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In mountaineering in the United States, a thirteener (abbreviated 13er) is a mountain that exceeds 13,000 feet (3,962.4 m) above mean sea level, similar to the more familiar "fourteeners," which exceed 14,000 feet (4,267.2 m). In most instances, "thirteeners" refers only to those peaks between 13,000 and 13,999 feet in elevation.
The importance of thirteeners is greatest in Colorado, which has the majority of such peaks in North America with over 600 of them. Despite the large number of peaks, over 20 peak baggers have reported climbing all of Colorado's thirteeners.[1] Thirteeners are also significant in states whose highpoints fall between 13,000 and 13,999 feet. For example, the Wyoming thirteeners are the highest peaks within the state, and only 5 individuals have reported climbing all 35 peaks, likely due to a combination of technical difficulty and remoteness.[2][3] In 2019, Teresa Gergen became the first person to summit all 846 thirteeners outside of Alaska, an accomplishment that took her nearly two decades to complete.[4][5]
Not all summits over 13,000 feet qualify as thirteeners, but only those summits that mountaineers consider to be independent. Objective standards for independence include topographic prominence and isolation (distance from a higher summit), or a combination. However thirteener lists do not always consistently use such objective rules. A rule commonly used by mountaineers in the contiguous United States is that a peak must have at least 300 feet (91 m) of prominence to qualify. According to the Mountaineering Club of Alaska, it is standard in Alaska to use a 500 ft (152 m) prominence rule rather than a 300-foot rule. These are the standards applied for the lists below. Regarding whether or not peaks in excess of 13,999 feet should be considered as "thirteeners", this article will count them as such for statistical purposes, but concentrate its focus on those peaks less than 14,000 feet since the higher peaks are already covered in the fourteeners list.
List of United States thirteeners by state
Thirteeners are found in nine U.S. states. This table summarizes their numbers based on each state's prominence criteria:
U.S. State | Thirteeners | Fourteeners | Highest 13er < 14,000 ft | Elevation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Colorado | 637 | 53 | Grizzly Peak | 13,988 ft (4,264 m) |
California | 149 | 12 | Mount Barnard | 13,990 ft (4,264 m) |
Alaska | 41 | 20 | Mount Hunter, South Peak | 13,966 ft (4,257 m) |
Wyoming | 35 | 0 | Gannett Peak | 13,804 ft (4,207 m) |
Utah | 17 | 0 | Kings Peak | 13,528 ft (4,123 m) |
New Mexico | 3 | 0 | Wheeler Peak | 13,161 ft (4,011 m) |
Hawaii | 2 | 0 | Mauna Kea | 13,796 ft (4,205 m) |
Nevada | 2 | 0 | Boundary Peak | 13,140 ft (4,005 m) |
Washington | 0 | 1 | none | - |
Colorado
By the most detailed count, Colorado has 637 peaks that exceed 13,000 feet (4,000 m) and meet the prominence criteria, of which 53 are fourteeners.[6][7] The highest of them less than 14,000 feet are as follows (the rank includes higher peaks):
Rank | Mountain | Elevation | Range |
---|---|---|---|
54 | Grizzly Peak | 13,988 ft (4,264 m) | Sawatch Range |
55 | Stewart Peak | 13,983 ft (4,262 m) | San Juan Mountains |
56 | Columbia Point | 13,980 ft (4,261 m) | Sangre de Cristo Range |
57 | Pigeon Peak | 13,972 ft (4,259 m) | San Juan Mountains |
58 | Mount Ouray | 13,971 ft (4,258 m) | Sawatch Range |
59 | Ice Mountain | 13,951 ft (4,252 m) | Sawatch Range |
60 | Fletcher Mountain | 13,951 ft (4,252 m) | Tenmile Range |
61 | Pacific Peak | 13,950 ft (4,252 m) | Tenmile Range |
Grizzly Peak is not only the name of Colorado's highest thirteener, but the state has four other Grizzly Peaks plus one Grizzly Mountain on the list:
Rank | Mountain | Elevation | Range |
---|---|---|---|
130 | Grizzly Peak | 13,738 ft (4,187 m) | San Juan Mountains |
142 | Grizzly Mountain | 13,708 ft (4,178 m) | Sawatch Range |
145 | Grizzly Peak | 13,700 ft (4,176 m) | San Juan Mountains |
302 | Grizzly Peak | 13,427 ft (4,093 m) | Front Range |
415 | Grizzly Peak | 13,281 ft (4,048 m) | Sawatch Range |
Other notable Colorado thirteeners include:
Rank | Mountain | Elevation | Range |
---|---|---|---|
66 | Mount Adams | 13,931 ft (4,246 m) | Sangre de Cristo Range |
68 | Mount Meeker | 13,911 ft (4,240 m) | Front Range |
82 | Crystal Peak | 13,852 ft (4,222 m) | Tenmile Range |
89 | Turret Peak | 13,835 ft (4,217 m) | Needle Mountains |
96 | Mount Silverheels | 13,822 ft (4,213 m) | Mosquito Range |
131 | Argentine Peak | 13,738 ft (4,187 m) | Tenmile Range |
253 | North Arapaho Peak | 13,502 ft (4,115 m) | Front Range |
304 | Mummy Mountain | 13,425 ft (4,092 m) | Mummy Range |
324 | Parry Peak | 13,391 ft (4,082 m) | Front Range |
451 | Hesperus Mountain | 13,232 ft (4,033 m) | San Juan Mountains |
515 | Twilight Peak | 13,158 ft (4,011 m) | San Juan Mountains |
556 | Lizard Head | 13,113 ft (3,997 m) | San Juan Mountains |
California
California has the second greatest number of thirteeners with 149[8] of them, of which 12 are fourteeners. The highest under 14,000 feet are as follows (the rank includes higher peaks):
Rank | Mountain | Elevation | Range |
---|---|---|---|
13 | Mount Barnard | 13,990 ft (4,264 m) | Sierra Nevada |
14 | Mount Humphreys | 13,986 ft (4,263 m) | Sierra Nevada |
15 | Mount Keith | 13,975 ft (4,260 m) | Sierra Nevada |
16 | Mount Stanford | 13,973 ft (4,259 m) | Sierra Nevada |
Other notable California thirteeners include:
Alaska
Alaska has at least 41 thirteeners that meet its more stringent prominence criteria of 500 ft, of which 20 are also fourteeners. Different sources list varying numbers of 13,000+ ft peaks in the state,[9][10][11] mainly because many of the peaks (especially those that are sub-peaks of a higher mountain) are unnamed and have no spot elevations given on the USGS topographical maps. Using a 300' interpolated prominence criterion, there are 61 13,000+ ft peaks in Alaska.[12] The following list may miss a few peaks that should be included:
Wyoming
Wyoming has 35 thirteeners with at least 300 ft of interpolated prominence, but no fourteeners.[13] 31 of the 35 are located in the rugged and remote Wind River Range. Several of the Wyoming thirteeners require glacier travel and/or rock climbing up to the 5.4 YDS difficulty level to reach the summit, and most climbers spend multiple days backpacking to reach most of these peaks.[14] The highest of them are: