I know this topic has come up before. Does anyone know how many people have climbed all the ranked 14ers in the lower 48? There are 53 in Colorado, 12 in California and Mt. Rainier in Washington so that means 66 ranked. The Colorado Mountain Club has a list of those who have registered with them but I'm sure the actual number of completers is double those registered.

No. Nobody knows because not everyone has to brag about how many climbs they have done.

A buddy of mine in CO did all the 14ers. But he went out of his way to make sure the CMC wasn't involved.

Something about being 'proctored' first to be able to be considered to go on trips? I don't know if it is still that way, but all the rules he described seemed pretty over the top.

mrchad9 wrote:A buddy of mine in CO did all the 14ers. But he went out of his way to make sure the CMC wasn't involved.

Something about being 'proctored' first to be able to be considered to go on trips? I don't know if it is still that way, but all the rules he described seemed pretty over the top.

Organizations like the CMC stifle the spirit of mountaineering with these BS rules. Climb and forget the recognition......chances are most people are going to forget who you were.

mconnell wrote:No. Nobody knows because not everyone has to brag about how many climbs they have done.

Are you signing climbing logs? .......Uhm, just asking.

WyomingSummits wrote:

mrchad9 wrote:A buddy of mine in CO did all the 14ers. But he went out of his way to make sure the CMC wasn't involved.

Something about being 'proctored' first to be able to be considered to go on trips? I don't know if it is still that way, but all the rules he described seemed pretty over the top.

Organizations like the CMC stifle the spirit of mountaineering with these BS rules. Climb and forget the recognition......chances are most people are going to forget who you were.

Sorry to get slightly off topic here but I gotta go on a little rant about the CMC here. I've really had nothing against them (no opinion at all actually) until this summer. Was on top of a fantastic peak in Wyoming (Fitzpatrick in the Salt Rivers). I've heard there was a pretty cool register up on top, an older one with signatures going back a few decades. Now I know some people like summit registers, some people don't. I personally don't care for the ones on top of the really popular peaks where there's a mess of different notepads, blurred ink, and just an all around zoo of a signature. But it is cool to find a register on a remote, seldom climbed peak, and read the signature of the few who have bothered to climb it and their experiences, route, etc.

The old register was no longer there. The register I found however was a big, bulky one placed by apparently the Pinedale WY chapter of the CMC. It had a giant notepad, mostly empty, with gridded lines everywhere on each page, and explicit instructions as if explaining to a four year old that each hiker should sign, date, and limit their log to each line. Goddamn...can't escape red tape even on a remote summit.

I realize that the popularity of the 14ers makes registers like this necessary. But way overkill for Wyoming, so GTFO. There's no need for it. If there's a register on a summit, so be it. If there's none, then so be it. But there's absolutely no f'ing need for some do gooder meddlers from a climbing club in ANOTHER state to start spreading around with their BS and standardizing summit registers.

Don Otis wrote:I know this topic has come up before. Does anyone know how many people have climbed all the ranked 14ers in the lower 48? There are 53 in Colorado, 12 in California and Mt. Rainier in Washington so that means 66 ranked. The Colorado Mountain Club has a list of those who have registered with them but I'm sure the actual number of completers is double those registered.

Don Otis, I had a similar curiosity. It's really hard to pin down. There's not a big portion of the population that sets out to accomplish all of those summits and many of those don't record it in any accessible record. I'd estimate that a few hundred people have done all the 14ers in the lower 48. That's based on what I see from on-line summit logs like SP and Peakbagger.com. But as you've said, there's probably as many or more that don't make any shared record. For California or Colorado individually it's much higher, probably in the range from several hundred to a few thousand. And the number is increasing more rapidly as time goes on. The peak with the most thorough records is Rainier because the permits are regulated by the National Park Service. More than 10,000 climbers now attempt Rainier each year with a success rate of just above 50%.

I'm actively trying to climb all the lower 48 14ers (i'm in the low 50's or something). To answer the OP's question, my guess would be 100 guys (and gals)...

The 14ers in Colorado are more about perseverance than climbing ability (my god, there are 58 of them) and the California ones don't get climbed that often (in relation to Colorado and Rainier). Plus, it's a different skill set, different kit, and different mind set for each of the three states... unlikely that too many people have done all of them...

And I would say that you'd have to live in Colorado to really put a dent in the list (not too many California guys go to Colorado to climb Mt. Princeton), so given that contraint, I'd say you could narrow it down to primarily (i) folks in Colorado (ii) who have climbed Rainier and Shasta, (iii) have some ability to lead/follow low fifth class and (iv) have the time/money/desire to make 8 or 10 trips to California (most likely in a 4-5 month summer window) to bag all the peaks... the number of people who fit all of those constraints gets pretty small pretty quickly... (suprisingly, it's number (iv) that gets me...)

