How many Colorado peaks are there above 14,000'?

How many Colorado peaks above 14,000' have USGS names?

How many Colorado peaks above 14,000' are considered 14ers?

What is Prominence?

Here are the 5 named 14,000'+ peaks that do not get counted as a 14er, as well as one which is now counted as a 14er:

From the table it can be seen that Challenger Point once was counted as a 14er while North Maroon Peak was considered a sub-peak. After the LIDAR 21 measurements, they swapped roles keeping the 14er list at 53. See: North Maroon is Ranked.

Why do the elevations keep getting changed?

Why another 14er list?

2) I like coding, numbers and history. Knowing past elevations helps me date stories and artifacts in my Pikes Peak book and medal collections. For example, if I find a Pikes Peak medal with 14,147' on it, I know it’s most likely from 1875 to 1907.

3) Combining 1 & 2, I was able to shake some of the cobwebs out of my brain to produce perhaps the only Colorado 14er list that is sortable on several data points including 4 historical elevations. If you don’t need some of the data columns, just drop the list into Excel and delete what you don’t want!

Click a column header to sort, click again to reverse the sort...

How high is Pikes Peak and how did it get its name?

What follows is a brief history of one of the most famous mountains in the world as far as its name and elevation:

• Many moons ago: Pikes Peak was well known long before it was “discovered” by “explorers” in the 1800s. The Indians knew about it, and probably even climbed it. The Ute called it “Tava-Kaavl” which meant “Sun Mountain.” The Arapaho called it “Heey-otoyoo” for “The Long Mountain.” The Pawnee called it “Tus Peh” for “Where the Heavens Touch the Earth.” The Jicarilla Apache called it “Ya ta ye lt si” for “Mountain Touching Heaven.” The Spanish went with “Montana del Sol” and “El Capitan” for “Mountain of the Sun” and “the Captain.”

• 1806: Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who on November 15, 1806, saw a mountain “which appeared like a small blue cloud” put the elevation of what he called the “Grand Peak” at 18,581'. This is mainly because he thought the plains were at 8,000' instead of 4,700'. And while he did not reach the summit, it’s generally accepted that he only thought it could not be climbed on that day, under those conditions, and not that it would never be climbed. Simply, he and his men were not dressed for the winter conditions and had run out of food.

• 1820: The Major Stephan Long scientific expedition, where Dr. Edward S. James and party summited on July 14, 1820, put the elevation at 11,507' for the opposite reason of Pike-they underestimated the elevation of the plains. Major Long named the peak “James Peak” since Pike had not climbed it and for more than 20 years the mountain had two names; “Pike’s Peak” and “James Peak.”

  

• 1843: The name issue was pretty much put to rest in 1843 after John Fremont made a famous map and labeled the mountain “Pike’s Peak.”

• 1875: The Hayden survey put the elevation of “Pike’s Peak” at 14,147' in 1875.

• 1891: The U.S. Board of Geographic Names recommended an end to possessive forms in place names in 1981 so “Pike’s Peak” became “Pikes Peak.”

• 1907: Charles Hartman put the elevation of “Pikes Peak” at 14,109' in 1907.

• 1913: The USGS revised Hartman’s elevation to 14,009.79' (rounded to 14,110') in 1913. This is the USGS Map column above. These measurements may be based on the 1913 USGS measurements, or the National Geodetic Vertical Datum of 1929 (NGVD 29) data, or something else.

• 1978: The Colorado legislature established the spelling of “Pikes Peak” in 1978 so that it’s spelled without an apostrophe by law. With that, I am going to stop putting Pikes Peak in quotes:-)

• 2002: The USGS again revised the elevation of Pikes Peak in July 2002, to 14,115'. This is the NAVD 88 column above. This was big enough news that the summit sign got updated and even Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon apparel got a makeover! See: No tall tale: State higher than thought.

• 2022: Hello light detection and ranging (LIDAR)! The folks over at 14ers.com updated their 14er list with new elevations based on LIDAR in June 2022. Pikes Peak has been lowered 6' to 14,109'. This is the LIDAR 21 column above. See: 14er List Updated to match LOJ.

• 2024: Here we go again! This time it’s NOAA that in April 2024, revised Pikes Peak down another 2' to 14,107.0'. Note the .0! They used LIDAR combined with some scary wicked formulas to calculate sea level which, for the first time, gives us a decimal place in the elevations! This is the NOAA 24 column above. See: Moving Mountains: NGS Researchers Reevaluate the Heights of Colorado Mountain Peaks and Colorado’s 14ers lost a couple feet after federal scientists remeasured them.

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