haven't spent much time walking uphill or exerting yourself at altitude, even these easy 14ers might be kinda tough for you. I'd go on at least one other hike first to warm yourself up and get comfortable with your gear, it will make your first 14er hike much more enjoyable.

I feel like I should also mention that there is an excellent search function on this website (its up there in the upper right hand corner of the web page) that you can use to find similar threads from years past, and there are A LOT of threads from years past! A simple search of the word easiest reveals 47 pages of related posts. This topic, entitled "easiest route of all the 14ers" might be useful, and this one, titled "Where should I start?" looks like it would be informative as well.

That being said, there's no reason to not have a thread for this year, and I'd like to share!

As far as I can tell from my conversations with others, Bierstadt is touted to be the least difficult 14er hike, with Sherman a close second. I have not hiked Sherman yet, but I did head up Bierstadt last year, and I found it to be fairly pedestrian, at least for me at the time. However, I did hear people at the top talking about how on the way up they thought they were gonna die and couldn't believe how stupid they were for thinking that this would be fun. Now that they were on the top, though, they thought it was amazing. I remember one girl saying how she almost turned around more than once, but now that she had summited she was SO happy that she didn't.

From what I can tell, those two are probably the least difficult. My personal pick for a 14er virgin would be Grays Peak, although it is probably slightly more difficult. It was my first one, and I loved it. It was all uphill from there!!!

I hope that helps some of you new comers! Cheers!

I think that Gray is the easiest that I have done. I went up there two summers in a row to do both Grays and Torreys and made excellent time on both summits of both peaks. The first time I had a friend with me who is out of shape and a bum knee and I summitted both by 1 pm. The second time with two other friends we summited both by 12 pm. That's with starting out at the parking lot at 7 am. I saw two mountain goats the first time and the second time there was a friendly pika on Torreys, that would come up and grab my pant leg. He was cute. The views are great too. :D

I felt that Sherman was easier than Bierstadt. In my opinion it was the easiest one I've done. Had some neat old mining buildings on the way too.

If your not concerned about a 3,000-foot rule, Evans from Summit Lake isn't bad, but you still have five miles to go if your follow the road.

For what it's worth, I'd say Quandary.
- easy drive (could take your Ferrari)
- good parking
- hard to get lost
- somewhat short hiking distance
- good trail
- close to decent restaurants for post climb celebration

What could be easier?