Ep. 107 How to Hike a 14er: Everything You Need to Know

In this episode, I share exactly how to hike your first 14er—from essential 14er training tips and beginner hiking workouts to what to pack, how to prepare for high altitude, and how to choose the best beginner-friendly 14ers. I just completed two 14,000-foot summits in one day and break down everything I learned so you can avoid common mistakes. If you're planning your first Colorado 14er hike, this guide will help you train smarter, hike safer, and summit with confidence.

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Where fitness and outdoors meet. In this space we chat all things hiking, exercise, wellness, adventure, motherhood, and metabolic health from a female perspective! Get ready to learn + be inspired to live your fullest, most adventurous life!

Hi, my name is Brady and I'm a long time fitness professional and midwest girl turned mountain living hiking addict. And combining my knowledge of fitness and passion for hiking, I've helped hundreds of women get lean and strong for the trails. Think of this as your one stop shop for both education and inspiration on all things female wellness, trail talk and adventure. Hiking, female metabolism, motherhood, nutrition, travel and fitness are all topics you'll hear discussed here. If you are outdoorsy and active, looking to level up your health, unlock your potential, and become inspired to live your most vibrant life, you're in the right place. You're listening to the fit for Hiking podcast. Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the fit for Hiking podcast. This is your host, Brady. And today we are going to be getting into the topic of how to hike your first fourteeners. So a fourteeners is something that just refers to a 14,000 foot peak. And this is something that you hear about a lot in Colorado. I had no idea what a fourteeners was until I moved out west, and it's something that a lot of people get very interested in when they are big into hiking, or just want a really cool mountain challenge. So if you have been interested in hiking in fourteeners, but you feel a little bit overwhelmed, you have no idea where to start. Keep listening. That is exactly what we're going to go over on this episode is weekend 14 how to hike a 14 or How to Train, how to Pack what you need to know before you go. Um, and then ultimately. You know, kind of setting you up for success to be able to do this thing on your own. Because I was very much in your shoes before hiking my first one. And unfortunately, I did not have the resources that are available now, or I just didn't really look into things properly and I was very clueless on the first 14 I ever hiked. Hiked it in the wrong time of year and ended up, um, just kind of in a precarious situation. Honestly learned a lot about how to be prepared, when to go, when not to go, um, and how to train. So that's what I want to share with you, and hopefully this will help you feel confident to take on your first fourteeners. So let's get into it. Um, so first of all, why hike 14? Or why are people drawn to attempting these 14,000 foot summits? There are 97 of them in America, and a ton of them reside in Colorado, which is where I live. So that's why I kind of got into this myself. Um, so what's the draw? Um, really? Ultimately, I think the biggest draw is the challenge of it. This is the highest point that you're going to see in the Rocky Mountains and in the continental US. So it's very, um, alluring in that way, because how cool is it to say that you've been to one of the highest points in the US or in the world, honestly. So it's pretty cool to have that challenge and really push yourself if you're someone who likes to hike. Not only for the beauty, but also for the physical challenge. For the mental challenge. Fourteeners are definitely going to be for you and it's very rewarding of an experience. Yes, it's exhausting, but in my opinion it's usually pretty worth it. Um, so let's talk about how to train. First of all, because getting yourself to 14,000ft might not sound that bad, especially if you already live somewhere high altitude. However, the reality of it is quite different and it is challenging even if you're used to high altitudes. I just actually hiked two fourteeners in one day over this past weekend, and even though I live at high altitude at like 8000ft, this was still very challenging for me and I still felt very oxygen deprived. So there's a lot that you need to know as far as prep and training that's going to help you succeed and not only succeed, but actually enjoy the process. So let's talk about the training. We really want to bring together strength and cardio and mobility for the best possible results, for stamina, for strength and for injury prevention. You don't want to just go for long walks and think that that will be enough, or even just going for hikes. Yes, that's going to be a step above walking and definitely valuable for your aerobic capacity and for just kind of getting your bearings with hiking. But there's a lot more that goes into the training aspect. So let's talk about the strength. I've talked about this on a few other episodes when we get into getting into hiking shape, but absolutely getting a lot of single leg strength and stability work. So things like step ups and step down, there are a lot of different variations that you can try of this, whether it be straight up and down, lateral leaning back into your heel and kind of doing a heel tap on the floor versus pushing off of that bottom foot, holding a weight or just trying body weight. And then there's also lunge variations walking lunges, reverse lunges, lateral lunges, adding weights to those you can even do resisted lunges with cables. There's so many different varieties of lunges that are going to be very, very helpful to translate to what you're doing on the trails. Single leg box squats. Single leg deadlifts, split squats, um, single leg glute thrusts. These are all really amazing variations that I love to work in for myself on a weekly basis, as well as my clients who are training for hikes. Um, this is going to absolutely go a massive distance for you as far as prepping you for the strength and the single leg balance that you're going to need. Having just been through this myself, I was so glad that I've been doing the single leg step down variations, step up variations because I probably mimicked that movement on the fourteeners I hiked more or less. 2000 times, right? I was doing that movement over and over and over again, over massive rocks, massive steps, up and down, up and down. And had my body not been prepped for that, I would be miserable. My knees would be killing me. I'd be so sore. Um, and that was not the case because I trained properly for this. Um, the next thing you're going to want to focus on is glute and hip work. If our glutes and hips are going to be activated properly and strong, then we're going to take less of that brunt in our knees when we are doing all of this stepping. Okay. So it's really important to have strong and activated glutes as well as strong hips. Otherwise again, your hip flexors are going to be killing you from all the stepping up and lifting your legs up and down. Um, the next area is core and back work. So core obviously if you're unsteady, if you don't have a strong core, you're not going to have good balance. You're going to be falling all over the place, especially if you're having to do scrambles, which we'll talk about in a little bit. Um, and also your back is going to be hurting if you're not strong in your core. When you have a pack on your back and you're trying to balance properly, that's going to create some issues, um, for your lower back also. Additionally, your upper back needs to be strong to keep your posture solid while you're holding a pack on your back. Okay, so a lot of people neglect training their back. They only do like push ups or bicep curls or things like that. And that's not going to target your back the way that you need. So really incorporating some good, um, single arm pulls, double arm pulls, pull downs, regular rows, things like that are definitely going to really help you out there. As far as cardio goes, you're going to want to get a good mix of steady state cardio, so that would be like doing the same repetitive movement over and over again. Similarly to hiking, it's a repetitive movement, so you want to be able to hang on aerobically because a lot of these fourteeners are long and you're going to be exerting yourself at kind of a moderate intensity for hours. So you gotta at least have a solid foundation as far as aerobic capacity. So doing steady state cardio a couple times a week and then some intervals as well. Why the intervals? If you think about what you're doing in a fourteeners, a lot of the effort is steady. But then you also get to certain points where you're trying to get to that last summit, or there's a massive incline, and then it kind of levels out. And that really is similar to interval work. So we want to mimic that in our training. Make sure you're doing some intervals. I would recommend doing kind of longer intervals because again that mimics what you're going to experience out on the trails typically is not just going to be like a 45 second hard stint, it's going to be more like five minutes or even ten minutes where you're really huffing and puffing, you're pushing yourself, your lungs are burning. And so that's the type of thing you want to think about when you're factoring in your cardiovascular training. As far as mobility work, uh, the main areas that you're going to want to focus on are going to be the ankles, the knees. Sunscreen? Absolutely. You're going to want to reapply. I learned this the hard way. I thought I had thoroughly covered myself, and I still ended up getting a little bit of a sunburn on my neck despite having lotion there. Um. Trekking poles. This is such an underrated one. I do not think I would have been able to do the fourteeners I did the other day, had I not had my trekking poles. They really saved my knees balance wise, coming down so, so valuable. Um, especially if you have some joint pain or you feel a little unsteady on, um, loose