Climbing California's Fourteeners: 183 Routes to the Fifteen Highest Peaks [Paperback]

Stephen Porcella (Author), Steven F. Porcella (Author), Cameron M. Burns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

Only guide to multiple routes on each of California's fourteeners.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books; 1st edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898865557
• ISBN-13: 978-0898865554
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Mountaineering > Excursion Guides

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs work!!, July 10, 2001

By 

Dirk Summers (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing California's Fourteeners: 183 Routes to the Fifteen Highest Peaks (Paperback)

After moving to CA from CO, and having used Colorado 14er guidebooks by Dawson and Roach, I was disappointed by this book. While there are many fine photographs, wonderful climbing history of the peaks, a slew of routes, and many routes superimposed on photographs, there were many elements that I find essential, that were missing. Topographic maps of the areas in question (with routes drawn on them), round trip distance information, elevation gain, and an estimated (conservative) completion time are essential pieces of information when planning a trip, and are not included here. While the difficulties of the various routes are described well, these other descriptors would make the book twice as good as it is now. Dawson's format, at the beginning of each route description, listing the aforementioned deficiencies (with the exception of the maps) is excellent. From the guidebooks I've looked at though, this is the best available.

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lacks details on routes, great historical sections, August 6, 2001

By 

"intivar" (Davis, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing California's Fourteeners: 183 Routes to the Fifteen Highest Peaks (Paperback)

Porcella and Burn's book is really the only book about climbing California 14'ers. It's a great starting point for climbing in the state with extensive historical sections and nearly every available route up each of the 14'ers in the state. In other words, it will get you pointed in the right direction and to the trailhead to do the climb.

Unfortunately, the book is sorely lacking in route description details. The authors say to use both the pictures and descriptions of the routes to make your way up the mountain, but there are cases of descriptions without pictures. The book is most dangerous for beginning to intermediate climbers for its lack of approximate times to each location degree of difficulty, and lack of attention to detail on the "lesser" routes.

Take Mt. Tyndall's Northwest Ridge. It takes a strong hiker about 8 hours just to reach the base. The description describes the route as "easy" and up a twisting rocky trail. In fact, the trail doesn't exist and most of the climb up this ridge requires negotiating large, unstable boulders. The authors do admit the summit ridge is exposed, but do not mention there are some class 3 moves at this point. Without approximate times to the summit there is no way of knowing how long or how difficult the climb is. Furthermore, there is only a description of the climb and not a clear picture of the route. I actually told friends that climbing Mt. Illimani (6400 meters), which required some technical ice climbing, and 4 days of climbing was easier than climbing Mt. Tyndall (approximately 18 hours).

Lack of details are also evident in their poor description of the West Face route of Mt. Williamson. There is no mention of good spots to camp after reaching Shepherds pass. Williamson bowl requires fairly strenuous hiking since it is largely boulder field between several moraines. Porcella and co., describe crossing this as "entering the Williamson bowl from the north," which, judging from the topo quad and this description, makes it sound like an easy walk. The description fails to describe the route correctly, with the description sounding like you continue up the mountain when the picture shows a turn to the south. Finally the authors chose to take a picture of the climb from an angle that most climbers would not see from the southern approach.

Porcella and Burn's rating system often seems haphazard. One climb on Mt. Shasta was rated as Class 3-4, but I found this climb to be far easier than the Class 2 climbing on Mt. Tyndall.

There is a lot to cover here, but the easier routes certainly could use more description and approximate times. Yes mountaineering is dangerous, difficult, and strenuous, but lack of detail is not an excuse for the "c'est la vie" attitude Porcella and Burns use for their descriptions. In fact more description would help climbers be more prepared for the routes they choose.

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing!, October 5, 2000

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Climbing California's Fourteeners: 183 Routes to the Fifteen Highest Peaks (Paperback)

I've climbed three of California's 14,000 foot peaks and this book was very disappointing. There is simply not enough viable information on each of the hikes. There are massive amounts of extraneous material on each peak such as the history of various climbs and minutiae not interesting or relevant to a hiker of today. Every hiker using this book needs to know the difficulty of the hike, the elevation gain, the round-trip distance and details about locating the trailhead. Only the latter point is adequately addressed here.

Take Mt. Whitney, for example. This is the premiere California hike and one of the essential hikes for anyone in North America. The information on Whitney given in this book is extensive but not really useful. I relied on other guide books to direct me to Whitney Portal and give me meaningful information before making the ascent.

The strong area of the book is ample information on altitude acclimazation, the dreadful prospects of developing HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema) and methods of preparing your body for the rigors of high altitude climbing. If you're interested in vicarious climbing or just in the history of each peak, this is a fine book. But if you're an active hiker anticipating or training for these peaks, there are much better books for this purpose.