As the highest mountain in Colorado, as well as the entire Rocky Mountain range, Mt. Elbert had long been on my list. I was always aware that Elbert is a simple hike to the summit and one of the easiest 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado. I had always thought going in the winter would make up for this a bit, but as I became more experienced in climbing, I saw a winter trip as little more than a high-altitude snowy hike. Regardless of the challenge, I was happy to finally be attempting the peak. When the day finally came, I started on the South Mt. Elbert Trail for several reasons. The biggest was that this was the only place I could park my car in the winter! Even a day after a major snowstorm, the parking lot was plowed and I had no trouble getting there with the horrible Nissan Sentra I had rented. At 9,600 feet (3,000 meters), I started toward the top of the Rockies and took this photo minutes into my hike.
The winter trail that connects to the normal parking lot has roughly 1,000 feet (300 meters) of elevation gain. I found it annoying that everyone said the trail adds an extra two miles because I think it’s closer to three. On the return from the normal parking lot, for example, a sign was marked two miles, but a short distance later another sign said two and a half miles despite the fact that I was slightly closer. So anyway, I’d say using the winter parking lot adds roughly five miles round trip to the entire climb. Luckily, it’s mostly flat, but the snow was slowing me down. A few times I had to break trail, while other sections were nicely packed, but it was always easy to follow.
There were two other vehicles in the parking lot when I started, so I wasn’t sure why I ever had to break trail with people ahead of me. I discovered that whenever the snow was packed, it was only packed directly on the trail. A few times I stepped off to the side and immediately fell another foot or two into the snow despite having snowshoes on. This photo doesn’t provide the best perspective, but that hole is at least two feet deep!
The hike from the winter parking lot to the normal parking lot was pretty uneventful. I came across another guy who was a local, and we had a brief conversation. It seemed we both wanted to do our own thing, so we didn’t stay together. I said I’d be going slowly since I wasn’t acclimatized at all, and we were in and out of sight of each other until we reached the normal parking lot. I don’t recall the terrain being much steeper from here, so it wasn’t until my descent that I realized how steep it was. At around 11,000 feet (3,300 meters), it flattened out a bit and I even came across an empty tent. Camping would have done me wonders in terms of acclimatizing, but I had a flight to catch that night!
The terrain continued gradually uphill until I reached this empty snowfield surrounded by evergreens. I’ve always loved hiking through snow-covered evergreens and was a bit disappointed by how short this experience was. In the photo above, you can see how brief the treeline is, as well as the summit in the background.
From the woods, I continued uphill through deep snow until I rounded a corner where I could see the remaining part of the route. The climb up Mt. Elbert is definitely not steep, but with my camera pointing uphill, most of my pictures make it look deceptively flat. Keep in mind that by now I was around 12,000 feet (3,650 meters), so despite how flat this looks, I still had an incredible 2,500 feet, or 750 vertical meters, to ascend! If you can see the notch where the two main slopes in this picture meet, roughly around that location is where a known woodpile is located. The woodpile is at 12,400 feet (3,800 meters), so from there I still had another 2,000 feet to climb. I’ve no idea why it’s there or who brought it, but from here the mountain began to get relatively steeper. Despite already being more than halfway up from my starting point, I remember thinking this was where the climb truly started!
By now, either my lack of fitness or the altitude was challenging me. I wasn’t being pushed to my limits or anything, but it was definitely starting to make me breathe hard. The wind had also picked up significantly and visibility dropped. I really wish I had taken more photos on the way up, although there wasn’t too much to see. The only significant change was that the terrain became much rockier, enough so that I left my snowshoes at 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). For the most part this worked well, but I came across a few short but really deep areas that had me cursing and wishing I had kept them. As I approached the summit two hours after leaving the woodpile, I was back in clear skies and the wind died down.
Because Elbert isn’t very steep, there was only a single false summit, and once past that, the true summit was always in view. The weather stayed perfect and I felt like everything was in order despite the torture of climbing past 4,000 meters without acclimatization. Just below the top, I reached a ridge where, for the first time, I could see the other side of the mountain range. It was a spectacular sight, and I could even see what I believed to be the Black Cloud Trail far below.
It took me nearly six hours to reach the top of the Rocky Mountains. I’m sure someone in better shape and acclimatized could easily shave an hour or more off that time. The other climber I had seen near the beginning descended past me just a few hundred feet below the top, so once I reached the summit, I was happy to have the whole place to myself. The only drawback was that it was difficult to put my camera somewhere and use the timer to get a good photo. Above is me trying to run into the picture on the summit. I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t a large marker or monument marking the highest point of the Rockies, but the views were all I needed. It seemed like it had been a very long time since I’d climbed a significant peak and had clear skies!
