Legpowered wrote:Lionel wrote:I share your sentiment, but I think only a few of them are crowded with out of state hikers. I encountered mostly Denver area and other front range people on peaks, if I encountered people at all. Elbert was the worst offender, but Pikes was crowded with train riders.
If you didn't encounter anyone on a fourteener you were very lucky. I have climbed quite a few and there has been basically a line of people on almost all of them. Lots of Front Rangers, but also people from all over the country. On mountains like Grays/Torreys, Bierstadt, Pikes, Longs, Massive and Elbert there were literally
hundreds of people. Even on Capitol and Snowmass and others here in the Elk Range where I live it is hard to find a place to camp at the base of these climbs and the summits get packed with people as the day gets on. I think I will only climb fourteeners by non-standard routes or in winter and stick to 13ers during the summer. I'm not blaming anyone or any particular group, it's just the way things go in the backcountry in a world with more than 7 billion people. I am still welcoming to people from out of state and willing to share!
Back when I was still interested in the idea of the 14ers, I climbed about 25 of them, I think. For all but four, I had the summit to myself and saw very few others until I was back on maintained trails. Even Longs and Bierstadt and Evans. My trick was to start super-early and maintain a very fast pace, or to start around mid-afternoon when the weather was good. I also did many on weekdays, which is easy for a guy on a trip but might be harder for a resident who has to work.
The exceptions were Handies, Redcloud and Sunshine, and Belford. On Handies, I got a late start due to morning rain and wound up going on the day of some massive trail run. On Redcloud and Sunshine, there were a guy and his son camped in the basin below Redcloud, and they got an early start and I didn't catch them until the summit of Sunshine, arriving just steps behind. Belford was a similar story, with a very large group camped below Elkhead Pass.
I'm not counting Pikes!