Hello all. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for combo 14ers? I did Grays and Torreys this past Monday and I really liked knocking out two in a day. I saw that perhaps Mt. Harvard and Mt. Columbia could be a combo, maybe? Any good suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Traditional combos include:

Front Range:
Bierstadt/Evans (some easy class 3 and an exposed ledge on the "Sawtooth")

Sawatch Range:
Belford/Oxford (Mostly class 1, some off trail near the summits)
Shavano/Tabeguache (Class 1 most of the way up Shavano, some class 2 boulder hopping to Tab.)
Harvard/Columbia (I haven't done this one as a combo)

San Juan Range:
Redcloud/Sunshine (Mostly on trail, some easy off trail)

There are more that are considerably more difficult and exposed that have become known as the "Four Great Fourteener Traverses" due to Gerry Roach's book, those all involve minimum of 4th class scrambling on exposed and sometimes loose ridges, they are:

Crestone Peak/Needle
Mt Wilson/El Diente
Maroon Bells
Little Bear/Blanca

Not sure of your experience or comfort level, so you may want to hold on those until you have some other 3rd and 4th class climbs, they are not good places to be caught in a storm!

Hey thanks! Yeah, I will be staying away from those bottom ones for now for sure. Let me ask you this, have you ever done the Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross combo/traverse?

ColoradoLawDobe wrote:Hey thanks! Yeah, I will be staying away from those bottom ones for now for sure. Let me ask you this, have you ever done the Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross combo/traverse?

Oops, I forgot about that one! I have done it, in winter actually, but Bross has been officially "closed" by the land owner. There is a traverse trail that stays below the summit to get you back to Kite Lake from Lincoln. Its probably best to hold off on that one until legal access can be attained for climbers, but there is no reason you can't do the other 3. Agreements have been put in place to allow climbers on those and new trails have been built to keep people away from open mines and other areas landowners want to keep people away from. Just stick to the designated to avoid tresspassing, especially on Bross' summit. Not sure what kind of patrolling they do, but better to not push it as they have specifically signed the summit area as closed and ask people to stick to the by-pass trail.

If you're motivated and in shape, Massive and Elbert can be done by following the connecting ridge (and you'll get about a dozen other lower peaks along the way). If I remember right, it is something like 25 miles and 15k feet of elevation gain/descent. A large portion of the trip is above tree-line, so you probably wouldn't find water or any protection from thunderstorms.

McConnel, I'm down, what are you doing Sunday? Haha. Seriously though...

You could also do Kit Carson with Challenger. If you do it from the South Colony Lakes, you will climb Kat Carson too. You could also do Humboldt along the way back if the weather holds.

Woodie