It had been nearly three years since Sarah and I first summited Guadalupe Peak and my desire to climb the next mountain on my list was beginning to consume me. The second mountain on my “Seven Summits” list is Mt Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado. I hadn’t had an opportunity to go to Colorado yet but that eventually changed when one of my cousins from Colorado Springs invited Sarah and I to her wedding. I made sure to plan our trip so that it would include an opportunity to go mountain climbing and soon enough we were taking off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport en route to Denver. We spent a few days in Colorado Springs participating in the wedding festivities but once the family fun subsided we promptly made our way to Leadville, Colorado to get a good nights rest in preparation for our summit attempt on Mt. Elbert early the next morning.
On the morning of the climb Sarah and I woke up at 4:30AM so that we would have plenty of time to get dressed, eat breakfast, check out of our hotel and drive to trailhead. We had already done most of the prep for our excursion the night before so everything moved fairly quickly and efficiently. The Super 8 Hotel we stayed in was nothing special but it was clean and ultimately a great choice because of its proximity to Mt. Elbert. After breakfast we loaded up the car, checked out of the hotel, and headed for the trailhead. Although the drive is only a few miles it still took us about thirty minutes to get there as it was very dark and about half the trip is on an unpaved gravel road. While virtually any car can make the journey, our compact Ford Focus required slow and precise navigating to avoid the wash boarding and potholes that plagued the roadway. We eventually arrived at the Northeast Elbert Trailhead at about 5:45AM and after gearing up we were finally on the trail by about 6AM.
Sarah and I had been taking Diamox for a few days while staying in Colorado Springs so I was hopeful the altitude would not affect us but I knew that I would have to move at a pace Sarah could maintain as well. Fortunately an older couple arrived shortly after we did and hiked alongside us, setting a good but reasonable pace that Sarah was able to follow along with. The first part of the trail through the forest can at times feel almost as large as a backcountry road and for a while we wondered if we had gone off course in the dark of the early morning. Fortunately after about a mile we came across a split the in the path that indicated we were still on course. At the split we went right, continuing towards the summit of Mt. Elbert as going down the trail to the left would put you on the famous Continental Divide Trail. From this point the trail began to get a bit steeper and after another mile and a half or so we reached the tree line at about 8:30AM.
The dark was slowly fading to light as the sun rose above the Rocky Mountains to the east of us. It had snowed for the first time in the Sawatch Range the night before so Elbert, Massive, and most of the neighboring peaks were now glistening with a light white dusting of snow in the morning sunlight.
The view was incredible in every direction and I constantly wanted to stop and take photos but I remained conscious of the fact that we needed to be off the summit by around noon to avoid the forecasted afternoon snowstorms.
Above the tree line our pace began to slow dramatically as the altitude finally began to wear on us more heavily. The Diamox we were taking and short acclimation we had in Colorado Springs seemed to be preventing us from getting sick but the thin air kept us short of breath as we pushed higher and higher. Having read several different accounts of the climb online I knew to expect a few false summits on the way up. I feel this helped keep things in perspective and prevented us from getting our hopes up when we actually reached them. The higher we moved, the more the trail seemed to turn to rock until eventually we were climbing up large talus slopes. As we approached the first false summit a small snowstorm came upon us from the south and dumped a good inch or two of snow onto the trail.
This made finding and following the trail somewhat difficult but thankfully the occasional rock cairn would keep us on track. Once we were on top of the first false summit, two people who had previously blown past us on their way to the top were now making their way down. Surprisingly they had not made the summit and had instead turned around due to high winds and the heavy snowfall that had now subsided. They did not want to risk being caught on the mountain in the more serious storms to come and had decided to instead call it a day. Sarah and I talked it over and given that we still had an hour until noon with less than a mile to go, we decided to push for the second summit and reassess the situation there.
The snow accumulation did begin to slow us down a bit more but we continued to push ourselves as we moved higher along the trail. Once on the second false summit the wind really began to pick up and the actual summit began to come into view. Clouds had begun to build heavily to the south and it was growing dangerously close to noon but the trail was just a smooth, gentle walk the rest of the way and we were maybe five to ten minutes from top. We talked it over and decided to push on with the plan that we were going to be off the summit within only a few moments of reaching it so that we could get below the tree line before the storms arrived. A couple hundred yards later we arrived at the summit and did our best to take in our accomplishment as we hastily took a few photos.
Within less than a minute of our arrival, clouds began to rapidly descend upon us until the summit had become completely shrouded as we set off back towards the trailhead. As soon as we began our descent, snow began to fall heavily and by about half way back down to the tree line the entire trail had become covered in a thick blanket of white.
We had to be extra careful with our footing as the increasingly deep powder crushed beneath our weight causing us to slip and slide on occasion. We became partially dependent on our trekking poles for balance and for helping us navigate down the talus slopes as the trail became a bit more difficult to follow. When we finally did reach the tree line the snow had built up quite significantly and it looked drastically different than it had only a few hours earlier.
Once in the trees the trail was easy to follow and the further we descended, the less snow we had to deal with. Eventually snow was replaced with rain and mud as the trail winded down the mountainside. Finally, after battling snow and mud for nearly five miles we arrived back at the trailhead and quickly departed for Denver.
Author’s Note: Mt. Elbert made my “Seven Summits List” because not only is it one of Colorado’s famous “14ers”, it’s the tallest of them all. There are certainly more prestigious climbs, more difficult climbs, and more beautiful climbs throughout the state but only one mountain stands above all the others and I think there is something to be said for climbing the tallest mountain in the highest state.
Bonus: I took a few quick photos for comparison shots as we hurriedly made our way into the forest.
The Trail before the Snowfall
The Trail after the Snowfall
The Tree Line before the Snowfall
The Tree Line after the Snowfall