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California 14ers

Click a peak badge (or its pin) to mark it summited — click again for “want to climb.” The 12 ranked fourteeners plus the three Palisades sub-peaks (Thunderbolt, Starlight, Polemonium) that finishers count toward all 15 — from Mount Whitney (14,505 ft) to Middle Palisade.

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California 14ers
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California's fifteen

California has twelve peaks over 14,000 feet with 300 feet of prominence and three Palisades sub-summits — Thunderbolt, Starlight, and Polemonium — that the Sierra Peaks Section and most finishers count, making fifteen. They're a different proposition from Colorado's. Only Whitney, White Mountain Peak, and Langley are walk-ups; the rest involve real climbing, and North Palisade, Starlight, and Thunderbolt require roped technical pitches. The list is short, but finishing it means becoming a mountaineer.

Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States at 14,505 feet, is the obvious start and also the hardest permit in the state: the Whitney Zone lottery opens in February and the Mount Whitney Trail's 22 miles and 6,100 feet of gain are usually done as a very long day or an overnight at Trail Camp. Mount Shasta, the lone Cascade volcano on the list, is a snow climb in spring via Avalanche Gulch and the one most people do as a guided trip.

The Palisades and the Whitney group

Seven of the fifteen stand within a few miles of each other in the Palisades, reached from Big Pine over Glacier Pass or from the South Fork. Sill is the most straightforward; North Palisade's U-Notch is a classic Sierra alpine route; Starlight's summit is a detached pinnacle climbers call the Milk Bottle. The Whitney group — Whitney, Russell, Muir — clusters at the other end of the range, with Russell's east ridge a Class 3 highlight and Muir a short scramble off the Whitney Trail that many walkers skip without realizing it counts.

Click a peak badge or its pin to mark it summited; click again for want-to-climb. White Mountain Peak, across the Owens Valley from the Sierra, is the outlier — a dirt road to 11,000 feet and a jeep track to the top, and the easiest fourteener in the state.

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