rock and gravel. I definitely think that poles are going to come in clutch for you and then a first aid kit. So there's something small that can help patch you up if you get a little injury. Um, also having some, like, medicine or ibuprofen in there in case you get a really bad altitude headache. Um, just having some of these. So, you know, if there is an emergency, you're good to go. Um, and then I also would recommend, like, a Garmin inReach or something like that if you don't have, um, satellite access on your phone, especially if you go by yourself, you want to be able to reach out in case of emergency. Um, okay, let's talk timing. So as far as time of the year, there's really a short window as to when you can do a 14 hour successfully. So really, I would say late June to early September is your window. The best months are going to be um, kind of like mid to late July through August. And um, obviously depends a little bit on what's going on weather wise in your area, in your state that you're going. But at least in Colorado, that's kind of your window. I attempted my first fourteeners mid-June, and the entire trail was completely covered in snow and ice. We were patrolling through snow the entire way. It was honestly kind of a miserable experience, because the trail was not in good condition for us to do that sort of hike. And it also can be really dangerous. You have much more risk of falling, um, or post holing through and realizing that you are over water or over sharp rocks, things like that. So I would not recommend trying to do this any other time of year if you want to have a successful and safe experience. Um, as far as time of day, you really need to start early. So I'm talking like pre sunrise or around sunrise. Um, the earlier the better because you are less likely to overheat. Have that sun exposure throughout the day. Um, it can get way more challenging when you are at 14,000ft and, um, it's freaking hot and it's late in the day afternoon. You're going to be really feeling the effects of the heat, and you're already more prone to being dehydrated at that high elevation, and the sun is strong. Um, another big reason is afternoon storms. This is something that is almost guaranteed. If you are on a really high mountain in the afternoon, you're probably going to experience a thunderstorm, and this can be extremely dangerous. Um, a lot of people get struck by lightning at the top of fourteeners because they don't heed this warning, and they just decide to go ahead and start at, you know, 11 a.m. noon. I literally saw people trying to start hiking at like 1:02 p.m. yesterday, which is crazy and super unsafe. So, um, really get out as early as you possibly can, especially if you know that it's going to take you a while. Um, doing those two summits that I did, it ended up taking us, like a good 6 or 7 hours. Okay. So even if you are in shape for this, even if you're training properly, it's still going to take a while. So factor in that amount of time and make sure that you start early enough. Um, yeah. So as far as how long you can expect to be on the trail, this is going to vary based on the hike that you're doing. Obviously, some fourteeners are shorter than others. You know, some of them are only like 5 or 6 miles, and then some of them are going to be upwards of 14 to 20 miles long. So it really depends on the length which you want to be very aware of. Um, but I would say giving yourself anywhere between 4 to 10 hours, depending on the length, your fitness level. If you've done this before, the amount of stops you plan to make. Do you plan on having a really long lunch at the summit? Things like that. All right, next up let's talk altitude awareness. This is a big one. So there's a real thing called altitude sickness. And if you have never spent time at high altitudes you might have no idea what I'm talking about. I experienced it just visiting Denver. I wasn't even going high into the mountains. But the first time I visited Denver from the Midwest, I had bad altitude sickness almost the entire weekend. And the symptoms you're going to want to look out for are headaches, nausea or vomiting, and then extreme fatigue. Like you just feel like you literally cannot keep your eyes open. You feel exhausted. Okay, so if you are coming in from another state, especially at sea level, and trying to do a 14 year, this is very, um, you know, this is a high risk type of situation where you could absolutely end up with some altitude sickness. So biggest things you want to think about here are hydration. You need to make sure that you are overly hydrated. This is going to really help keep those symptoms at bay. So this starts long before you begin hiking electrolytes salt in your water, making sure you're just pounding H2O and electrolytes in the days before your hike and on your hike. Um, also making sure you're pacing yourself properly and not wearing yourself out too much in the beginning. Waiting until you've acclimated to some altitude for about 48 hours before going higher. So, for instance, if you're flying into Colorado to do fourteeners, you don't want