Colorado is a state that revolves around the outdoors. Many world class climbers and mountaineers call this place home and for a good reason. Colorado makes a great training ground due to the often sunny weather and great ice and rock climbing crags. The cold and windy winters offer great cold weather, big mountain training and the high altitude requires one to be in great shape. Colorado has it all however some key features are lacking. Colorado doesn't have any glaciers which is a huge problem for those looking for crevasse rescue training. Despite this, Colorado is a great place to live and offers 300 sunny days a year. The main hub is Denver and in many ways is dangerously similar to Seattle, the main hub for the state of Washington. Colorado can easily be divided into sections based on the sub-ranges that are distinguished by geology and geography.

The Front Range is the closest to Denver and stretches from Rocky Mountain National Park capped by the infamous Longs Peak in the north, to Pikes Peak in the south which towers above Colorado Springs. Between lies the Indian Peaks Wilderness, Lost Creek Wilderness, Vasquez Peak Wilderness and the I-70 range. Most of the high Front Range is noted to be pretty gentle with many 13,000 foot peaks being large hills with simple routes up many faces. There are hidden gems however in the Indian Peaks Wilderness and around Longs Peak. Many of the east facing aspects were heavily scoured by glaciers and although the glaciers are now gone, dramatic cliffs and deep couloirs can be found on east aspects throughout the Front Range. The Arapaho Peaks are a good example. Interstate 70 cuts right across the range passing through Idaho Springs and Georgetown which are Front Range mountain towns. The Eisenhower Tunnel at just over 11,000 feet crosses under the continental divide along the crest of the range. This tunnel is the highest elevation of any US Interstate. Lower elevation areas in The Front Range is there all the true gems are hidden. World class climbing areas such as Eldorado Canyon and the Flatirons near Boulder, as well as Shelf Road and Garden of the Gods by Colorado Springs are located on the flanks of this mighty range.

The Sawatch Range is likely the best range for hiking mountains. Nearly the entire range is gentle and good for hiking. The range is very long stretching from Vail to the north all the way to Salida and Buena Vista in the south. Between lie 15 of Colorado's 53 ranked fourteeners and an additional 12 centennial thirteeners, meaning over a quarter of the highest 100 in Colorado lie in the Sawatch! Although the range is classified as being very gentle, good mountaineering routes like the Refrigerator Couloir on Ice Mountain, the Cross Couloir on Holy Cross and the Grizzly Couloir on Grizzly Peak are found. There are however few, if any good rock climbing routes in the Sawatch. The most rugged part of the range is probably the Holy Cross Wilderness at the northern end. Oddly enough this is also the most remote despite the close proximity to I-70. To the south, Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, the two highest peaks in Colorado are found towering above Leadville which is the highest incorporated city in North America. The National Mining Museum is found in Leadville. Many other 14ers are found in the central and southern end of the range.

The Sangres are a long and thin fault block range similar to the Grand Tetons which rose 6000 feet above the Wet Mountain and San Luis Valleys without any foothills. No paved roads penetrate the spine of this range and it must be driven around. There are two main groups in this range which are the Crestone group and the Blanca Group. All the highest peaks are found in these groups. The Crestones are two of the best peaks in Colorado and offer many great routes while Little Bear in the Blanca group is possible the hardest and most dangerous 14er. The Sangres demand respect or you might pay the ultimate price. Westcliffe is the primary launching point from the Wet Mountain valley to the east while Alamosa is the largest town in the San Luis valley to the west. Further to the south, only 15 miles north of New Mexico lies Culebra Peak which lies entirely on private property and the owners require a $100 fee to climb it. Although there are ways around this it is best to pay it if you desire to climb all the 14ers in Colorado. Many lower 13ers lie between the main peaks in the Sangres composed of mainly red colored sandstone.

The Elk Range is Colorado's most picturesque range and home to some of the worlds most famous mountains known as the Maroon Bells. The town of Aspen sites in the heart of the Elks and is world famous for its skiing and beauty. The Elks can easily be divided into two obvious sections based on geology. The eastern half of the Elks are characterized but the red colored Maroon Formation sedimentary rock which gives the Maroon Bells its deep red color. This rock is known to be of poor quality and climbing on it can be very dangerous. Pyramid Peak sits right across the Maroon Bells and is another one of the hardest 14ers. This area is also home to Castle Peak, the highest in the range. Further west is the granitic core of the Elks characterized by mainly good quality granite. This area is home to Capitol Peak which is usually referred as the most difficult 14er and has the only required knife edge crossing of any 14er. One of Colorado's best alpine basins, the Pierre Lakes Basin, sits below Capitol and Snowmass  and offers on of the most remote places to camp in Colorado!

This range is Colorado's longest range as it stretches from Laramie, Wyoming all the way south to Buena Vista. However it is broken out into a number of sections based on geography. Geologically speaking however this entire range is the same. In the northern part of the Park Range lies the Medicine Bow and Park Mountains surrounding Grand Lake and Steamboat Springs. Mount Zirkel is the highest peak in the Park mountains at 12,180 feet elevation. Clark Peak is the highest in the Medicine Bows at 12,951 feet. Further south lies the Gore Range which starts at Eagles Nest just west of Kremmling and extends south to Jacque Peak which Copper Mountain resides on. The Gores are distinguished by having many of its prominent peaks named for the letters of the alphabet starting at "Peak A" in the north and ending at "Peak Z" further south. Tenmile Canyon, a deep cut which I-70 follows shortly to the west of Silverthorne divides the Gore Range to the west and the Tenmile Range to the east. Really these ranges are the same but have different names simply because there is a big canyon and an interstate between them. Peak One starts the Tenmile Range in the north and extends to the south to the continental divide at Wheeler Mountain at which point the Mosquito Range begins and extends south to the Buffalo Peaks just above Buena Vista. The boundaries for all these ranges in the Greater Park Range are all arbitrary based on geographic features however if you can remember they are all geologically the same you're good.

The San Juans are undoubtedly Colorado's finest range with unsurpassed beauty and enough peaks, lakes and open meadows to feed your mountain climbing, backpacking and photography desires. In fact, the San Juans are the best place in Colorado to embark on long treks involving many consecutive days of cross country travel. There are 12 of Colorado's 53 ranked 14ers in the San Juans with an additional two, El Diente and North Eolus that often make climbers' lists due to their beauty and overall difficulty to ascend despite not quite having 300 feet of prominence. The highest peak in the San Juans goes to Uncompahgre Peak at 14,309 feet in elevation. Although there are 14 beautiful 14ers in the range, it is the 13ers that make the San Juans so special. With 314 rugged peaks between 13,000 and 13,999 feet the San Juans include an astonishing 43 percent of all the 13ers in the state. The only three centennial 13ers in Colorado that require class 5 traveling are found in the San Juans and offer a monumental capstone trio for many Colorado climbers working towards the Centennials. In total there are sixteen centennial 13ers in the San Juans, added on to the twelve 14ers, to provide you an incredible list of peaks to climb! The San Juans are remote, rugged and wild.