The altitude of a pass is not the biggest thing in difficulty- it is how many feet elevation gain per horizontal distance. I think Taboose Pass in the Sierra will compete with any Colorado pass. I used to climb in the Cascades in Washington- then moved to the Rockies - and encountered "Colorado 14'er snobbery". Everyone poo-pooed my Cascade climbs - as ONLY 9,000 feet - well that is a lot when you start at sea level! I would also say that climbing Mt Rainier is no shabby thing - either for absolute altitude or elevation gain.
They can poo poo 11,000 foot passes all they like. I didn't specify on trail or off, class 2 - 3, or any variety of conditions that would make it interesting.
Also, the poles have saved me from bouncing into canyon bottoms - SAR does not allow you to stay on nice graded trails, and I'd like to see someone without poles haul themselves up a near-vertical slope covered in several inches of pine needles without them.
Some of the toughest trails I've been on were well below treeline, and I was extremely happy to have poles with me, not because they are some affectation but because without them progress would not have been made in any expeditious fashion.
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