to go straight to a mountain town the day you get in and try to summit a 14 or the next morning, I would recommend waiting going to Denver first, maybe spending a day or two there, then heading to the mountains, and then maybe day three or day four. If you're able to have that much time there, then you go for the big summits. This is going to allow you to really acclimate and feel so much better, and just have more success as you go higher in elevation. Um, also, there are some training techniques that you can do that will help you with this. One would be just making sure that you're getting cardio training, even if you're doing this at sea level. Um, doing some treadmill hikes at, you know, 10 to 15% incline. Doing StairMaster sessions, doing really long walks, especially over hilly areas or doing like hill type of sprints. Um, these types of training are going to really help you cardiovascular early to prepare for being at altitude. Uh, for a more advanced, higher level strategy, you can do like a hypoxic training center or oxygen mask. These things are going to be a much more expensive. But if you're like really, really wanting to set yourself up for success, they are options in some places. Um, and then honestly, mental fortitude, this is such a big thing because sometimes, uh, oxygen deprivation and altitude just will make you feel crappy, even if you've done all of the right things. So some of this just comes down to your mindset and your attitude and knowing, hey, I might be kind of miserable, especially at the top. I might not feel my best. So preparing for that and just knowing that you're going to have to push through mentally. All right. Now let's talk about choosing the right fourteeners. How to know which one to pick. So you're going to want to choose a beginner friendly type of option if you're new to all of this. So this starts with looking at the different class systems. So there's different types of classes of scrambles based on the difficulty level. A class one scramble would be. Basically none. You're just hiking. You're able to stay on your feet the whole time. You're not having to use your hands at all. Class two would be some hand usage on rocks, potentially just for like balance purposes. Maybe a tiny bit of scrambling. Class three is going to be. Yep. You're using your your hands and feet and you're really kind of starting to have to like use your whole body to boulder over these big rocks. Class four is exposed scrambling. So this becomes a lot more treacherous where you are exposed to big drop offs on both sides, and you're really having to rely on your upper body and full body strength to hang on to these rocks, to get over a ridge or a saddle. And then class five is fully technical climbing. Okay. So that's like you are harnessed in, you're using an ice pick. This is really intense. And you definitely don't want to do this unless you are a seasoned pro or you go with a like a guide guided tour type of deal. So I definitely would not recommend attempting any hikes that are a class four or class five, unless you are pretty experienced and feel confident in your abilities to do that. Um, and then ultimately, in choosing the right fourteeners, you need to do your research, read reviews, read what people have to say. Um, watch YouTube videos on the experience. If you're not sure if you can handle a certain type of scramble, see what it looks like. You know, really look into these other people's experiences and do some thorough research so that you aren't caught unaware. This is so big and actually really helped me out on the fourteeners that I did over the past weekend. There's two different routes that you can do to summit these fourteeners, and one of them is shorter. So naturally I was like, oh cool, why don't we try the shorter route? But then when I was looking into it, I realized that there was going to be a ridge that we would have to go over. That was a class four scramble. And after watching YouTube videos, my husband and I decided that we did not feel comfortable doing that. It looked pretty sketchy, very exposed, big drop offs on both sides, and we just weren't about it. So thanks to that research that we did, we were able to save ourselves a really dangerous situation, having to possibly turn around and not even do the fourteeners. And we went with a different route. So that's the power of doing your research and making informed decisions so that when you show up, you're not like, oh my gosh, I had no idea that I was going to be doing this type of scrambling, right? Because that's not fun. When you're already fatigued, you're already a little bit out of your element. And finally, I wanted to share my biggest takeaways from the 14 years that I've done. One is to consider parking. Just because you go early does not mean you're guaranteed a parking spot. So do your research on parking options. Whether that's a shuttle, having to park further down and walk aways. Um, can you park along like the service road that leads to the parking lot? You know, what are the what are the best options? Are there certain days that are better than