Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks, both fourteeners in the San Juan Range, can be done together, but the only way down is to climb Redcloud again on the return. A long day, 12 miles and 4,800' elevation gain. Emme, the amazing Australian Terrier, did all three summits, 9 ½ hours effort and she's 10 ½ years old – this was her 14th and 15th mountain.

Now we’ve done all the South Park 14ers!

A famous Colorado fourteener for its snow-gully Cross and proclaimed Holy Cross National Monument by Herbert Hoover, it is the subject of the poem “The Cross of Snow” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

My first solo: Castle Peak, a fourteener near my home
– and a first for glissading down with an ice ax

My last solo: Mt. Princeton, a fourteener in the “Collegiates”

Mt. Antero in the Collegiates, the highest
mineral-laden terroir in the country.

Mt. Sopris is the icon of the Aspen/Roaring Fork Valley – Happy Birthday to Brett Crandall!

This has some route detail since there is not much Mt. Sopris route information that I could find.

While not a fourteener, it is a big mountain from bottom to top!

Grays Peak is the highest U.S. peak on the Continental Divide. High winds almost blew us off Torreys!

Overnight in Georgetown, another cool Colorado western town, and then up the mountain early to get off the summit before the daily electrical storms.

Another “Collegiate” fourteener, climbed despite a few recent deaths  on the mountain.

La Plata is a bigger climb – 4500’ of vertical, 10 miles, some rock scrambling and snow!

Grizzly Peak is the tallest of all 584 thirteeners in Colorado. We did some route finding to get the best way up – and got up close and personal with "gendarmes."

Culebra Peak is the only privately-owned fourteener. It is accessed from San Luis, only 8 miles from the New Mexico border. The town, formed in 1851, has the striking "Chapel of All Saints and a world-famous shrine called Stations of the Cross – 15 amazing bronze statues on a one mile uphill path, depicting Christ's last hours.

Mt. Shavano with its Angel of Shavano gully is the flagship fourteener associated with the town of Salida. Also in this article are pragmatic mountain weather forecasting notes mainly using cloud formations.

We went at this mountain from the closed Jennings Creek trailhead, carefully avoiding the erosion causing the closure. But on the way down we narrowly missed "cliffing out" at McCoy Gulch.

The San Juans sport some of the most beautiful mountain scenery of all the ranges in Colorado, although no single mountain would rival the Maroon Bells for volume of photo count.

Huron Peak is a nice, easy Class 2 hike starting just above the partially restored ghost town of Winfield and through a pretty meadow with great wildflowers.

Yale Mountain is one of the Collegiates in the Sawatch Range accessed from Buena Vista just over Independence Pass from Aspen. I was joined by our Australian Terrier Emme and son Brett, his dog Amos. Emme, at 20 lbs and short terrier legs – was to go on to hike/climb 17 fourteeners, raising funds for the Aspen Animal Shelter and getting serious news coverage.

Mt. Elbert at 14,440’ is the tallest in the state of Colorado, but one of the easiest to walk up – and is therefore many hikers’ first tall peak, including mine. This was in 2002, and while I loved it, for some reason it wasn’t until several years later I took up the fourteener quest with vibrancy.

Also included here is info on the re-calibrating of elevations of most high points in the West including Colorado’s fourteeners.