Want to hit the highest peak in each state?

[VictorianVelvet]

Here is a place that tells about Lake Tahoe:

http://tahoe.usgs.gov/facts.html

If anyone is interested...

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

Thanks for the tip.

 

[AbnDaddy]

My climb of Denali (the mtn's proper name) in May last year took 19 days from the time we first dropped off gear at basecamp to summit and back to Talkeetna. The vertical climb is over 13,000 feet / 4000 meters - more than Everest!!

A non-skiller mountaineer can achieve the climb if in good physical shape but any outfit will require you to take a 3-5 day winter mountaineering course ahead of time to get some idea of what the climb will include.

How experienced and competent a climber you need to be to summit Denali greatly depends on your route and the season and if you take the tourist approach as opposed to the mountaineer approach. No non-skilled climber with a 3-5 day mountaineering course would not survive Cassin Ridge or Wickersham Wall, no matter the season.

Even on the touristy and easy West Buttress, Karstens Ridge and Muldrow would I dare take an inexperienced climber. The reason Denali has such a high casualty reputation is because of the amount of inexperienced climbers that do ascend, be they with their own personal teams, or the various outfits that make money offering up Denali as if it were a Disney attraction. This mountain is highly underestimated, and despite the relative ease in climbing these particular routes, can take a life as quickly and violently as K2.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

What especially concerns me is, what if something should happen to the guide. To be inexperienced on a mountain with no clue how to self-rescue: I just don't think this should happen. And then there's the Disney tour of Everest itself.

Question: does anyone feel there are mountains that just shouldn't be climbed?

 

[TarHollow]

What especially concerns me is, what if something should happen to the guide. To be inexperienced on a mountain with no clue how to self-rescue: I just don't think this should happen. And then there's the Disney tour of Everest itself.

Question: does anyone feel there are mountains that just shouldn't be climbed?

Yes, or at least not allowing the size of your wallet determine if you are climbing it or not.

After reading the first sentence of this post, before I even read the rest, I instantly thought of Everest. If you ever read the book "Into Thin Air", you know what I mean.

I was shocked when I read in that book that people on the climb, after they had already reached base camp, were pulling out new, never-before-worn boots, (obviously not even broke in yet!) and new crampons that didn't even fit the boots they had bought.

Climbing Everest, K2, etc. has become a real tourist business. One commercial guide once said "we are building a road to the top of Everest". That guide is now lying dead somewhere on that mountain, along with many, many others.

 

[StormeTorque]

Even in Britain (where the mountains are below 4500 feet) there are still plenty of cases of poorly equipped people setting out with casual clothing and becoming lost and disorientated when the weather changes suddenly. Mountain rescue teams are frequently called out to the highest mountains in England, Wales and Scotland to rescue people who just wanted to climb the highest point in their country. I don't know how this can be resolved, however, as at the minute there are many posters/notices in car parks telling people about the dangers that people can face on the hills, but they never listen. Somebody that I knew at school fell several hundred feet from Ben Nevis (he was poorly equipped) but he was extremely lucky compared to some people.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

I do wonder if the money end of it encourages people to climb mountains they don't have the experience to be climbing. And too, the tourist climbing seems to make light of the achievements of the mountaineers that put so much into establishing those routes. K2-should that ever be climbed by anyone who isn't an expert? K2, Anapurna...Hm. Managing risks. Money should make it easier to do that, but instead it has the opposite effect.