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Summary: The best guide to the fourteeners
Review: The new edition of Colorado's Fourteeners has updated information on routes and now has colored maps. It is still the best guide to the fourteeners. Its major advantage lies in the classification of the routes according to required effort and technical difficulty. Once you have done a few, you know just what to expect on the next one. (I have completed 39 of Roach's 55 fourteeners.)In his previous edition, Roach discussed at length the criteria for including a peak on the official list. Much of this discussion has been deleted. However, the question remains. For instance, why is North Maroon Peak on the generally accepted list of 54 fourteeners? It does not meet the criteria. Why, when we look towards Mt. Elbert, do we make believe that we do not see the prominent peak on the left, Mt. Elbert-South? Look again, next time you are a few miles south of Leadville. Roach solves the problem by suggesting that the reader go for all the peaks, not just the official 54. This and the inclusion of Challenger Point on a par with the other 54 is a not-so-subtle challenge to the orthodox point of view - if it is not on a t-shirt it does not count. Who knows, maybe someday by popular demand, the Colorado Mountain Club will add a few more to the list of 54. In the meantime, I will write-in Challenger on my fourteeners t-shirt.
Rating:
Summary: THE guide book to have when climbing Colorado's highest
Review: This book ranks as the single indispensable guide to hiking and/or climbing Colorado's highest mountains. Not only does Mr. Roach supply the reader with thorough and accurate route information, but he includes occasional wry observations on both mountains and mountaineers. We can only hope that the publisher will soon see the wisdom in printing another edition of this classic. Even for the person who makes but a single ascent per year this book ranks as a "must have." The only criticism I have of the book is that the mileages listed (in the edition I have) tend to run shorter than the actual mileages of the routes. My brother and I jokingly refer to "Roach miles" and then make the necessary 10-15% addition to the miles listed for each route when planning our trips. My suspicion regarding the origin of this "discrepancy" is that the mileages given in the book may be based solely on horizontal distance and might not take the vertical dimension into account.
Rating:
Summary: Gerry has done it again!
Review: When his first edition of Fourteeners From Hikes to Climbs hit the shelves in 1992, I was at the height on my fourteener madness. At the time I was extremely impressed with the detail, quantity, and quality of the information. As far as I'm concerned, it blew away the competition of the day. Well Gerry has done it again! His second edition again surpasses all the competition! He's added dozens of new and exciting routes, including lots of new technical ones! The color maps are of the highest quality (mimicking USGS quads), with color coded lines showing each of the routes. A companion map package includes full-color removable topographic maps, descriptions for climbing the standard route on all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, photographic overlays of each peak, trailhead directions, and a climbing log. What a deal! All the topo maps you need to climb ALL the fourteeners for the price of about two USGS quads!
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