And, speaking of climbing . . . Colorado’s mountain country is dominated literally, and increasingly figuratively, by all those lofty summits above 14,000 feet in elevation. The process of standing atop the Fourteeners has evolved in recent years to both a craze and a bonafide tangible outdoor- recreation industry sub-component. According to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, more than 500,000 people a year attempt to climb the state’s Fourteeners every year.

Consequently — business being the business of Colorado and all — it is now to the point that an entire industry of Fourteener-based merchandise has sprung up. There are water bottles adorned with Fourteener profiles. There is a series of very attractive collectable lapel pins bearing the visages of all the Fourteeners that people ostensibly purchase and display upon their packs after having successfully ascended the corresponding Fourteeners. There are T-shirts dedicated to individual Fourteeners, as well as T-shirts bearing check-off lists, upon which people can show via their attire which of the mountains they have climbed. There are T-shirts that utilize the ski-run difficulty rating system by listing Fourteeners as either green, blue, black or double-black. There are beaucoup posters, solid-bronze faux USGS summit markers, Fourteener-specific journals and “passport” books, at least four different guidebooks, coffee-table books, several varieties of “Don’t trust anyone under 14,000 feet” pins, videos, DVDs, calendars, a Fourteener-inspired New Age music CD — Robbie Deaton’s “XIV: Colorado Elysium” — a National Basketball Association Development League Team based in Broomfield called the Colorado 14ers (which won the league title this year) and even a brand of vodka named Colorado 14, which sports on the bottle’s front a profile of 14,246-foot Mt. Wilson.

With all the attention Colorado’s Fourteeners have garnered in the past decade, one would think that almost every bit of Fourteener-based information would be catalogued, codified and writ in stone long ago. But, truth be told, even in these Fourteener-dense times, there is still no consensus regarding the most fundamental Fourteener question: Just how many Fourteeners are there?

Most sources contend there are 54 Fourteeners in Colorado. This is the number the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative uses. But that number derives to a large extent from purely subjective sentiments expressed in Trail & Timberline, the official magazine of the Colorado Mountain Club. In 1968, a man named William Graves wrote that, in order for a mountain to be considered officially distinct (Graves was not just writing about Fourteeners, but, rather, all mountains), it should be separated from a neighboring peak by a saddle that is at least 300 feet lower than the summit of the lower peak. This observation has morphed from one man’s opinion to a veritable “rule.”

Thing is, at the time Graves posited this not-unreasonable “rule,” modern topographic surveys had yet to be completed. When the surveys were finished in the 1970s, it was discovered that North Maroon Peak and El Diente, both of which had long been considered legitimate Fourteeners, failed to meet Graves’ 300- foot criterion. That little oopsie aside, out of respect for tradition — as well as out of respect for the people who have perished (five have died on El Diente and nine on North Maroon Peak, making it the fourthmost- dangerous Fourteener) ascending those two peaks likely for no other reason than the fact they were listed as bonafide Fourteeners), North Maroon and El Diente continued to be listed among the altitudinous elite, bringing the number of Fourteeners in Colorado to 54.

However, in the 10th Edition of the “Guide to the Colorado Mountains,” published by the Colorado Mountain Club, El Diente and North Maroon were left off the Fourteener list, while another mountain, 14,081-foot Challenger Point, located on the northwest shoulder of another Fourteener, 14,165-foot Kit Carson Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Range, was added.

Thing is, Challenger Point, much to the chagrin of traditionalists, did not even receive its current name until 1987. (It was, of course, named in memory of the seven astronauts who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated shortly after liftoff on January 28, 1986.) Thus, the current Fourteener list espoused by the Colorado Mountain Club stands at 53 peaks.

It is obvious that the true number of Fourteeners will always be in the eye of the list-maker. Gerry Roach, highly respected author of “Colorado’s Fourteeners: From Hikes to Climbs,” covers his bases by including El Diente and North Maroon, as well as Challenger Point, making his list 55 peaks long.

Fourteenerworld.com lists 59 Fourteeners, including five “named but unranked” peaks (Conundrum Peak, North Maroon, Mount Cameron, El Diente and North Eolus) and one “soft” peak (North Massive).

Listsofjohn.com lists 67 Fourteeners — the increasingly common “53” list, plus 14 additional peaks (North Maroon, El Diente, Mount Cameron, North Massive, Massive Green, Northeast Crestone, West Evans, South Elbert, South Massive, South Wilson, West Wilson, Conundrum Peak, Southeast Longs and North Eolus) that are based upon a 100-foot-drop criterion, rather than Graves’ traditional 300-foot criteria.

And how important is all this? It’s tempting to say that it’s not important at all, to invoke some line from Wordsworth, Emerson or Whitman about appreciation of transcendent beauty trumping the living shit out of pure statistics-based motivations. But, what the hell? There are worse ways for people to spend time than tromping up the side of a mountain solely because it has made its way onto some list.

Either way, you’ll find me and my drinking/hiking chums a couple ridges over, making our lame way towards the summit of a mountain the name of which few know because it’s not an official Fourteener, a mountain whose summit hovers somewhere about maybe 13,500 feet above the sea from which we all long ago slithered, and not giving a rat’s ass if we make it to the top or not.