Mount Elbert, Colorado
My first hike on the South Mount Elbert Trail, on which we did not summit, can be checked here.
Distance: 15.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 4,927 ft
We took the North Mount Elbert Trail for our summit, a map of which can be found here.
Distance: 9.5 miles
Time: 8 hours
Elevation gain: 4,458 ft
The weather never turned on this hike, which I am grateful for. We had sunshine the whole way. We started to see other people on the trail at about dawn, roughly 5:30 am, and did not stop seeing them the rest of the day. It was a beautiful day for summiting and the mountain was busy.
The altitude didn’t effect us overly much until we broke the trees, somewhere around 12,000’ I believe. After that point our pace slowed precipitously and we were even passed by faster mountaineers. As this was Nathan’s 4th fourteener and only my 2nd, we made pretty good time at 8 hours round trip. We did start feeling the altitude though, and it is hard to describe taking a drink and being out of breath for several seconds.
At any rate, we reached the summit and beheld the beauty of the Rocky Mountains in all their mighty glory. We had an excellent view of all the surrounding area and many of the other fourteeners including Mount Massive, which is quite close, as mountains go.
By pure chance we summoned at the same time as an intrepid fourteen year old whose birthday I shared. Her family had brought her a cupcake and sang at the top, which was lovely. A man from our alma mater summit es about the same time, as well as a man from Fort Wayne, where we live now, and a man who has lived near Nathan in Indianapolis. The odds of such coincidences are beyond my ability to determine, but they made our summit more interesting by their occurrence.
The trip down was much faster. The way up took a little over 4 hours and the way down took no more than 3. Rest and a break at the top made up the remainder of the 8 hours.
For my birthday 2023 we decided to travel to Denver so I could summit Mount Elbert and knock Colorado off of my highpointing list. Denver was convenient as we could stay with friends and airfare was relatively cheap.
Our second attack on the summit began the day before the attack began, as we had driven to the trailhead and slept there the night previous to the actual assault. Grabbing a few measly hours of rest, we got up at 3 am and we’re hiking by 3:40 am.
The stars were brilliant and numerous and it was a lovely temperature. We had prepared for some cold weather, but we soon doffed our layers as we began to perspire. There were two other cars at the trailhead when we arrived and as we began to hike two more pulled into the dirt and gravel lot. We said our good mornings as we began our trek.
It was dark, hence the stars. Nathan had procured a couple of headlamps and they were necessary in the early morning gloom. It would have been possible to hike without them, but at a much slower rate.
The North Trail starts with a gentle incline in the forest, working upward in switchbacks, over a creek and working its way up and out of the trees.
After breaking the treeline we received for our efforts a beautiful view of Leadville and the Twin Lakes which only improved as we moved upward toward the heavens. At this point the trail becomes more rocky and dusty, as you may expect.
