It’s difficult, maybe impossible, to capture in words the rush of emotion and exhilaration that accompanies climbing up to the peak of a 14er. The prolonged exhaustion from getting up there recedes. The self-doubt that harmonized every step over the past few hours vanishes. An entire mountain now lies below, no longer coaxing you relentlessly upward. Endless views of lower peaks stretch into the distance in all directions. Cool wind, open sky, solid rock underfoot, precipitous drop-offs a few feet away on all sides.
Best of all, you’ve done it, there’s no further to climb.
To explain: a 14er is a 14,000-foot mountain. They don’t get any bigger in the “lower 48,” the contiguous United States (Alaska hosts 14ers, 15ers, 16ers, all the way up to Denali at 20,310 feet). The highest mountain in the lower 48 is California’s Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet. But Colorado, where I recently spent a couple weeks topping a dozen 14ers, is the mecca of these towering peaks, and host to the second-highest peak in the lower 48, Mount Elbert. The Mountain State has 53 official 14ers, more than all the other states combined. (There are actually 58, with five unofficial 14ers, but the official assignation of “14er” requires at least 300 feet of prominence distinct from a neighboring 14er.)
Climbing to 14,000 feet is a major accomplishment. You pushed hard and breathed hard for hours to get there, and for the rest of the day, at least, you’ll walk a little lighter because you did it. Everything you do for a while afterward will be infused with the memories, the views, the feel of that climb. Because you worked so hard to achieve it, you carry the boost of accomplishment away with you.
So many benefits
But you come away with more than just good feelings when you climb a 14er. You’ve also notched an amazing physical workout, released a torrent of endorphins, expanded your lungs, triggered increased red blood cell production, and boosted your mental health. You’ve taken a big step toward your pursuit of longer, healthier life.
“The summit goal and the arduous physical demand (both in the mind and the body getting ready for it and doing that actual climb) can be its own reward,” said Sue Sulley, a doctor of physical therapy from Salida, Colorado. Salida is a small city along the Arkansas River, tucked amid the Rocky Mountains at 7,000 feet, featuring several 14ers around its perimeter.
For people aiming to extend their life span and improve the years they’re alive, climbing 14ers (or any high mountains) offers a litany of contributions, notes Sulley. “I’m not sure there’s magic in a 14er climb versus climbing anything over a mile high. Balance, strength, proprioception (the body’s ability to sense its own position and movements), coordination and skill combine and improve with every step. The muscle-shortening action of the climb and the lengthening contractions of the descent make it a perfect combination for working all the body and much of the distracted mind.”
True, climbing any mountain —and just being in nature — nets a range of benefits, some lasting. But climbing up to 14,000 adds another layer of health advantage. Your body adapts to the thinner air by kicking up production of red blood cells, which enhances oxygen capacity and efficiency. Your muscles adapt by producing more mitochondria and enzymes that promote operational efficiency with less oxygen. And exerting at that altitude is a respiratory workout, which can strengthen the diaphragm and expand lung capacity.
No question, breathing and catching your breath is harder at 14,000 feet. The air contains less oxygen because the air pressure is lower. Each breath you take at 14,000 contains about 40% fewer oxygen molecules than at sea level, so you have to breathe faster, deeper or both to ingest as much oxygen as your body and muscles are used to. For most people, until your body adjusts to the high altitude, that means a slower hiking pace, more frequent rest stops to catch breath and a heightened importance of staying hydrated and fueled.
For some, unfortunately, it can turn into altitude sickness, a series of unpleasant symptoms, from mild to severe, that results from not allowing one’s body to adjust to high altitude, beginning at about 8,000 feet. Altitude sickness, not to be taken lightly, can range from a mild headache to nausea, brain malfunction and even death if not treated.
As the frequently uttered saying goes among the 14er hiking community: “There are no easy 14ers.” Some are easier — read: less exhausting — than others, sure, but that’s strictly relative.
Anyone can do it
All that said, anyone can hike up a 14er, emphasizes Sulley the physical therapist.