But the only thing I'm sure of is that we'll never know for sure...

I'd echo what Fletch said. I'm also planning to climb them all, though I probably won't be finishing anytime soon (at 57 in Colorado, just 2 in California). The California list is ultimately the most challenging of the three states by far, IMO--only a small handful of CO 14ers present a true challenge to even moderately-experienced scramblers, and while Rainier is an arduous enough climb, it's only one mountain, especially if you can snag both Columbia Crest and Liberty Cap. CA has peaks with long approaches, massive uphills, scrambles/rock climbs that are rather intimidating for rock-climbing noobs like me, and of course all that red tape. I've heard even "moderate" CA 14ers, such as Muir and Russell, described as more intimidating than even CO's toughest 14er by folks who've climbed both.

While (with some luck) I'll be finishing CO's 14ers within a month, and hopefully Rainier next summer, it could easily be half a decade or more before I even start chipping into CA's remaining 14ers...

I thought CA had 14 14ers; White, Langley, Muir, Whitney, Russell, Williamson, Tyndall, Split, MidPal, Sill, Polemonium, North Pal, TBolt, Shasta, (not 12). Some count Starlight and the Whitney needles.

CA is typically considered to have 15 fourteeners, but has only 12 with 300 feet of prominence. Consensus has been to count Polemonium, Thunderbolt, and Starlight even though they lack the prominence.

I don't know how that came about, but a supermajority of those who climb th seem to agree on it. And it wasn't decided by a club to my knowledge!

The ranking of 14ers is based on 300' prominence between summits. In Colorado that makes 53 official with about 58 considered a "full list." There are unofficial peaks like N. Maroon, El Diente, Conundrum and sub summits of Mt. Massive. I do like lists and don't apologize for setting goals. Anyone who sets out to accomplish something with their life besides watching re-runs of Oprah is experiencing life and nature in all its unpredictability and goodness. We climb for our love of the mountains but cataloging this journey is part of the joy. Everest has more who have made the summit than those who have climbed all 14ers in Colorado. When you add California and Rainier to the mix it's quite a feat.

I think a better question would be, "Is there a record for hiking all the 14ers in the lower 48 in the shortest amount of time? And if so, what is the record?"
Or, has anybody hiked all the 13ers in the lower 48?

Castlereagh wrote:

WyomingSummits wrote:

mrchad9 wrote:A buddy of mine in CO did all the 14ers. But he went out of his way to make sure the CMC wasn't involved.

Something about being 'proctored' first to be able to be considered to go on trips? I don't know if it is still that way, but all the rules he described seemed pretty over the top.

Organizations like the CMC stifle the spirit of mountaineering with these BS rules. Climb and forget the recognition......chances are most people are going to forget who you were.

Sorry to get slightly off topic here but I gotta go on a little rant about the CMC here. I've really had nothing against them (no opinion at all actually) until this summer. Was on top of a fantastic peak in Wyoming (Fitzpatrick in the Salt Rivers). I've heard there was a pretty cool register up on top, an older one with signatures going back a few decades. Now I know some people like summit registers, some people don't. I personally don't care for the ones on top of the really popular peaks where there's a mess of different notepads, blurred ink, and just an all around zoo of a signature. But it is cool to find a register on a remote, seldom climbed peak, and read the signature of the few who have bothered to climb it and their experiences, route, etc.

The old register was no longer there. The register I found however was a big, bulky one placed by apparently the Pinedale WY chapter of the CMC. It had a giant notepad, mostly empty, with gridded lines everywhere on each page, and explicit instructions as if explaining to a four year old that each hiker should sign, date, and limit their log to each line. Goddamn...can't escape red tape even on a remote summit.

I realize that the popularity of the 14ers makes registers like this necessary. But way overkill for Wyoming, so GTFO. There's no need for it. If there's a register on a summit, so be it. If there's none, then so be it. But there's absolutely no f'ing need for some do gooder meddlers from a climbing club in ANOTHER state to start spreading around with their BS and standardizing summit registers.

You should have signed the register in some way completely violating the "rules" so that the next CMC guy up there would blow his lid over it.

Marmaduke wrote:

mconnell wrote:No. Nobody knows because not everyone has to brag about how many climbs they have done.

Are you signing climbing logs? .......Uhm, just asking.

If you mean the ones on top of mountains, probably haven't signed a log in close to 20 years. Probably signed 10 in my life. As far as the ones here, I have signed a few but usually not.