Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Who Has Climbed All 14 - Eners ??

Anyone on this board ?

Rick Kent comes to mind

http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/index.aspx

If you're referring to the California 14ers quite a lot of people have done them. I just did the Palisade Traverse (T-bolt to Sill) a couple weeks ago. An even more challenging goal is to climb all the 13ers.

I've done some of the 14ers a number of times (since 2002):

Mount Whitney: 25x
Mount Russell: 10x
Mount Muir: 6x
Mount Langley: 4x
Mount Williamson: 1x
Mount Tyndall: 2x
Middle Palisade: 2x
Mount Sill: 3x
Polemonium: 3x
North Palisade: 3x
Starlight Peak: 2x
Thunderbolt Peak: 2x
Split Mountain: 1x
Mount Shasta: 2x
White Mountain: 2x

I've hung back on this, wondering whether to open my box of private secrets to the world (trying not to be overly melodramatic, here!). Laura's thoughtful gift of Glenlivet must be a lubricant.

As Rick notes, doing all the California 14ers is not particularly unique. Starting with his list, my tally to date:

Mount Whitney: lots
Mount Russell: 4x
Mount Muir: 28x
Mount Langley: 14x
Mount Williamson: 8x
Mount Tyndall: 6x
Middle Palisade: 3x
Mount Sill: 7x
Polemonium: 1x
North Palisade: 5x
Starlight Peak: 1x
Thunderbolt Peak: 3x
Split Mountain: 4x
Mount Shasta: 4x
White Mountain: 5x
Williamson East Horn: 3x
Williamson West Horn: 4x
Keeler Needle: 5x
Day Needle: 3x
Third Needle: 2x
Extra Needle: 2x

Since Rick has included Polemonium and Starlight, I think the other lesser 14ers should also be there: the last six in the list above.

One of my interests is to climb each 14er in winter, and those attempts fail more often than attempts in summer. The major 14ers I haven't yet made it to the top in winter are:

Mount Russell
Middle Palisade
Thunderbolt Peak

Another interest is day climbs, and I finished the list of major 14ers in a day with Thunderbolt, in 1991.

Some of my more memorable 14er climbs:

• A day climb of Whitney's East Buttress with my best climbing friend, and in mountaineering boots. We took an 80' 9-mil rope, no hardware. But we never got the rope out. About ten hours car-to-car, including a nap at Clyde Meadow on the way up.
• When I completely ruptured my Achilles tendon on the summit of Russell, on a day climb. Was able to descend the East Ridge using my butt and three good limbs. Found a discarded stick and hobbled down the rest of the way, reaching the parking lot at dusk.
• New route on the East Horn of Williamson.
• My first Whitney ascent, spending an unexpected night in the summit hut, and seeing an atomic blast from Nevada the next morning.
• On a winter ascent of North Palisade via the U-Notch direct exit, starting to sign the summit register and realizing only then that we had topped out on New Year's Day.
• On a climb of Williamson via George Creek, passing a large group camped around 2 PM. When my friend and I told them we were doing a day climb, they laughed and scoffed and said it couldn't be done. Seeing their change in attitude when we passed through on the descent, obviously on a time table to get down around sunset.
• On a two-day traverse of Thunderbolt - Starlight - North Pal, noticing an old ice ax 200' below the crest. Retrieving it and seeing that the wrist strap had been broken and was spattered with old blood stains. Wondering how far below the owner ended up, and whether he was still down there.
• Christmas Day rescue of a fellow stuck high on Whitney's East Buttress, for six days, with serious frostbitten hands and feet. His partner had fallen, and died.
• My first climb of the Mountaineer's Route, with my 10 year-old son. His first, too.

These are the ones that come to mind right now.

The point is that there are indeed lists to be ticked off. But more important than ticking off something is the remembrance of how you did it, under what conditions, the style, and--most importantly--the people you did it with. That is what you will carry with you for the rest of your life.

Shoooot... And I was proud that I have climbed all the major fourteeners at least once.   And my buddy Rod (member #138 here) is my witness -- we climbed them all together.

Oh well, I can claim 66% of Bob's count on Middle Pal, 60% on Shasta, and 50% on Split.
...Wow, aren't those big numbers!

BTW, Laura, good work on the "lubricant".

always fun to read this ...

CA 14-ers speed record

Did you filter that Glenlivet, Bob?

Oh, snap, Tom!



Couldn't agree more, Bob. I can't wait to finish out my collection in the next few years (or maybe next year).

Here is an interesting mountain list finish organization:

http://www.adk46r.org/

Yup. Am #4920 ...

Some of the best memories of my short mountaineering career are from climbing the CA 14'ers.

Some of the most memorable are:
Winter ascent of Shasta via Casaval Ridge. Made the summit at dusk under Gale-force wind and went back down in a perfect still moonlit night. Whitney via East Buttress dayhike. Took 23 hours and the hallucination was a lot of fun. It was like being on drugs without taking drugs. Running into Kurt W. between UBSL and Iceberg Lake in the Spring of '05 on my first winter attempt of Whitney via the MR. First Sierra summit was with Ken not too long ago.

I'm a Lagavulin man, myself.

Ah, Muah Mt! What a fun fall trip that was.

Muah/Trail Peak TR

I started to write a very wordy response, but instead I will simply say: Thank you very much Bob for that quick glimpse in to a bit of your mountaineering history - and thoughts.

RP

Bob - What constitutes winter in the Sierra? For some list maintainers the "rules" require you not leave the TH before the beginning of astronomical winter, and at the end of the winter hikes must be back at the TH before the end of astronomical winter. Other lists say winter is between 12/21 and 3/21, and some think "if there's snow on the ground...". Is there an accepted standard for the Sierra?

Thanks for posting Bob. I was thinking about you when I posted. Looks like I need to do Whitney 106 more times to catch up with you. With about a 30 year difference that means I'll have to do Whitney 3 or 4 times each year. Hmmmmm.

I'm surprised you've only done Russell 4 times. I would have guessed you'd done that one about 20 times.

Thanks, Bob. I'd not heard nor read of any dates/astronomical events which marked "winter climbs" in the Sierra (or Colorado, for that matter) so thought I'd ask.