Before I leave Colorado for the summer, I wanted to make sure to climb Mount Elbert, the highest peak in the state and second only to Mount Whitney in height in the US outside Alaska. The mountain is much closer to Frisco than Boulder, so we got a hotel for two nights in Frisco and I woke up at 4:30am Sunday, August 1, 2010 and after getting dressed and eating a few handfuls of cereal headed out at 4:50am. It still took nearly an hour to drive to the trailhead, and as it was Sunday I was worried it would be another zoo like when I did Grays with Kaya and Abe. However there were only a half dozen cars at the trailhead when I arrived, and I started at 5:50am, shortly before sunrise. Here's the first picture I was able to take.
I did the northeast ridge, the most popular route to climb the mountain, which is 9 miles roundtrip with 4600+ feet of climbing. The trailhead is at 10,050 feet, about 1200 feet lower than the Grays trailhead, and treeline doesn't end until 12,000 feet, so you're in the forest for a while whereas Grays you essentially start at treeline. Although the Elbert trail is a mile longer with an extra 1400 feet of climbing, it actually feels easier than Grays because the entire trail is mostly dirt. This means you can go quite fast, especially downhill. I understand why it is so much less popular than Grays, in any case. Despite being the highest mountain in Colorado (which should make it extremely popular) it's rather a long drive from the Denver area, and the scenery is pretty dull by Colorado standards. Grays and Torreys are much more accessible and beautiful.
I passed three people near the start of my hike, and found a guy sleeping under a tarp (seen here) at treeline. Near the summit I ran into a couple really nice guys heading down (so I was the third up this day), but otherwise saw no one until I headed down. It was nice to have the mountain to myself. Skies were overcast and there was a 60% chance of afternoon thunderstorms (plus a possibility of morning thunderstorms) so I hoped I could get up and down before the excitement started.
A little above the guy in the tarp was this sleeping bag weighed down by a rock. Who knows why it was there. Perhaps it rained the previous night and he put it there to try to dry it out. Anyway the tarp and sleeping bag were gone when I descended.
On the way up I got great views of Mount Massive, whose trailhead is only a half mile from the Elbert trailhead. Massive is the second highest mountain in Colorado and the third highest in the continental US. Its summit was mostly covered by clouds throughout the day.
That was a strong indication that Elbert's higher summit would be covered by clouds as well. This point seems well below the cloud layer. Of course the explanation is that this is the first and by far the lowest of several false summits. I'm not positive, but it seems from the map that this was only around the 13,200 foot level, so still 1200 feet to go beyond it.
The trail is still nice here but the climb up to the first false summit was the steepest of the hike, and even though it was mostly dirt it was so steep it was tough to get up. Also there were multiple use trails in that area. I used lessons learned to find a close to optimal route up, staying as low as possible and also switching back whenever possible.
Around the first false summit, the next false summit can be seen faintly as we've reached cloud level. As I got up on the ridge there was a bit of a cold wind so I switched from my fleece to my new softshell jacket and also my wool cap, which kept me comfortable. The weather added a lot to an otherwise straightforward hike.
Massive also covered with clouds.
Scenery from the ridge.
View toward the summit.
Getting closer, it seems.... Happily I had no altitude problems this time. This was my 6th 14er of the summer (Evans, Torreys, Grays twice, and Longs) and finally I've acclimatized, only to soon return to sea level!
Finally I made it up. It took 2:31, not too bad to climb 4400 feet in 4.5 miles. The summit register box was surprisingly primitive, and everything was wet so I didn't bother trying to sign anything. You can tell my elevation if you can read upside down. Notice the foreign currency--it seems some people mistook this for a geocache!
I was surprised to not see anything more official marking the top of Colorado's highest peak than this stick.
I spent about 8 minutes on the summit, mostly trying to get a good picture of myself in front of the stick. I tried smiling but that didn't work, so reverted to a more serious face. It was getting a bit chilly so I thought it wise to head down.
Looking down at the first point you can start to make out scenery.
Mount Massive again. I recall getting some vertigo around this area as the trail went close to a big vertical drop, but the picture doesn't capture the feeling.
Heading down from the lowest false summit, with four hikers, the first I'd see coming up, visible on the flatter area.
More scenery and you can see the rockier (and steeper) trail heading down from the lowest false summit.
The lakes again, in better light.
Some cloud wisps floated by which were awesome.
There were some people heading up the East Ridge as well, which is less popular but apparently a shorter and easier route (7.6 miles roundtrip, 4000 foot gain) if you can drive to the end of a 4WD road. The trails intersect a little below the summit, and I was extra careful to not go the wrong way down in the fog. I could have made it back to my trailhead using the Colorado Trail as a connector, but I didn't really feel like doing bonus mileage this day.
Massive again.
More cloud wisps.
Looking back at the lowest false summit. The skies seemed to be clearing a bit and I wondered if I'd gone up too soon and missed a chance at views from the summit.
Soon after you can see the clouds descending even further, however. Looking at Massive they never seemed to go away while I was there.
You can see Massive even more covered by clouds now.
Heading back toward treeline. There were many groups of people heading up (including a group of a dozen or so backpackers near the trailhead probably doing the Colorado Trail), but not nearly the number I saw on Grays.
As you can see the parking lot was full by the time I got back.
The trailhead.
This is how it looks to start the hike. I was able to run down much of the trail below treeline and got down in 1:43. Round trip time was 4:23, just a little longer than it took me to do Grays and Torreys. I ate nothing during the hike and drank a half liter of water. I was done by 10:15 and got back to the hotel an hour later. We drove around Copper Mountain and Breckenridge in the afternoon and indeed big thunderstorms with heavy rain came, so I'm glad I beat that.
Here's the route, with enough context that you can see Massive as well (magnify to see details). A pleasant and easy hike, but not particularly special. I've now climbed the highest mountains in each of my four favorite states (CA, OR, WA and CO) but whereas Whitney, Hood and Rainier are superb mountains Elbert is pretty dull. It would be much better as a snow climb in the early summer, I think. I'm glad to have done it, though, and it makes a nice ending to my summer in Colorado.
