On the Subject of Mountain Height

According to one website, Colorado boasts 637 peaks over 13,000 feet, and 58 peaks over 14,000 feet. The natives refer to them as 13ers and 14ers, and there's actually a book for each, with photos of each peak, and a checklist where you can keep track of the ones you've visited. That's pretty cool.

But I still think Washington's Mt. Rainier is the more impressive. At 14,410 feet, it towers above the nearby Cascade mountain range, and is snow-covered year-round. What really sets it apart, though, is that it rises from close to sea level, and is taller than anything else around it.

In the Rockies, these 13ers and 14ers rise from at least a mile in elevation, so they don't have the same impact as the massive snow-covered peaks of the Cascade range, from Shasta in California, Hood in Oregon, and the four peaks in Washington: Baker, Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens.

The Rockies are impressive, don't get me wrong. The sheer number of peaks is impressive! And I think it's cool that you can actually hike these mountain peaks (and even drive to the top of a fair number of them). Which makes the mountains accessible to all, not just to mountain climbers.