Mt Elbert

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July 3rd, 2011 – After meeting in Minutrn at a timely 5am, we drove south through Leadville to Hwy 82 and the Twin Lakes trailhead. The “4×4″ road from the lower trailhead to the upper has been recently graded, so can likely be traversed by standard passenger cars; indeed we saw many of them parked up and down the road. We drove 3/4 of the way up and parked just below an ominous stream crossing (which likely wouldn’t have been a problem, i’m just a softie when it comes to off-roading). By 7am we were on the trail.

The first ~1/2 mile of the trail follows the CDT (Continental Divide Trail)/Colorado trail. At an obvious junction after a slight downward slope, we turned west onto the Mt Elbert trail. After this point, the trail turns sharply uphill and never looks back.

Meandering uphill through a lovely aspen grove, the trail eventually peeks out of treeline with a smattering of small pine trees. We took a break under the shade of one of the last clumps of trees before ascending into the alpine zone.

At this point, Jesse took off ahead of me, I could see him passing other groups who were meandering up. (He later told me that he got it in his head that he was going to go all out and not stop till the summit.) I however, took my time, though I was still passing people (and a couple of speedsters passed me). The crowd on this relatively tame 14er (and there was quite the crowd. There were at least 30 people on the summit while I was there, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were >100 hikers on the mountain that day) were newbies, the extent of which we did not realize until later. Many of the people I talked to were climbing their first 14er — compared to the “crowd” we saw the previous week on Mt Sneffels who made us look like the noobs.

There’s not much else to say about the trail beyond timberline, except that it goes up, up, up! The trail never becomes rocky, even when you are approaching the summit. As I approached the summit, I saw a familiar face descending; Jesse had summited almost half an hour previous and said that there were some not-happy clouds approaching from the north-west. Jesse waited for me, and about half an hour later I was on the summit (crowded!). As if welcoming me to the top, a low roll of thunder caused everyone up there to quickly snap their photos, throw on their gear, and start the walk down. After jogging down and meeting up with Jesse again, we quickly began our descent through some blowing snow (remember, its July).

As we went down, we passed several groups that were still going up! Had they not climbed a peak before? (Oh, yeah, they were all noobs.) It was after noon, there were ominous clouds and thunder, and they’re still going up? Jesse, being the proper Eagle Scout, stopped almost every up-bound group we passed saying “We heard thunder around noon.” “OH,” they’d reply, “we heard that too.” or “We’ve got friends on the top. They’re sending us info.” (how?) or “Cool!” Not a single group decided to turn back.

(by the way, if you’re above timberline and you hear thunder, it’s a pretty good queue to get the hell out of timberline. Ironically, the previous week was lightning safety awareness week sponsored by the National Weather Service, When thunder roars, go indoors! especially if you’re above 12,000 feet and you’re the tallest thing for miles around you. Mountain safety, people!)

We took a rest once we reached the relative safety of timberline, and eased our way through the beautiful aspens, back to the car. Though this is a class 1 route, we were both physically exhausted at the end, unlike the previous climb up Mt Sneffels (west ridge) which Jesse aptly noted was mentally exhausting. But, we had fun climbing Colorado’s highest peak!