“Anyone (almost) can summit a 14er,” said Sulley, who is 73. The keys to pushing one’s body up to that altitude — in addition to the usual ample hydration and nutrition — are some training (both cardio and muscle-building), a good dose of patience, and willingness to move as slowly as necessary in order to continue upward.
In support of her contention that anyone (at any age) can summit a 14er, Sulley cites the example of her close friend who has climbed to the peak of a 14er on every one of her last 20 birthdays up until age 89, when she interrupted the ritual to have orthopedic surgery (unrelated to climbing mountains).
her friends for her “tree-bending” photos. Credit: ERIC WELD / For the Gazette
The age and cultural diversity of 14er summiters is evident on any weekend day in the summer on one of the more popular trails. I met dozens of climbers (and saw hundreds) from at least six different countries. Ages ranged from weeks old (enviably carted in carriers on parents’ backs) to toddlers and tweens running up the trail like it’s a park sidewalk, to numerous hikers in their 60s and 70s.
“I’m not sure why I’m able to do the 14ers at my age,” ponders Kevin Dion Cook, 68, a musician and retired music therapist from Odell, Texas, and my frequent 14er hiking companion. “I know I really enjoy summiting 14ers because I really love being in nature and love the challenge. The views are breathtaking. Summiting a 14er is just a hard hike, but worth it.”
Mountains Closer to Home
Living in Massachusetts, of course, means that climbing 14ers requires an investment of time and money just to get to them. Once in Colorado (or California or Washington, the other two lower 48 with 14ers), there are a few easily accessible 14ers with paved roads to the trailheads. Mounts Bierstadt and Blue Sky are very popular options, accessible from Guanella Pass about an hour west of Denver.
High altitude mountain climbs are an exclusive feature of the West in the U.S. However, here in New England we can access many of the same benefits fairly close to home. Vermont offers several wonderful and challenging climbs, like Mount Mansfield, Jay Peak and Camel’s Hump. New Hampshire has 48 4,000-foot mountains to choose from, mostly in the spectacular White Mountains. Maine is home to the famous Mount Katahdin at more than 5,000 feet, and several other difficult climbs. And the Adirondacks, just outside New England in upstate New York, poses its own collection of 46 4,000-footers.
The point is, climbing up a 4,000-footer from near sea level, as one may in New England, provides nearly the same amount of elevation gain as hiking up a 14er in another state, where trails often begin near 10,000 or 11,000 feet. True, eastern mountain climbs don’t include the benefits of lung expansion and red cell production that comes from high-altitude forays. But improved balance, muscle-building, coordination and other advantages that Sulley mentions are available to those of us climbing mountains east of the Mississippi River.
And in many cases, the views, the exhilaration and the sense of achievement are just as rewarding.
Just Climb Mountains
I think of Colorado as a nature playground. But so is Maine. And New Hampshire’s Whites. Etcetera.
To belabor my point: climbing mountains is the key. There are few other activities readily available to us aging adventurers that deliver such a range and combination of aerobic exertion, muscle-building, sheer beauty, clean air and a massive dose of dopamine in just a few hours.
For me, summiting a 14er injected me with aspirations to do it again, right away the next day. After “bagging” (i.e., climbing to the peak) the very popular 14er Mount Bierstadt, I couldn’t wait to head up Mount Sherman, another popular one in the Front Range of mountains around Denver. Those two pushed me to harder peaks like the more isolated La Plata Peak, and the grueling twofer climb up mounts Belford and Oxford, a 13-mile trek totaling 6,000 feet of elevation. I was aiming for a decent start on the quest to climb all 53 of Colorado’s 14ers, which will require a few returns to Colorado in coming summers (and a four-wheel-drive vehicle).
There are so many reasons to climb mountains, especially 14ers, for longer life and better health. But Kevin Cook might have summed it up best.
“I just like doing fun stuff in my old age,” he said recently. “It keeps me happy and interested.”
Eric Weld, a former Gazette reporter, is the founder of agingadventurist.com.
