This is a close up of Longs Peak, my favorite landmark in this part of the Rocky Mountains.

Longs Peak rises to 14,259 feet (4,346 m) above sea level, and it was in the news today because a hiker fell 150 feet there; a rescue operation is currently underway.





This is from a distance, Longs is the one on the right:



Mt. Meeker is next to it, and its elevation is 13,865 ft (4,240 m). Although I know people climb Meeker, we never hear much about it because it isn't tall enough.

One of the main reasons for climbing Longs is that the big goal among mountain climbers around here is to conquer the 'fourteeners' - mountains over 14,000 feet. There are 53 fourteeners in Colorado, follow this link to see a list with photos of many of them:

Colorado's Fourteeners

Here is how the fourteener status is determined:

"To be ranked, a peak must rise at least 300 feet above the saddle that connects it to the nearest 14er peak (if another exists nearby). This guideline has been in use in Colorado for some time."

This is Mt. Harvard in the Collegiate Range in southern Colorado:



Others in that range are Mts. Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and Mt of the Holy Cross.

I have never climbed a fourteener, and don't plan to in this lifetime. One reason is that I suffer from altitude sickness at those heights. I have, however, flown over the top of Longs Peak in a small airplane, a few hundred feet above the very top of it, so I know what it looks like up there, and what the view is from there.

Mt. Evans, which is easily seen from the Denver Metro area, is a fourteener that can be driven up in a car. This picture is actually what we call the Front Range west of Denver, and Mt. Evans is the tallest peak there, if you can figure it out:





Pikes Peak, located west of Colorado Springs, is also accessible by car, and the woman who wrote the song America The Beautiful supposedly was inspired by the view from Pikes Peak.