Hiking Mountains in Colorado

[RockChalk]

Planning on taking a trip out to Colorado in September/October. One of the things my group wants to do is hike a mountain. Some of them have done Pike's Peak and Mount Massive, so we have some experienced hikers and everyone is generally in good shape.

As of now, some family friends have a place near Breck that we could stay at, so we'd like to find a mountain to hike closer to there, but we are open to any suggestions.

I know Rainman will be of good help on this subject, but I have to believe there are some other CPers who have hiked in Colorado. Any advice/suggestions/insight would be much appreciated!

[prhom]

Quandary Peak is a nice 14er that is very close to Breck. Mt Sherman is easy to get to from Breck too. It's an easy one to climb and good if you have a range of different hiking abilities. That said, Quandary isn't bad either. Get Gerry Roach's guide to the 14ers. It's a great book and will help you pick a route that you'll enjoy.

[Miles]

Originally Posted by Donger

Well, in that case, you could always go for Elbert. Not too far from Breck and you could collapse in Leadville afterwards.

Elbert is a good one. There is also Torreys and Greys in the area.

[Miles]

Forgot about Mt. Sherman. That is a good one in the area and doesn't take quite as long since you can drive up a fair amount. Was my first 14er and the altitude kicked my ass pretty good so I was pretty much moving at the pace with the random foreign tourists while my friends charged up much quicker. Depending on the season you can have some fun on the way down siding down the snowbank on your ass.

[Third Eye]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

That was going to be my question. If there are people in the group who haven't done high-altitude stuff, a 14er is a tough place to start.

I always hear that Bierstadt is a good starter 14er, in part because you start at around 12k or something at the trailhead.

At some point I think it would be cool to do the hike from Crested Butte to Aspen, but I'm not really a wilderness guy. I do best when there's someone around for me to follow.

I also like the area around Telluride a whole lot. It's not a 14er, but I'd like to do the hike from Ouray to Telluride. In fact, I may doing that as a race this fall if I can time it right and get into shape.

Love the western slopes. One of my favorite life experiences was a 5 day hike starting and finishing at the Rio Grande Resevoir. We peaked the Rio Grande Pyramid, which is only 13 something, but a sweet climb.