others? Things like that. If you don't go early, you might really, really struggle to find a spot. But even if you do go early, you might struggle to find a spot. Depending on how popular it is, how close it is to a nearby city, things like that. Um, number two is to put sunscreen on every little part of your your head, body, everything that you might not even think about. Um, I got really scorched on, like, my ears and the side of my neck, and that was just a mistake I made because I thought that I had gotten my face and neck properly and I didn't. So I'm feeling the effects of that and it's not fun. The third one is that even, quote unquote easy fourteeners are still extremely hard. You know, people will kind of rank these fourteeners and say, well, these are the easy ones. And just because they say that they're the easier ones, they're comparing those to ones where you're having to do these class 3 or 4 scrambles, class five scrambles, even where you're climbing using an ice pick. So just because someone says that they're easy ones does not mean that they're necessarily easy. They're still usually quite long. You're still getting, you know, typically at least 3000ft of elevation gain, if not more, up to 4 or 5000ft of elevation gain. They're still going to be very physically challenging. Okay. So don't underestimate the ones that are listed as easy. Um, number four is that it will likely take you an hour or so longer than what you think or what's listed on all trails. Okay, so just because all trail says that it's only seven. Eight miles does not mean that that's accurate. And it might end up being more like ten plus miles, and, um, might take you way longer than what you think. So big build in some wiggle room and be flexible to that. Um, now the next one is when you think you have nothing left to give physically, you typically do. And I'm saying this from experience, because there have been some times on fourteeners where I really feel like I am done, but I still have like three more miles to go, or I still have 300ft of elevation gain to the summit. And it's really amazing how much further our bodies can push ourselves versus what we think we're capable of in most moments of our life. You know, most of the time we put these limits on ourselves. We kind of put ourselves in boxes of what we think we're capable of. And it's not until we're we're in a situation where we really have to just push through where we realize our true strength. So that's one thing I love about experiences like this is it's such a good reminder that we're stronger than we think we are. Um, and then the final one is that training properly can actually be the difference between being miserable, being incredibly sore, or actually hurting yourself on one of these experiences, or having an amazing time, truly enjoying it, feeling good and feeling okay the next day, walking away injury free, feeling maybe a little bit sore, but nothing crazy. Um, it's really amazing how much just training properly can differentiate between being miserable and really having a great experience, because I've experienced both sides of the coin. Okay. So trust me when I say you do not want to skimp on your training. It really will make a difference in one being able to just successfully complete something like this, but also being able to do it well. Um, and if you're not sure where to get started with your training, I have an exciting announcement. Um, you can get hiking strong with our Mountain Metabolic coaching program, and right now, we're specifically looking for three ladies who want to train to hike their first fourteeners. So if that sounds like you, then definitely hit the link in the show notes where you can apply. And then once we get on a call and we're talking, let me know that you're a podcast listener and you're going to get a special discount for this 14 hour ready program. Okay. So we're just only opening it up to a few ladies. Right now. We have a pretty full coaching roster, but if this is something that's been on your bucket list and you want to train properly and feel confident and prepared, then this is the best way to do so. And I'd love to chat with you about your goals. So definitely, um, hit that apply link and I will reach out to you to schedule a discovery call to talk a little bit more about that. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. I hope that this has been insightful, inspiring, and maybe you're even considering going and kicking butt on your first retainer. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I will chat with you all in the next episode. Thanks for tuning into this episode of the fit for hiking podcast. As always, I hope it leaves you feeling inspired and informed on how to take your health and adventure into your own hands. For more content like this, be sure to follow along with my daily posts at Pony Tail Underscore on a trail that's ponytail underscore on a trail. You can also stay up to date on my new episodes being released at Fit Underscore for hiking, and find more free resources at Pony Tail on Etrailer.com. Happy and healthy Trails.