California Thirteeners (original) (raw)

What’s a Thirteener?

The California Thirteeners (aka 13’ers, 13ers, 13Kers, etc.) are the tallest mountains in the state, automatically incorporating the Fourteeners and Hundred Highest. Although most California Thirteeners present worthy alpine objectives for the mountaineer, I would be the first to admit that a complete list of a state’s Thirteeners is primarily of interest to the peakbagger.

Most of the peaks had as their first ascenders those who in a former day would have been called explorers but now could only be thought of as peakbaggers, interested primarily in trudging endlessly over heaps of stones, building cairns, and inserting their business cards into specifically designed cannisters especially carried for this purpose. But perhaps I am being too harsh. They’re having their fun.

Steve Roper, The Climber’s Guide to the High Sierra
Copyright ©1976 by Sierra Club Books

Compiling a list of the 13,000-foot peaks is a bit more complicated than simply including all summits rising above 13,000 feet, for not all of those peaks could seriously be considered separate mountains. To illustrate this point, suppose that you’re walking up a ridge toward the summit of some 14,000-foot peak. Once you pass the 13,000-foot level, every rock or boulder on the ridge crest rises above everything in its immediate vicinity, but would you call it a mountain? Climbers need additional, preferably objective criteria for deciding which are the mountains, and which are just bumps on the ridge, sub-summits, etc.

Some of the other list compilers have required that the summit have an official (or unofficial) name, but in my view this unduly favors the more well-known and easily accessible mountains over their distant, more exotic cousins. The convention used for the compilation of the Colorado Fourteeners, Hundred Highest, etc. is that the summit must stand 300 feet above all saddles connecting it to higher peaks. Like the summit height criterion, I admit that the 300-foot “prominence” (aka “saddle depth”) criterion is fairly arbitrary. However, I think it comes closest to representing what it means to be a mountain. I’ve therefore decided to adopt it for the Official VRMC California Thirteeners List.

1	This peak appears to have 300' of prominence based on 'Best available data'. However, based on 'Spot or contours' there is a chance that it doesn't have sufficient prominence.
2	This peak does not appear to have 300' of prominence based on 'Best available data'. However, based on 'Spot or contours' there is a chance that it does have sufficient prominence.
3	This peak is tall enough for inclusion in the Thirteeners based on 'Best available data', so it will be included if it does end up having sufficient prominence.
4	This peak appears to be tall enough for inclusion in the Thirteeners based on 'Best available data'. However, based on 'Spot or contours' there is a chance that it's too short.
5	This peak appears to be too short for inclusion in the Thirteeners based on 'Best available data'. However, based on 'Spot or contours' there is a chance that it is tall enough.

California Thirteeners (original) (raw)

What’s a Thirteener?

Marginal Failing Peaks