Your First 14er

Colorado peak questions, condition requests and other info.
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greenonion
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by greenonion »

ncxhjhgvbi wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:52 pm My first 14ers were Grays and Torreys in 2014. I had flown to Denver from sea level (Boston) for a work training on Wednesday and met up with my friend who lived in Boulder. He said we would do a 14er and it wouldn't be too hard. We left early Saturday and I was already feeling a bit nauseated from altitude by the time we parked about halfway up the road around 630 am. I still consider it one of the hardest things physically and mentally that I have ever done. We did Torreys first to avoid some of the crowds and that last 500' up grays was a killer. I remember having to catch my breath for a few seconds even when I stood up after sitting at the summit for awhile. We got to the car at about 1:30 and I slept from 3pm-7pm. We then destroyed $125 of sushi and I then slept from 9pm to 8am.

I moved here full time in April 2016. After having started to hike a bit more regularly in the year I spent in upstate New York, and getting a few months to acclimate, I crushed Princeton in June and it has been all uphill from there!
I love this story especially. 🙂
onebyone
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by onebyone »

Longs 1991

Was traveling cross country and visiting a lot of the national parks. Backpacked Grand Canyon from the North Rim, climbed Half Dome in Yosemite, Mt St. Helens, to name a few. So was in pretty good shape by the time I got to CO. Back then though it was in jean cut offs, cotton shirt, and my LL Bean day pack. Lol
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coneydogron
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by coneydogron »

1st was Mt Shasta. At the time I was just getting into the mountain thing and Googled something like 'big mountains'. I'm from Michigan and back then I didn't even know Colorado had mountains :-D
"A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn't" - Tom Waits
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mtnkub
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by mtnkub »

My first 14er "in any state" was La Malinche, in Mexico. Because I was driving by and thought it was a good opportunity to get higher than I've ever been before. We found two Mexican boys (maybe 12/13 years old) lost in the fog, and they followed our exit from the summit ridge. Actually, they followed my very footsteps. The girl I was hiking with took a slightly different line. The boys would go over there to accept the occasional offering of a cookie, but then they came right back to follow me again. Kinda funny.

First ones stateside were Whitney (as day hike) and Shasta (with high camp on snow), because I was living in CA at the time. First ones in CO were Grays and Torreys; Bierstadt next day. Because I was visiting Denver for an interview for the job that I still have. That was great training for Iztaccihuatl and Pico de Orizaba a month later. I thought that moving to Denver would also help with high peaks in the Andes, but sadly that never happened. Maybe this year.
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ncxhjhgvbi
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by ncxhjhgvbi »

greenonion wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 10:28 pm
ncxhjhgvbi wrote: Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:52 pm My first 14ers were Grays and Torreys in 2014. I had flown to Denver from sea level (Boston) for a work training on Wednesday and met up with my friend who lived in Boulder. He said we would do a 14er and it wouldn't be too hard. We left early Saturday and I was already feeling a bit nauseated from altitude by the time we parked about halfway up the road around 630 am. I still consider it one of the hardest things physically and mentally that I have ever done. We did Torreys first to avoid some of the crowds and that last 500' up grays was a killer. I remember having to catch my breath for a few seconds even when I stood up after sitting at the summit for awhile. We got to the car at about 1:30 and I slept from 3pm-7pm. We then destroyed $125 of sushi and I then slept from 9pm to 8am.

I moved here full time in April 2016. After having started to hike a bit more regularly in the year I spent in upstate New York, and getting a few months to acclimate, I crushed Princeton in June and it has been all uphill from there!
I love this story especially. 🙂
Glad you appreciated it!
Mattm3535
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by Mattm3535 »

As a person who spends approximately 8000 hours lurking per every one actual post, I do get excited when the opportunity to post about something I can actually contribute to comes up. My first 14er was Antero in July of '97 with my dad and my buddy Ryan when I was 14. Why Antero? Because my pops said "it's a road, so it can't possibly be that steep." Correct I suppose, but there were certainly dozens of other Sawatch routes/mountains of comparable difficulty but vastly superior scenery we could've done.

