Speed Freaks and Peaks

Bagging the very highest mountain, 29,035-foot Mt. Everest, is the goal of many climbers. Beyond that, climbers seek to collect groups of peaks -- all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks (26,247 feet or above), the highest points on each continent, all of the 4,000-meter peaks in the Alps or the 54 summits in Colorado that are at least 14,000 feet above sea level.

The fever has reached California, where it is now coupled with speed. A California teacher, Jack McBroom, climbed all of California’s 15 peaks of 14,000 feet and higher in just 4 1/2 days last year, Outside magazine reports. Now, Hans Florine, a noted speed climber, and Russ McBride, described by Outside as an “endurance freak,” are in a friendly competition to see who can do all 15 in even less time this summer.

They may be wasting their efforts. By varying accounts, there are only 13 or 14 “fourteeners” in California. The list of 15 contains two suspect peaks -- 14,080-foot Polemonium Peak and 14,200-foot Starlight Peak, which flank 14,242-foot North Palisade in the Palisade range west of Big Pine. In the past, the two were considered sub-peaks of North Palisade, but have somehow, and unofficially, been elevated to the list of fourteeners. Both of the sub-peaks have their followings. In their comprehensive book “Climbing California’s Fourteeners,” Stephen F. Porcella and Cameron M. Burns accept Polemonium as a peak and write of it: “The summit of this unobtrusive fourteener is as challenging as any in the Sierra Nevada,” requiring keen rock climbing skills and a healthy set of nerves.

Starlight Peak has developed a reputation of its own, partly because of its slender 30-foot summit monolith. However, in his definitive climbing guide to the High Sierra, R.J. Secor recognizes Polemonium as a separate peak, but includes Starlight in the same section describing climbing routes on North Palisade. State geologists and a contemporary T-shirt purporting to carry the names of all California fourteeners recognize neither Polemonium nor Starlight. The now-defunct California Almanac listed Polemonium but not Starlight. Regardless of the number of peaks, all but two are clustered either in the Palisades group or the Mt. Whitney area to the south. The outriders are 14,162-foot Mt. Shasta far to the north and 14,246-foot White Mountain on the east side of the Owens Valley. The tallest is Whitney at 14,494 feet (give or take a few feet, depending on the source). The rest are Williamson at 14,375 feet; Sill at 14,162 feet; Russell at 14,086 at feet; Split Mountain at 14,058 feet; Langley at 14,042 feet; Middle Palisade at 14,040 feet; Tyndall at 14,018 feet; Muir at 14,015 feet; and Thunderbolt Peak at 14,003 feet.

Stay tuned. It’s always possible there may be more. Geologists estimate that the Mt. Whitney region rose by as much as 13 feet during the massive earthquake on the east side of the Sierra in 1872. It could happen again.