Overview

This page explains why I’ve decided to add “Crumbly Spire” to the Official Thirteeners List, to move the Cyle Spires to the Official non-Thirteeners List, and to list Clyde Spires (West Peak) and Clyde Spires (East Peak) separately on the latter. In summary, Crumbly Spire is likely the highest of these three peaks, and therefore probably taller than 13,267'.

Thirteeners Update on 2004-08-01

I erroneously placed 4044m into the peak list for Clyde Spires at location UTM535115; that’s the location of the East Spire. The West Spire (which more likely was the peak surveyed at 13267' for the Mt. Goddard 15' USGS quadrangle) is supposed to be higher than the East Spire, and this is bourne out in the DEM data (4037m vs. 4036m).

I certainly need to fix this in the peak list before I run RidgeWalker again.

Detailed Analysis of the Clyde and Crumbly Spires

• First, it should be noted that the 12,955' spot elevation (UTM537115) named Clyde Spires on the Mt. Darwin 7.5' USGS quadrangle is not actually part of the Clyde/Crumbly Spires. It’s east of the East Spire.
• Crumbly Spire (UTM532116) is the high point in the DEM data (4040m, or ~13,255'), which is consistent with contours on the 7.5' quad (13,240'+). However, it doesn’t look like that’s where the 13267' spot elevation was taken.
• The West Spire (UTM534115) appears as 4037m in DEM (~13,245'), which is consistent with contours on the 7.5' quad (13,240'+). The summit is pretty sharp, so it could easily poke above the DEM data.
• The East Spire (UTM535115) appears as 4036m in DEM (~13,241'), which is consistent with contours on the 7.5' quad (13,240'+).
• Steve Eckert climbed both the East and West Spires in May 2000, and claims both the East and Crumbly Spires are higher than the West Spire.
• Bub Burd climbed all three peaks in August 2005, and took a photo confirming that the West Spire is not the highest of the three. His picture is consistent with the assumption that Crumbly is highest, followed by the West Spire and then the East Spire.
• The saddle location for the highest of the three would be Wallace Col (UTM531120).

Conclusions

Although the spot elevation included on the Mt. Goddard 15' USGS quadrangle was probably for the Clyde Spires (and probably the West Spire), this coupled with Bob Burd’s picture suggest that the Crumbly Spire is at least this tall and the the tallest of the three peaks.

Thus, I’ve decided to replace the original entry for the Clyde Spires (ranked 94 on the Thirteeners List) with one for “Crumbly Spire”, and to assign it the spot elevation of 13,267'. In addition, I’ve added the other two peaks to the non-Thirteeners List, naming them Clyde Spires (West Peak) and Clyde Spires (East Peak). Here’s a table summarizing the relevant data: