r/14ers

The lower trail is stunning right now with the peak fall colors. The upper mountain is officially in early winter conditions.
Challenger’s gully is loose with soft snow, and the Avenue is filled in with snow. Traction gear highly recommended to navigate the ledges safely.
A beautiful but grueling day in the Sangres!

Feeling accomplished for bagging my 10th 14er with La Plata!!!
Route wasn’t terrible, minimal snow patches (brought crampons just in case), light wind after timberline. Honestly didnt follow alltrails after the saddle, just kept following cairns and footpaths but was more direct instead of switchback-y. Overall 10/10 would do again

My first 14er. Had the summit to myself for around 45 mins. Last mile in the snow was a workout but the payoff was worth it. Incredible experience.

Took the West Ridge up, but descended the unmaintained East Ridge to avoid the deep snow descent on the standard route. It turned into a rough slog with ridge snow, freezing river crossings, and hidden swamps. The vibrant fall colors helped make up for the brutal bushwhacking and route finding on the way down.

After successfully pulling off an ambitious trip in the Sangres and San Juans in July, I decided take it up a notch for the week of Labor Day. Flying in from Wisconsin after work that Friday, I was able to solo day hike Antero, San Luis (South Ridge), Little Bear (Hourglass, from valley floor), Capitol, Snowmass, Pyramid, and the Bells Traverse across seven consecutive days (with a bonus Tenmile Traverse at the end).

Conditions and pictures are obviously outdated, but still wanted to share my thoughts and experiences:

- Antero and San Luis were good warm up 14ers and a great way to acclimate before all the stupidity. Definitely some of the easiest 14ers in the state
- I chose the Hourglass route up Little Bear (spooked by the death on the WRI) and even with a 3 AM start on a weekday, there were way more people than I expected. Luckily, everything went well as all parties did a good job taking turns and calling out rocks
- The rockfall rightfully gets all the attention, but I think the technical difficulty of the Hourglass goes under the radar (especially the class 4 chokepoint)
- It wasn’t the best idea to drive 4 hours from Alamosa to Capitol the next day, but still so worth it - Capitol is an unbelievable experience
- For whatever reason, traversing the knife edge made me more nervous than expected. Something about the lack of good holds and awkwardness sketched me out, even more so than other, more consensus exposed moves like the Crestone Traverse’s headwall
- I thought Snowmass was one of the most underrated 14ers in the state. Such a beautiful, easy approach and insane, Capitol-like views on the final ridge. The slog up from the lake isn’t too fun tho
- Pyramid was way easier than expected, and the entire Maroon Lake area absolutely blew my mind. Hot take, I thought the main view/area beats most National Parks like Zion
- The Bells Traverse was my grand finale for a summer of crazy 14ers, and it lived up to the hype. Honestly, I thought full length POVs were the most helpful pieces of beta/research, and I’m glad I saved these for numbers 52 and 53
- I was fortunate enough to join up with another solo climber for the Bells, and while I believe I could’ve done it solo, having another pair of eyes allowed us to move faster and make smarter decisions (who would’ve guessed lol)
- The descent down North Maroon wasn’t as bad as I expected, but you definitely want a GPS track to make sure you’re in the right gullies. Saw a lot of parties get off track and cliff out on the descent
- Compared to the other Great Traverses I’ve done, I thought it was definitely a step up from El Diente and the Crestones
- Since I still had a weekend to kill, I decided to attempt a Tenmile Traverse with low expectations of finishing. Somehow my legs held up and I was able to traverse all ten peaks in 10.5 hours
- I bypassed the Dragon (since I did zero research lol) but still got some spicy scrambling in by accidentally picking a more direct line between Peaks 3 and 4. Otherwise, the rest of the traverse was pretty straightforward, especially after Peak 4
- Hitting up Parnassus and Bard as a bonus traverse was a nice way to wrap up the trip before flying back out of Denver on day nine. I also forgot how much more crowded trails get the closer to Denver you are

The monstrous total elevation gain (49k in 9 days), awful sleep, and a stupid amount of driving all made for a classic Colorado vacation. September’s cooler temperatures and lack of thunderstorms was so refreshing after July’s trip during the heat wave.

Overall, the Elks blew away my expectations. Yes, there are sections of trashy loose rock and these mountains are definitely more on the dangerous side, but the beauty is really only matched by peaks like Sneffels and Wetterhorn. Everything feels well earned and all the climbers I ran into were all great people.

I would do anything for a fraction of these mountains in Wisconsin, and I look forward to hopefully finishing the 14ers next summer with Culebra and the Chicago Basin peaks. As someone who has only lived in the Northeast and Midwest with not much exposure or traditional climbing experience, if you told me that I would be able to summit mountains like Capitol solo and C2C, I wouldn’t believe you in the slightest. I couldn’t be happier that I made the 14ers my main hiking goal, and it’s always great seeing others also full sending it on the trails and on this sub.