I think a lot of folks start out with Longs - it's a very cool climb through the keyhole and along the narrows. It wasn't my first Colorado fourteener - Pikes was. Aided by a day of acclimation beforehand at that very same 14,210', chowing down on greasy grill food and watching tourists get off the cog railway and stumble about for a while before the AMS really belted them. Strange experience, knowing 30-40 people just go to work every day as cooks, clerks, trash-haulers and drivers at 14K'. I asked if they had a to pass any type of acclimation test before being hired and I was told, "Not really - you can either handle it or you can't. You find out pretty quick if you can't."
I've always felt that the altitude studies that are done on White Mountain should really take place on Pikes Peak. After all, on a nice summer day hundreds of people head up there to be sick . . .
Good luck knocking out the remaining Cali fourteeners. Once that's out of the way, all that's left in the L48 are Rainier and one other peak in Washington (name escapes me).
Then you can start on Alaska!
