California Fourteeners

There are twelve Californian peaks with an elevation of 14000 feet or more and having at least 300 feet of prominence (rising 300 feet above any saddle connecting it to anything higher). Three additional peaks with elevations above 14000 feet have attracted significant climber interest. These fifteen peaks are generally considered by climbers to be the California Fourteeners. All but two are in the Sierra Nevada.

I first climbed in the Sierra Nevada in 1986 when I hiked up the Mount Whitney Trail. I returned to the Sierra Nevada several times alone and with different partners to climb other peaks and gradually accepted the challenge of climbing all of the California Fourteeners. Keith joined me in this challenge in later years and provided essential encouragement for me to complete it.

"... Then it seemed to me that the Sierra should be called, not the Nevada or Snowy Range, but the Range of Light. And after ten years of wandering and wondering in the heart of it, rejoicing in its glorious floods of light, the white beams of the morning streaming through the passes, the noonday radiance on the crystal rocks, the flush of the alpenglow, and the irised spray of countless waterfalls, it still seems above all others the Range of Light."

- John Muir

The Peaks

Peak	Elevation	Range	Year
Mount Whitney	14495	Sierra Nevada	1986
Mount Williamson	14375	Sierra Nevada	1998
White Mountain Peak	14250	White Mountains	1988
North Palisade	14242	Sierra Nevada	1990
Starlight Peak	14200+	Sierra Nevada	2007
Mount Shasta	14162	Cascades	1986
Mount Sill	14153	Sierra Nevada	1990
Mount Russell	14086	Sierra Nevada	1988
Polemonium Peak	14080+	Sierra Nevada	2001
Split Mountain	14058	Sierra Nevada	2007
Mount Langley	14042	Sierra Nevada	2006
Middle Palisade	14040	Sierra Nevada	1988
Mount Tyndall	14018	Sierra Nevada	2006
Mount Muir	14015	Sierra Nevada	1988
Thunderbolt Peak	14003	Sierra Nevada	1990

General Information

Northern California Climb Links
Sierra Climb Links

References

Moynier, John and Claude Fiddler, Sierra Classics: 100 Best Climbs in the High Sierra, Chockstone Press, 1993.
Porcella, Stephen F. and Cameron M. Burns, California's Fourteeners, Palisades Press, 1991.
Porcella, Stephen F. and Cameron M. Burns, Climbing California's Fourteeners, The Mountaineers, 1998.
Secor, R. J., The High Sierra: Peaks, Passes, and Trails, The Mountaineers, 1992.

printTitle();