Being from Illinois, the opportunity to hike at altitude is rare, so we used to hike in Colorado nearly every summer. I thought it was going to be a slog, but I was woefully unprepared for just how relentless it was. Uphill all day. I just remember sitting down to take my boots off and then passing out in the tent at the Buena Vista KOA at about 2PM and waking up after 6. I remember my feet feeling like they were tenderized like Homer Simpson was by the reindeer. I remember being impossibly thirsty. And I remember that it was the greatest feeling ever. Sure the approach we took on Antero isn't the most gorgeous...sure it is long and you can't escape Jeeps or ATVs...but as a flatlander, it was paradise. It was the moment my strong feelings for colorado became unrelenting love. I have done other 14ers since then (only 3 in 2 decades...sad) and have greater ambitions for different mountains as I grow older, but if someone from the future said that all I could ever do again is re-ascend Antero, as "lesser" of a 14er as it may be, I would be ecstatic.
The farther one travels, the less one knows.
martintravis
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by martintravis »

Mt Whitney, October 6 2013 in bone dry conditions but cold. It was during a Ted Cruz led government shutdown, so the park was officially closed, the campgrounds were closed, we didnt even know if the gate to the trailhead would be open. Driving in we drove through Yosemite from W to E during the shutdown, so we went through the valley with zero other cars there. Very weird compared to the usual crowds. No rangers present on whitney, almost no other people on the mountain either due to the late date and uncertainty. Had the portal campground almost to ourselves. Day hiked it, and the next day it dumped 2 feet on the whole Sierra.

First CO 14er was Quandary on May 3 2014. Ended up with a severely sunburned face and minor snow-blindness from no sunscreen or eye protection. Posthole city on the descent through treeline, didn't have snowshoes or gaiters. Was surprised I was the only person trudging up without skis on my back.
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mountainrev
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by mountainrev »

My first 14er was Longs in 1988. Did it wearing sneakers and cotton, and carrying only about a quart of water and some trail mix in a day pack. Interestingly, Longs was also my second 14er. Did it 8 years later when I moved back to Colorado.
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OldTrad
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by OldTrad »

Climbed the Casual Route on the Diamond when I was 19. Longs summit was just a bonus as it happened to be my 1st 14er, though the real goal was the East Face. Descended via the cables.
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greenonion
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by greenonion »

CaptCO wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 2:21 pm June 24, 2019 & happy as I could ever imagine! What a journey it’s been since. I owe a lot of my success to this website (guess the summit)
Bierstadt. Grays and Torreys behind.
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Ed_Groves
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by Ed_Groves »

My first 14er was Grays Peak, for all of the obvious reasons, which I completed at age 59 in July of 2020. I had joined this site a year before in June of 2019 to study routes and prepare for this, and especially to help my wife prepare so we wouldn't make any major newbie mistakes. I planned hikes to acclimate starting with McCullough Gulch and then Mt Sniktau on preceding days. Both of us completed those with no issues but my wife struggled with Grays on day 3. She is 7 years older than I, and while she is in pretty decent shape she has never been one to push the boundaries of her physical fitness and doesn't realize what she is capable of. Sucking for air at 13,000 feet with approximately a mile to go caused her to stop. She encouraged me to go ahead so I raced as quickly as I could to the top, spent 20 minutes on the summit for some pics and refueling, and then ran back down to her. We completed a couple of easy 13ers after that to make sure she enjoyed our hikes too and then returned to Missouri.

After my return I realized that I needed more. I returned with a friend just as the snow came in on September 8th. Over the next four days we did an acclimation hike to Cupid, summited Quandary, and completed the Decalibron. Below is a pic on Grays, as well as Quandary and Democrat.

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"Education is the process of moving from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty." (Utvich)
jibler
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Re: Your First 14er

Post by jibler »

my 1st was Elbert

which I did with this outward bound'ish type group when I was 16

was fun but kinda not that big of a deal in the sense that I wouldn't climb another for like 6+ years.

then I started hitting up the ones in the Ten Mile/Mosquito Range and slowly worked out from there on the easy access ones
Keep looking up - Jack Horkheimer
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