When peak-bagging is slagging, you can always count on Quandary.
The 2023 hiker report from Colorado Fourteeners Initiative shows Breck’s hometown 14er was the busiest in the state last year with an estimated 27,000 hikers, roughly 72 per day. That is 23% busier than in 2022, when Quandary was slower than another perpetual favorite, Mount Bierstadt in the Front Range.
But Quandary was the exception to the rule in 2023. Across the rest of the state 14ers were slower than they have been in nearly a decade. CFI estimates 260,000 hikers total, down 6.5% in a year, down an eye-catching 37% from the record highs of 2020.
You can blame much of it on Alma’s popular Decalibron loop (Mounts Democrat, Lincoln and Bross) in the Mosquito Range. All three were closed half of the year for a property access battle and visits plummeted by 17,500.
Other popular ranges lost hikers as well, like the San Juan Mountains (-5,500 hikers, -14%) and Front Range (-3,000 hikers, -3%).
So is peak bagging going out of style?
CFI executive Lloyd Athearn has a theory for the Denver Post: Boomers are aging out of big hikes and younger generations are not filling their boots.
“My Millennial colleagues — another massive generation — are buying houses, having kids and taking on more work responsibilities,” Athearn says. “That likely translates into less time or money to get out to play regularly. Meanwhile, my son is in that Gen Z age group. While his friends are all pretty athletic and outdoor-oriented, I know many of his peers are not.”
