This blog is about a challenge. A challenge to myself. What I want to do in this blog is to document that challenge and to get advise, recommendations, encouragement on the best way to complete this challenge. It will also be a document of my preparation for and attempt at this challenge.

This is how this challenge got started. My family and I were is Augusta Georgia for Thanksgiving 2011. My younger brother Scott who lives in Augusta mentioned wanting to go to Washington State to climb Mt. Rainier. When I returned home to Harrisonburg Virginia, I starting investigating what it would take to climb Mt. Rainier. I was a little discouraged about what I was seeing on websites concerning climbing of Mt. Rainier. While it looked like a great challenge, the costs on getting to Washington, the mountaineering classes that had to be taken prior to making the climb starting adding up cost wise and time wise. The appeal of mountains intrigued me. In looking for alternatives, I started searching where the tallest mountains in the lower 48 states were located. Colorado seemed to be the “gold mine” of mountains in the lower 48 states. In looking further into the mountains of Colorado, there was a website that specialized in those mountains. The website is the 14ers.com. In Colorado, there are 54 mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation. Fourteeners refers to any mountain that is over 14,000 feet in elevation. While the 14,000 feet for a mountain is Colorado is a little different than the 14,000 ft of Mt. Rainier represents. “Mount Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,211 ft (4,027 m), greater than K2 at 13,189 ft (4,020 m). - from Wikipedia, Mt. Rainier. This compares to the 14,000 ft mountains of Colorado, where a topographical prominence is about 4,500 ft. So, that is the big challenge of Mt. Rainier.

So the idea was to climb a couple of the “14ers” in Colorado. The thought was to do 14, 14ers in 14 days. That was neat. 14 – 14 – 14. A little more searching on the internet. Yes, it had been done. 14, 14ers in 14 days. There where not a whole lot of people that had accomplished the endeavor, but it had been done.

The other concern about climbing these mountains was the technical climbing requirement needed to accomplish the climbs. Mountains are classified into five different classes. Class 1 being the easiest climb, and a Class 5 mountain being the the must technical climb. The mountains in Colorado are in seven different ranges. One of those ranges is to the west of two towns, Leadville and Buena Vista. If you draw a line between these two towns, they put a highway there, the Sawatch mountain range is located to the west of this highway. Fifteen of these 14ers are located in this range. Most of the mountains in the Sawatch range are class 2 climbs, or most of the routes to the summit of these mountains are class 2 climbs. From the 14ers website, a class 2 climb is listed as a hike and is described as, “More difficult hiking that may be off-trail.  You may also have to put your hands down occasionally to keep your balance.  May include easy snow climbs or hiking on talus/scree. “ OK, that's no big deal, I can put my hands down on the ground for balance every once in a while.

The more I read about the mountains in this range, I discovered another amazing challenge. It was not only a challenge, but a foot race. The Nolan's 14. The starting point of this race was at a fish hatchery outside of Leadville. The finish point was a point somewhere near Buena Vista. In between these two points the participants has to touch the summits of 14 peaks, and do it in less than 60 hours. This amounts to 100 miles horizontally, and about 90,000 feet in elevation change. While it used to be a race, park regulation prohibit that from happening more, so it is a challenge and if you complete the event, your name gets listed on the website. Seven people have completed this challenge.

Wow, while Nolan's 14 was definitely out of the question. Climbing 14, 14ers is less than 14 days was a possibility. Spending 14 days in Colorado presented a problem time wise. Travel there, travel back, and acclimation to the altitude, so to spend 14 days climbing would take a total time commitment of about three weeks. That was too much time off from work. So, the current challenge to myself is to climb fourteen, 14ers in seven days.

 Links:

Fourteeners - http://www.14ers.com/
Mt. Rainier -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rainier
Nolan's 14 -  http://mattmahoney.net/nolans14/