What's all the hype about technical CA 14ers?

14ers in California and Washington state or any other peak in the USA
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Matt Lemke
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What's all the hype about technical CA 14ers?

Post by Matt Lemke »

I just finished reading all the route beta for all the ranked CA 14ers and I found only one harder than class 3, which is North Palisade. Interestingly enough, the three popular unranked CA 14ers, Starlight, Polemonium and Thunderbolt are all class 4 or higher. This excites me as I now know I will finish the continuous US ranked 14ers list. All I have to do is cheat death 5 times :lol:

Capitol, Pyramid, Little Bear, Mt. Wilson and North Palisade.
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rangerdrew
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Re: What's all the hype about technical CA 14ers?

Post by rangerdrew »

No idea, but I really want to climb the East Buttress of Mt. Whitney.
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ChrisinAZ
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Re: What's all the hype about technical CA 14ers?

Post by ChrisinAZ »

Don't get too excited...one big thing to keep in mind regarding California peaks is that they have they have deceivingly easy class rankings compared to Colorado (and most everywhere else). A solid class 3 in California would be called 3+ or 4 in Colorado. North Pal is generally called 4th class, but I've heard it more accurately described as low 5th. And Muir, supposedly class 3, ended up being too much for me when I attempted it solo--got spooked on a part I'd describe as much more like c4.

I'm hoping to finish the CA 14ers someday too--including the named but unranked ones--but it's going to be a definite challenge...
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Matt Lemke
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Re: What's all the hype about technical CA 14ers?

Post by Matt Lemke »

How are things going Chris? Planning on Princeton tomorrow, Elbert Sunday and Humboldt Monday.

BTW, I know that about CA but there are still peaks there rated class 3 that I would still call 3rd class and others called 4th class that would be more like low 5th class.
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Re: What's all the hype about technical CA 14ers?

Post by susanjoypaul »

"Reading all the route beta" doesn't equal actually climbing them. The class 3 route on Mount Russell was much more mentally challenging for me than any of the four Colorado peaks you noted - Capitol, Pyramid, Little Bear, and Mount Wilson - due to the exposure. Not to say it wasn't a lot of fun.

Beta is subjective, and written by climbers who range from dramatically playing down the difficulty of a peak (I assume to make themselves look like super-climbers) to dramatically exaggerating the difficulty of a climb (again, I assume to make themselves look like super-climbers).

The more I climb the fewer assumptions I make about the difficulty of any peak. Get out there and climb them and then let us know what you think.
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