10 Year Anniversary

[MountainHiker]

I’m not sure when I first saw 14ers.com. I go all the back to the Borneman and Lampert book and then the “new” Roach book! Most of my early internet mountain searches were for trips outside of Colorado. By the time the web became useful I already knew my way up the fourteeners. But then some trails started to change. I think I stumbled on this site with the discovery Yale’s standard route was no longer Denny Gulch!

It was with the fall of Talus Monkey I realized 14ers.com was a community. I have since met good friends through this site. And as a community we have lost some friends. I was able to connect with a fallen climber’s mother in Nova Scotia because of 14ers.com - a climber I met through 14ers.com. My condolence message to Mike’s family on 14ers.com was read at his funeral. A few months later we threw some Colorado rocks into the ocean at his favorite beach.

I would still be climbing fourteeners and other mountains without the internet. But modern technology has changed the experience. The internet is a dynamic source of information. Not all sites are created equal. 14ers.com rises above other climbing sites in many ways. Others have mentioned the balance of letting the members contribute a wealth of information while moderating a reasonable amount. We are indeed fortunate that Bill with his experience and ability has the desire, time and means to maintain such a wonderful community.

Thanks Bill

[mtsuji]

Thanks Bill! I've not only benefitted from the great community here but have been able to procrastinate countless hours over my time as a member

[GeezerClimber]

I'm a relative newcomer. The site has been informative, interesting and sometimes poignant.

I hope we're both around at the 20th anniversary.

Dave

[jmanner]

Thanks Bill! I've not only benefitted from the great community here but have been able to procrastinate countless hours over my time as a member

+1

I appreciate all the amazing work you do for the website Bill! Its amazing how much information is so easily at hand with just this one tool.

[HikerCurt]

Another +1 for this site, Bill and all the helpful climbers on 14er.com. You have no idea how much you have assisted me and literally changed the course of my life.

[nsaladin]

Love this site, only been here since last summer as a lurker. I have successfully bagged some peaks due to the trip reports, and gained a lot more knowledge in various topics throughout the forum. Thanks Bill!

Also, the Facebook page is my go-to site for goat pics!

[DArcyS]

I suppose if this is the 10-year anniversary of the emergence of 14ers.com, this would also mark the 10-year anniversary of the decline of 14erWorld.

Somebody mentioned Bill's vision, but I think Steve Hoffmeyer should be noted for his vision (Steve was first, afterall). Although given the prevalence of bulletin boards, perhaps the emergence was inevitable. (And marked a vast improvement over list servers, if anybody remembers those.)

One difference I noted between Bill and Steve concerns CFI. Hoffmeyer seemed -- if my recollection is correct -- to have an antagnostic relationship with CFI because of these monster cairns. In contrast, Bill is on CFI's board of directors. I tip my hat to the guy who does things to make positive contributions.

Second, this is the legacy of 14erWorld. The success of any forum depends upon the contributions of the community. Many people contributed trip reports to 14erWorld, and now Hoffmeyer has elected to keep these reports to himself. It's a purely selfish act -- people contributed much to help Hoffmeyer, and this is how he says thanks to the climbing community.

Between the webmasters of 14ers.com and 14erWorld, I have no doubt the right guy won the war. To be clear, I don't wish ill-will upon Hoffmeyer, but I think the right guy won the war.

[Summit Assassin]

The community born out of this site has absolutely enriched my life. Thank you Bill for committing your time and resources to this site. Thank you for not being greedy. You are a man among men in my book.

[powhound]

I've only been on board for about a year and a half, but this site has inspired me to expand my comfort zone and go on many successful adventures. It must be an incredible amount of work to run this website. I can't believe you do it for free. Wow. Thanks Bill! If I ever run into you in Breck, the beers are on me!

[BillMiddlebrook]

I suppose if this is the 10-year anniversary of the emergence of 14ers.com, this would also mark the 10-year anniversary of the decline of 14erWorld.

Somebody mentioned Bill's vision, but I think Steve Hoffmeyer should be noted for his vision (Steve was first, afterall). Although given the prevalence of bulletin boards, perhaps the emergence was inevitable. (And marked a vast improvement over list servers, if anybody remembers those.)

One difference I noted between Bill and Steve concerns CFI. Hoffmeyer seemed -- if my recollection is correct -- to have an antagnostic relationship with CFI because of these monster cairns. In contrast, Bill is on CFI's board of directors. I tip my hat to the guy who does things to make positive contributions.

Second, this is the legacy of 14erWorld. The success of any forum depends upon the contributions of the community. Many people contributed trip reports to 14erWorld, and now Hoffmeyer has elected to keep these reports to himself. It's a purely selfish act -- people contributed much to help Hoffmeyer, and this is how he says thanks to the climbing community.

Between the webmasters of 14ers.com and 14erWorld, I have no doubt the right guy won the war. To be clear, I don't wish ill-will upon Hoffmeyer, but I think the right guy won the war.

I agree, Steve should be commended for starting 14erWorld (mid-to-late 90's ?) and providing an online community to share trips and information. Absolutely.

You mentioned "war." I didn't understand why Steve saw 14ers.com as a "competitor" and seemed to hold animosity towards this site. One day, I was on a summit with a friend and while signing the register, he said "Hey, Stevo was here two days ago. That guy really hates you!" I remember thinking why. I never really put much thought into it until 14erWorld went away and I was forwarded the document Steve released earlier this year. It was then that I realized how much Steve saw 14ers.com as a "competitor" to 14erWorld and saw me (I guess) as a contributing factor in the downfall of 14erWorld. I was pretty surprised by this. Maybe it's because I was never a 14erWorld member or just kinda keep to myself, but I really was surprised by this sense of competition. I also had the luxury of building this site as simply a resource to climbers, without it being a source of income. That made it easy for me to just tinker with the site whenever I had the time and not need to focus on any sort of return or results from that work. For some time, it sounds like 14erWorld was intended as a source of income for Steve or a way to drive traffic towards photography sales. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with that and in hindsight, I can understand why Steve might have seen the rise of a site like 14ers.com as taking away from that business.

I don't know Steve so I would never bad-mouth him or question his intentions or actions but I was a little shocked when I heard he was taking some sort of ownership of contributed trip reports. That doesn't seem right but maybe there was something in the Terms of Use when folks signed up for his forum.

I wish Steve the best. He's a fellow climber and I hope he looks back on what he did for the climbing community and holds a great sense of accomplishment from the time he ran 14erWorld.

[its_not_a_tuba]

Thanks for all your hard work Bill!

[seano732]

DYBM.....Oh wait, I mean Thank You Bill Middlebrook!!!! Peace!